Nature trekking along the Calabria Italia Trail

The project that saw the birth of Calabria Italia Trail is a proposal for slow and eco-sustainable tourism, aimed at encompassing all Calabrian routes, even minor ones, in a single trail stage that crosses the region from north to south. The length and articulation of a Calabrian path conceived in this way allow trekking enthusiasts to immerse themselves in the soul of an area rich in different naturalistic areas: from the most luxuriant forests to the valleys furrowed by the fiumare, passing through great monoliths, pastures, arable land and gentle gullies descending to the sea.

Covering the 34 planned stages, the Calabria Italia Trail crosses the Sila National Park, among forests inhabited by the ancient Sila Wolf, canyons carved by torrents, waterfalls, prehistoric ferns and Mediterranean scrub. We range from the Large Stones of the Pollino National Park to those of the Aspromonte National Park, both UNESCO Geosites, passing from the Pino Loricato to the Aspromonte Goat; we linger in the dense Silver Fir forests of the Serre Regional Natural Park, traversed by Neolithic sites, industrial archaeology and ancient crafts.

Each of the provinces and localities traversed by the Calabria Italia Trail offers the beauty of their hospitable communities, often counted among The Most Beautiful Villages in Italy, where one can savour the charm of "slow living" as well as the typical cuisine of the Calabrian hinterland, once dictated by the rhythms of the farms, ovens and oil mills. Places steeped in spirituality and mystery, born around monasteries, hermitages and pagan sites that still evoke forms of popular religiosity from the West and the East.

The Calabria Italia Trail is a walk through 4 different nature areas, each with its own unmissable attractions. One of these is the Romito Cave, in Papasidero, one of the most important prehistoric sites in Europe, on whose walls an ancient bovine (Bos Primigenius) is engraved, an extraordinary testimony to rock art in Calabria.

Continuing in a southerly direction, the Calabria Italia Trail takes us to the heart of the Sila National Park, straddling the provinces of Cosenza, Catanzaro and Crotone, where one can breathe "the best air in Europe" and count some of Calabria's agrifood excellences, such as Caciocavallo Silano PDO and Sila Potato PGI. The so-called "Gran Bosco d'Italia", known and exploited since antiquity for its water reservoirs and its huge logs, when the Romans drew the ships of their invincible fleet from it, preserves traces of a millenary culture, which is still offered today in the beauty of the mountain villages and monasteries that enrich it.

Central stage of the Calabria Italia Trail, the lush Serre Regional Natural Park occupies the inland area of the province of Vibo Valentia. From the summit of Mount Pecoraro, the mountain slopes down to a plateau that finds its "capital" in the Baroque jewel of the historic centre of Serra San Bruno, with its Charterhouse in the green.

Finally, arriving in the Aspromonte National Park, which extends across the entire province of Reggio Calabria, the Calabria Italia Trail descends from the summit of Montalto to its slopes, encountering the villages of the Greek area (an ethnic minority that speaks Greek of Calabria) and the "ghost towns", the Valley of the Great Stones with their legendary shapes, the Shrine of the Madonna di Polsi and many other paths, including literary ones, that cross a rich and still little-known territory.