CASALE CAMALDA” HIKING CENTRE

 Three itineraries suitable for all to reach Camaldoli Monastery on foot and how to reach the footpaths in the C. F. National Park

ITINERARY B (orange)

Uphill: 224 m
Downhill: 86 m
Distance and time: 4.125 km – 1.30 h.

From Casale Camalda (678 m) take the cart track that starts out behind the small house near the main farm building (used once to dry chestnuts). Continue uphill on the path, past the orchard until you reach a fork in the path where a wooden sign for “Cerreta-Camaldoli” tells you to turn right. The path continues uphill, past bushes and shrubs of gorse, dog roses and juniper. Continue to follow signs similar to the first one until you arrive at a ridge with a wonderful view that takes in the Pratomagno Massif and Catenaia Alp. Continue on through copses of bitteroaks and downy oaks, woods of Austrian pine and formations of Douglas firs until you enter a wood of tall bitteroaks, with the occasional chestnut, silver fir, Douglas fir and other hardwood trees. Make sure you keep to the right and go uphill at the last fork and the path will take you straight to the Cerreta seedling nursery (858m).

The path now becomes a forestry road and as you walk along it you will go past majestic examples of Douglas fir and crabwood cedars, as far as Maestà di Cerreta (902 m), a picnic spot with tables and benches. The path now takes the same route as our itinerary A (yellow). Make sure you don’t take the tarmac road that starts there but turn right onto the wide path: you’ll find this is also marked with wooden signs for “Prato al Tiglio” and “Camaldoli” (the latter is often removed and therefore missing). After a couple of hundred metres you will arrive at the old Summer Holiday Camp at Cerreta (877 m), which is no longer used and is fenced off. Continue for about 50 metres and take a small path uphill to the left that indicates the way for “Camaldoli” with a wooden sign. There are other similar signs to guide you to the last path downhill (keep to the right at the next fork in the path) and this will take you to the Monastery, through lovely woods with beech, chestnut and other species of trees. The experts among you may notice clear signs that can still occasionally be seen of the old charcoal pits Follow the many wooden signs for “Camaldoli” on the last stretch near the campsite fence and you pass through a superb centuries-old wood of chestnut trees shortly after this, finally reaching Camaldoli Monastery (816 m). The visit to the Monastery is very interesting and takes in the church, two cloisters, the guest lodge, the bookshop (that sells on a fair-trading basis) and the old pharmacy. Should you wish to continue up to the Hermitage (1111 m) simply follow the well-marked path and calculate about 45 minutes –one hour. Follow our itinerary A or C for the return route. (To return with route C, take CAI path n° 68/a starting out on the side of the car park, almost in front of the hotel-restaurant, marked with red and white signs. The return route with itinerary A coincides with itinerary B as far as Cerreta, but is simply taken backwards).