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Sentiero dei Parchi 'Italy's Camino de Santiago inspired route' ?

Sara_Dhooma

Active Member
Time of past OR future Camino
Frances (14), Portuguese (15), Le Puy (17), Ingles (17), VDLP (18), Lana (18), Madrid (19) + more
Hello,

I saw this article on social media today.
Italy announces a new trail that will connect all of its national parks

" The new Sentiero dei Parchi (“Trail of the Parks”) is largely inspired by the Way of St. James – a single trail connecting all twenty-five of Italy’s national parks, from the Alps through the Apennines to the isles of Sicily and Sardinia. "

Is collecting stamps what defines a "Camino de Santiago"? :rolleyes:
" There will also be a sort of passport for those who travel on the trail, a way for each stop to get stamped and recognised so that a final symbolic acknowledgement can be awarded to those who have completed the entire trail. "

Does anyone know more about this project?

map of rute.jpg
 
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Looks insane, though I find it a little bit odd that it seems to miss out I'd guess 100K or so of the final part of the Via Alpina to Monaco -- and it's not as if you couldn't just head step straight back up into the mountains from here towards Italy and the High Liguria routes or up to the French/Italian Alps etc.

Doing the whole of the route between Sicily and Trieste via the Apennines and the Alpina would be comparable in length and basic hiking difficulty to the 3 major American thru-hikes (maybe a few hundred miles shorter than the PCT) ; it would have much less pure wilderness, but OTOH pretty much nonstop mountains beginning to end, though far more frequent mod-cons etc.

peregrino_tom, I'd suggest a Spring start from Trieste, because you really do NOT want to get yourself stuck in the Alps in the bad season ; whereas down along the Apennines, though you'd get pretty scorchio down that way in Summer, alternative routes are more easily discovered along there in inclement weather than among the more aggressive Alps.

---

As for hiking ways in Italy reminiscent of the Camino -- they're called the Cammino de San Giacomo, and they lead from Italy to Santiago de Compostela.
 
Hello,

I saw this article on social media today.
Italy announces a new trail that will connect all of its national parks

" The new Sentiero dei Parchi (“Trail of the Parks”) is largely inspired by the Way of St. James – a single trail connecting all twenty-five of Italy’s national parks, from the Alps through the Apennines to the isles of Sicily and Sardinia. "

Is collecting stamps what defines a "Camino de Santiago"? :rolleyes:
" There will also be a sort of passport for those who travel on the trail, a way for each stop to get stamped and recognised so that a final symbolic acknowledgement can be awarded to those who have completed the entire trail. "

Does anyone know more about this project?

View attachment 76383
Probably you already researched this information yourself, But just in case, I poked around with the help of translation software.

Most of this trail seems to exist already. And they say it’s actually 400 stages! 7000 km! What they’re talking about here is that they added funding to it so the trails would also connect with all the national parks in Italy and trail maintenance in the parks. It looks fantastic if one wants to spend a year wandering through Italy.

I suspect with that kind of distance, the trails aren’t marked especially well. Some of it wouldn’t get used very often, I think. And it’s possible a lot of it is actually aspirational! At least that’s my sense of it. But maybe not. when I started looking at details at the maps. It seemed quite organized. The stages stop in different towns. Whether there are affordable places to stay, or any places to stay in those towns is the real question. I looked closely at the map of Sardinia, I’ve never been there, but it’s supposed to be ruggedly beautiful.

A map of the existing trail you can find here:
https://mappasentieroitalia.cai.it/#/main/explore?map=5.00,12.1550,42.3432


It seems to be a project of the Italian Alpine club. Or Club Alpino Italiano, which you can google . they are based in Milan. I bet if you reached out to them, they would be happy to talk to you about it. Most younger Italians in the north speak English , so there would be someone. And you know the foods going to be awesome 😜
 
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Here’s a little more information on the “Sentiero dei parchi,” or Italian park Trail. A new 85 stage Italian route under development. Based on an existing7000 km. network of trails that run the length of Italy. It doesn’t sound like this is particularly a Camino like trail, but what I found most interesting was the existing trail it’s based on. The Sentiero Italia. This already exists and it’s been broken down into stages between towns. There seem to be some lovely hikes that could be staged from town to town with a little planning. I saw some routes through Sardinia and Sicily that looked off the beaten path, gorgeous.

“Sentiero” is “trail” in Italian.

Here’s the Italian language website for the main trail:


Here’s a link to an interactive map. It takes a bit of time to load (and I have a fast Internet connection here ), But eventually you can zoom in and enlarge it and see individual stages and which towns it stops in, etc.

Below is a copy and paste from the article which gives a good overview.And a link to the original article on the Microsoft news website (There’s not much more there then below. Just some stock photos of Italian mountains).

