18. MARRADI - LAGO DI PONTE

Marradi (328 m)
Lago di Ponte (627 m)
GRADIENT: +980 m / -680 m
HIKING TIME: 6  hours
Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona and Campigna National Park

This easy stage moves towards the Foreste Casentinesi National Park.
In Marradi town-centre, one passes beneath an arch and, in front of the Badia del Borgo, starts to go up the ridge. The landscape is typical of the Romagna mid Apennines: narrow valleys between layered ridges, chestnut woods and coppice, ruins of houses and abandoned fields.
The route is scenic and later on enters the valley of the Acerreta, where the woods thicken, and then goes downhill, reaching the charming Eremo di Gamogna (793 m), founded by St. Peter Damian in the mid-eleventh century. This complex was recently renovated and includes a nice little Romanesque church with a dome vault belfry and a large building around the cloister.
From the little cemetery one goes downhill to the bottom of the valley, touching the Ponte della Valle and going up the opposite side, until reaching the edifices of Trebbana, another ancient monastic center whose church (which we today see in its eighteenth-century form) is the only surviving part. One of the biggest oaks in Romagna is just a few minutes’ walk away.
Then, after reaching the ridge between the valleys of the Acerreta and of the Tramazzo, one heads south, bypassing Mount Caibano and touching Mount del Cerro. Soon after, one descends into the valley of Tramazzo, passing the road that goes up to the hill of the same name, and quickly arriving at the shores of Lake di Ponte, a small reservoir which is placed in a natural context dominated by forests, and is the extreme northern edge of the National Park.

Stage Locations and Services 

Rifugio Casa Ponte: Info

Agriturismo Badia della Valle: Info

Bivouac with tent: in some areas it is possible to spend the night in a tent, setting it up at sunset and dismantling it at dawn.

 Interactive cartography

Visualize the route of this stage on the website "Rete escursionistica Emilia-Romagna"

 Map