Il Grande Anello dei Sibillini

From sibillini_giorno02

It was just a couple of weeks ago, but this experience is still alive in my heart and still can smell the thousands flower we met on our way.
Monti Sibillini natural park is the name and it's right on the boarder of two of the many amazing regions Italy has...Umbria and Marche. Just a couple of hrs from my home town, this place was new to me and my sweet E. but as usual we were greedy of new adventures and wanted to face the challenge. Three days and two nights, walking for 30 Kms and sleeping with our tent in a wild environment.
DAY 1

At first I planned everything and decided to start our path of the Great Sibillini ring from Colle le Cese hut, a sweet refugee in the area of Forca Canapine. We arrived there late at night after a nice stop at Narni for a delicious dinner over Cavallino restaurant, and put our tent in the fields right in front of the hostel; it was a pleasure to have two foxes watching us pitching our tent just few steps away from us.
The day after we walked form Forca Canapine to the A.N.A. hut for about 2 hrs and a half in the middle of no where , crossing endless fields full of flowers and birds of any kind, following a path part of the great ring leading to the base of the Vettore mountain. The walk is breathless as the valley underneath and the scenery you get are unbelievable especially once the huge mountain shows up suddenly behind the smooth hills you're stepping on.
At A.N.A. refuge (Forca di Presta area) is where we met Michele, one of the park's guide (you can contact him through his site www.quattropassi.org). We had a delicious lunch together made of great fresh food and refreshed our throats with an above the average local red wine. He is incredibly nice and competent and gave us so many good tips about our walk, since the weather was getting quite bad and our plan to reach the top of the mountain was not such a great idea for that day.That's why we headed towards Castelluccio through its flatland, to go up again to 1500 mtrs till capanna Ghezzi and pitch our tent for the night. The whole thing is a 15 kilometers walk, but for the first day is a great training for the day after, when you'll have to climb up to 2400 mtrs and experience the real trekking.

DAY 2


Oh well! We will never forget what we saw that day and how tired we were by the end of the day. From the beginning to the last meter it's a big fat tough walk, but walking on the edge of those mountains, with the whole valley opened up on one side and the Pilato lake on the other is something i will definitely tell the kids one day. As the forecast said, the weather was just awesome, with a bright shiny sun in a deep blue sky. Once in a while some fat clouds showed up from one side of the mountain making it a foggy situation...but just the time for the wind and the heat to clean up everything and give back the scenery the proper colors for that kind of light. Every once in a while we would stop for a little rest, a drink or a sandwich, but basically the day was just walking and walking and walking pushed by the beauties of the area.
From capanna Ghezzi, going through Forca Viola, to Ziliolii refuge is a 6 hrs walk, one of the best ones I've ever had, but don't do it unless you're well trained and wear the proper equipment.
Looking forward to do some other trekkings in the area, since there's plenty to see and do and because it's not only super hard walks, but also comfortable ones with great towns to visit and restaurants to try!