The stages

The Alta Via dei Parchi trail starts in the village of Berceto (Parma Province), near the Cisa Pass and runs along the main ridge between Emilia and Tuscany, often approaching 2000 m of altitude inside the Tosco-Emiliano Apennine National Park, where the view extends from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Alps, until it reaches the High Modenese Apennine and Corno alle Scale Regional Parks. From here it starts descending to reach the Regional Park of the Suviana and Brasimone Lakes, and crosses the Bolognese mountains to reach the Regional Park of the Chalk Vein of Romagna, where it runs along the shining ridge of the "Moon Stone". From here, crossing the "Tuscanian Romagna", it goes back to the main ridge, until it reaches the ancient forests of the Foreste Casentinesi National Park and descend into Tuscany to touch important places of faith such as the monasteries of Camaldoli and La Verna. To finish, it then heads even further East and, crossing the Monte Fumaiolo, will reach the last park, the Interregional Sasso Simone and Simoncello Park, and will end its journey just across the border, at the village of Carpegna, in the Marche Region.

The route along the Apennines between Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Marche regionsis divided into 27 stages and touches 10 provinces (Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna, Ravenna, Forlì-Cesena, Rimini, Lucca, Massa Carrara e Pesaro-Urbino). The whole jurney is about 500 kilometers long (> 30'000 meters of elevation gain) and links together 2 National Parks, 5 Regional Parks, 1 Interregional Park.

Obviously, the itinerary can also be followed in the opposite direction, from East to West, and can be done in single stages or in groups, depending on your preferences.

 The stages

1. BERCETO - LAGO SANTO PARMENSE
2. LAGO SANTO PARMENSE - PRATO SPILLA
3. PRATO SPILLA - PASSO DEL CERRETO
4. PASSO DEL CERRETO - PASSO PRADARENA
5. PASSO PRADARENA - LAMA LITE
6. LAMA LITE - SAN PELLEGRINO IN ALPE
7. SAN PELLEGRINO IN ALPE - LAGO SANTO MODENESE
8. LAGO SANTO MODENESE - ABETONE
9. ABETONE - LAGO SCAFFAIOLO
10. LAGO SCAFFAIOLO - RIF. MONTE CAVALLO
11. RIF. MONTE CAVALLO - PORANCETO
12. PORANCETO - BOCCADIRIO
13. BOCCADIRIO - ALPE DI MONGHIDORO
14. ALPE DI MONGHIDORO - LE SELVE
15. LE SELVE - TOSSIGNANO
16. TOSSIGNANO - CARNÈ
17. CARNÈ - MARRADI
18. MARRADI - LAGO DI PONTE
19. LAGO DI PONTE - SAN BENEDETTO IN ALPE / EREMO DEI TOSCHI
20. SAN BENEDETTO IN ALPE / EREMO DEI TOSCHI - CASTAGNO D'ANDREA
21. CASTAGNO D'ANDREA - CAMPIGNA
22. CAMPIGNA - CAMALDOLI
23. CAMALDOLI - BADIA PRATAGLIA
24. BADIA PRATAGLIA - LA VERNA
25. LA VERNA - RIFUGIO BIANCANEVE AL FUMAIOLO
26. RIFUGIO BIANCANEVE AL FUMAIOLO - BASCIO
27. BASCIO - EREMO MADONNA DEL FAGGIO

Download Itinerary and Points of Interest

It is now possible to download the route of the itinerary and its Points of Interest (POI) in GPX and KMZ formats.

The GPX format is the most suitable to be loaded directly on GPS devices or Smartphones equipped with appropriate APP to be guided along the route.

GPX track of the entire route ( - 2.6 MB);

KMZ format is ideal for viewing the data on the well-known Google Earth app (desktop and mobile). The following two KMZ files contain both the track of the route (the second one also contains the subdivision in the 27 single stages), and the POIs (Points Of Interest), that is all those points of help such as springs or fountains, parking lots, bus stops, accommodations (with telephone numbers and related websites), etc..

• KMZ files of the entire route and its POIs ( - 401.8 KB);
• KMZ files of the entire route, waypoints and related POIs ( - 549.0 KB).

After downloading and opening the files in Google Earth, it will be possible to scroll the map (also in 3D), visualize the POIs and query them; clicking on each point of interest, in fact, will open a popup window with a series of details (see image below) and, if there are also one or more links (as in the accommodation facilities that are also stop-over points of the itinerary), it will be possible to click and open the relative link directly from Google Earth (or copy it to open it in your preferred browser).

Finally, you can not only visualize the itinerary of the Alta Via dei Parchi and the relative Points of Interest, but you can also be guided along the entire route by the App "Maps4You" of the Emilia-Romagna Region. Once you have installed the App (available for Android and Apple systems), you will need to go to the "Culture and Tourism" Section - Subsection "Alta Via e Ciclovie dei Parchi".