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Parco Naturale Regionale dell'Aveto |
Itineraries |
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| Besides the Alta Via dei Monti Liguri, which goes through the whole territory, there are several itineraries to explore and discover the Park. | |
A Park Accessible to Everyone |
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Parco dell'Aveto has started a series of initiatives and measures aiming at promoting the greatest accessibility along some trails and for some accommodation structures, visitor centers, and educational areas. The following ones are already open to the public. |
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The Forest-Garden, Federico Delpino Botanic GardenParco dell'Aveto has recently opened a Botanic Garden which has been named after Federico Delpino, a famous botanist from Chiavari. The garden is situated in loc. Passo del Bocco and houses a reconstruction of the different forest coverings characterizing our territory. A visit to the garden will lead you not only to the discovery of the botanic features of the typical habitats of the Ligurian Apennines, but also to the discovery of some phytogeographical and ecological features of the Park, highlighting the relationships between vegetal species and communities and various environmental factors. This naturalistic experience represents for the Park visitors or guests of the nearby "Antonio Devoto" Mountain Hut a pleasant opportunity to carry out a pleasant walk surrounded by nature. The trail, created paying particular attention to visitors with disabilities, is equipped with bookstands, picnic area, and a place that can be used as an outdoor "classroom". The bookstands, placed near each habitat, schematically describe in detail the natural environments you can find in the Park, highlighting the presence of characteristic flora and fauna. Along the trail or in the vegetation beds next to the plants, there are also taxonomic labels in order to easily identify the main vegetal species.
You can book guided visits to the Botanic Garden calling the Park Environmental Education Center: 0185/343370. |
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Bocco Small Lake Nature TrailBocco small lake is situated near Passo del Bocco and is easily accessible from "A. Devoto" Mountain Hut. It is a small artificial lake around which the Park has created a naturalistic trail. The trail, created paying particular attention to visitors with disabilities, is equipped with bookstands and a picnic area. The bookstands describe the flora and fauna of the wetlands and the naturalistic engineering measures that have been carried out to create the trail.
It is possible to book guided visits to the Nature Trail by calling the Park Environmental Education Center: 0185/343370. |
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"A. Devoto" Mountain Hut"A. Devoto" Mountain Hut is situated in a strategic position: it lies at Passo del Bocco, an important crossroads between the provinces of Genova, Parma, and La Spezia, in one of the most significant green areas of Liguria. The Mountain Hut offers 44 beds; you can stay in single, double or triple rooms, distributed on two floors. There are bathrooms and showers on each floor. Moreover, the Mountain Hut is equipped with wheelchair lift, rooms and bathrooms for people with disabilities. At the ground floor there are the bar and the restaurant, offering the local typical cuisine, simple but very tasty. The mountain hut also offers a transfer service, a "joint taxi on demand" you can book by calling a toll-free number or directly asking for it to the staff. It is a minibus accessible to people with disabilities. |
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For each season, the Park's Guides suggest a different itinerary: Spring Trail |
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Mt. Bossea Ring-Route If you go along this ring-route, it will take you a few minutes to understand the origin of the toponym "Bossea": as a matter of fact, this mountain is covered with a wonderful boxwood, a shrub formation dominated by the Common Box (Buxus sempervirens), which is very rare in nature. The Common Box is a "Tertiary relict", that is a plant which was very widespread in the Tertiary period thanks to the presence of higher temperatures and which could survive here thanks to favorable climatic conditions. Also the area substratum favored its diffusion: ophiolites, rocks with very particular mineralogical features (rich in heavy metals, toxic for most of the vegetation) have given the Common Box the possibility to grow "undisturbed" from the other plants, which cannot survive in the hostile environment. However, the Nature Trail around Mt. Bossea offers much more: rocky environments, features linked to the fauna and particular flora of the serpentinite, geological elements or elements linked to the works by man. Departure point: Gambatesa Mine; length of the itinerary: about 5 km. The Nature Trail of Mt. Bossea partly follows one of the 12 hiking itineraries (the Park Ring-Routes) which Parco dell'Aveto has prepared and has been promoting to enhance the knowledge of the territory: Mt. Bossea Ring-Route A12. |
Mt. Aiona Ring-route |
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(Spingarda Pass - Quadrivio del Dragonale - Cereghetto Pass - Prè de Lame Pass - Mt. Aiona) It is a charming itinerary for trained hikers (lasting 4 hours) characterized by beech tree woods, wetlands, glacial evidences like cirques and "heaps of stones". The atmospheric conditions and visibility can suddenly change, creating some orienteering problems, since the peak of Mt. Aiona is an area where you cannot use the compass for the nature of the substratum. You will have the opportunity to admire one of the most precious environments of Liguria both as far as flora - there are species typical of the wetlands, of rupestrian environments, of beech tree woods, and or high-mountain grasslands - and as far as fauna are concerned - with the wolf and the golden eagle. From the summit of Mt. Aiona you can see the whole Ligurian Apennine Chain and, when the sky is very clear, the highest peaks of the Central and Western Alps. |
A Long Traverse |
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(Bertigaro - Lakes of Giacopiane - Colmo Rondio - Prè de Lame Pass - Lame Lake - Magnasco) It is a quite long walk (8 hours) and is characterized by a great variety in landscape, where water is the protagonist. You will first meet the Giacopiane lakes, artificial basins with an aesthetic value, created in the 20s for the production of electric power. Near Colmo Rondio there are a few ponds housing remarkable flora and fauna. If you continue your tour, you will find a nice beech tree wood, not very far from the Tyrrhenian-Po Plain watershed where it is possible to admire a few specimens shaped by the wind and scattered in the typical "flag" position. On the Po Plain slope, near Lake of the Lame, there is the charming "rocks waterfall", a morainic formation left by the last glaciation. Near Magnasco there are a few ancient rural nuclei of great interest. |
Mt. Zatta Ring-route |
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(Arzeno - Pian d'Oneto - Mt. Chiappozzo - Ridge of Mt. Zatta - Reppia) It is an itinerary for well-trained hikers (6 hours) characterized by wonderful landscapes and wetlands. The landscape, at the beginning of the route, is Pian d'Oneto, where a karstic phenomenon formed a swallow hole in the middle of a marshy meadow rich in rare marshy plants. Other extremely interesting points are the summit of Mt. Chiappozzo (important passage point of several birds of prey like the Short-toed Eagle, the Buzzard, the Kestrel, and the Northern Harrier) which overlooks Emilian and Ligurian valleys, and Mt. Zatta crest, which is characterized by its outcropping arenaceous banks. The route touches one of the most beautiful beech tree woods in Liguria, on the northern slope of Mt. Zatta. A rare and characteristic feature of the site are the ancient "neviere": they are holes in the ground usually delimited by dried stones, which were used to store the snow for a long time, like refrigerators. |
Mt. Ramaceto Ring-route |
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(Ventarola - Beech tree wood of Liciorno - Mt. Ramaceto (1,345 m) - Crocetta Pass - Ventarola) It is an itinerary for well-trained hikers - although it does not include difficult stretches (6 hours). It is characterized in the first stretch by the quiet waters of rio Lociorno, flowing in a flat and sunny area, and then by the homonymous beech tree wood extending uphill up to the ridge of Ramaceto. Protagonist of the itinerary is the unique panorama you can enjoy from the peak, ranging from the northern Apennines to the sea, from the Po Plain to the Central Alps. Most of the route runs along Alta Via dei Monti Liguri, one of the most interesting routes of Liguria along the Tyrrhenian-Po Plain watershed. The departure point is the characteristic town of Ventarola, a well-preserved old rural settlement. |
Mt. Penna Ring-route |
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(Chiodo Pass - La Nave - Mt. Penna - Incisa Pass - Small barracks of Penna) It is a short itinerary (lasting 2 hours), suitable for people who do not suffer from fear of heights. As a matter of fact, the closest part to the peak is slightly exposed (you can climb from the other slope). It is characterized by the beautiful "Conca della Nave" (a typical tectonic structure shaped as a ship's bottom), by the steep northern slope of Mt. Penna, offering an emotional and panoramic view, and by a precious beech tree wood along the southern slope. The itinerary should be gone through preferably in late summer and autumn, when the yellow of the beech tree leaves dominates the wood. At Incisa Pass you can decide to continue the route by taking the Alta Via dei Monti Liguri until the Spingarda Pass or the Pratomollo mountain hut, a grassy oasis rich in peculiar botanical species. |