-“ Italy is starting to reopen to some travelers after a long lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the country is celebrating with a new hiking trail. On May 23, the Italian Alpine Club (CAI) and the Ministry of Environment announced a new hiking route that will connect all 25 of the country’s national parks.

Much like Chile’s 1,700-mile Route of Parks, which opened in 2018, the Sentiero dei Parchi, or Path of Parks, is more of an itinerary than a through-trail. It will run across snow-capped mountains in the Dolomites and Alps, along the coastlines of Cinque Terre, over the rolling hills of Tuscany, to the caves and forests of Abruzzo, and more. There will also be sections of the route on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.

The path will roughly follow the existing Sentiero Italia, or Italy Path, a 4,350-mile hiking route through the country that encompasses 400 sections. But this existing trail only includes 18 of the country’s national parks. The new Path of Parks will diverge from the Italy Path to pass through all 25, many of which are biosphere reserves and UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Travelers tracing the Path of Parks will be able to get a “passport” to track their progress. While the CAI hasn’t released details yet, hikers will likely be able to get a stamp at visitor centers in each park, much the way they can with passport programs in other places.

The trail project was launched on May 24, 2020, coinciding with the European Day of Parks, an annual commemoration of the region’s protected areas. Italian minister of the environment Sergio Costa stressed the importance of conservation and education in the creation of the route; he also noted a collective need to be outdoors more in the post-COVID recovery period.

Many sections of this new route already exist, but there is currently no official opening date for the Path of Parks. And it may be a while: Between now and 2033, the Ministry of Environment will invest approximately 35 million euros (about US$40 million) in the maintenance of trail networks in protected areas, including trail restoration in those parts that have become damaged by bad weather and natural disasters. In the meantime, you can use your socially distant outdoor recreation time to train for the long hike. “-

And this map below, is of the main trail. The Sentiero Parchi will be added to this trail. And I don’t think this is an official map, maybe from a tour guide.
ABB97225-9402-4442-A388-FFEE8FF2DF70.png
 
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Hello,

I saw this article on social media today.
Italy announces a new trail that will connect all of its national parks

" The new Sentiero dei Parchi (“Trail of the Parks”) is largely inspired by the Way of St. James – a single trail connecting all twenty-five of Italy’s national parks, from the Alps through the Apennines to the isles of Sicily and Sardinia. "

Is collecting stamps what defines a "Camino de Santiago"? :rolleyes:
" There will also be a sort of passport for those who travel on the trail, a way for each stop to get stamped and recognised so that a final symbolic acknowledgement can be awarded to those who have completed the entire trail. "

Does anyone know more about this project?

View attachment 76383
The walk across the top of Sicily is from Palermo to Messina
Hello,

I saw this article on social media today.
Italy announces a new trail that will connect all of its national parks

" The new Sentiero dei Parchi (“Trail of the Parks”) is largely inspired by the Way of St. James – a single trail connecting all twenty-five of Italy’s national parks, from the Alps through the Apennines to the isles of Sicily and Sardinia. "

Is collecting stamps what defines a "Camino de Santiago"? :rolleyes:
" There will also be a sort of passport for those who travel on the trail, a way for each stop to get stamped and recognised so that a final symbolic acknowledgement can be awarded to those who have completed the entire trail. "

Does anyone know more about this project?

View attachment 76383
We met a person who had travelled from Messina to Palermo - across the Madonie mountains - we were doing a small walk around northern central Sicily after having walked the Magna Via Franicgena from Palermo to Agrigento (people, towns and country were lovely). I have just seen this - not sure but it looks like it is in English. The person we saw loved the walk but said it was lonely at times.

 
The walk across the top of Sicily is from Palermo to Messina

We met a person who had travelled from Messina to Palermo - across the Madonie mountains - we were doing a small walk around northern central Sicily after having walked the Magna Via Franicgena from Palermo to Agrigento (people, towns and country were lovely). I have just seen this - not sure but it looks like it is in English. The person we saw loved the walk but said it was lonely at times.

Looks fantastic. Is that a nice walk from Palermo to Agrigento? I traveled around Sicily by train, and there’s parts of it that really take your breath away. I’m guessing this would be quite a rugged hike. Even on the little map it looks like a a lot of up and downs. Putting the trail map of the top of Sicily from the books information page, so people can see it:5DAB0F3D-FA58-4B3E-84A8-091A472E4F7A.jpeg
 
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Some Italian language videos on Italian routes. Nice visuals, not much talk. With wikiloc stages, elevation maps, and lots of photos if you scroll down. I used the the Chrome browser and translated the few paragraphs on each page.
From Dario Zardo.

The first one is on the Via Francigena in Sicily (his blog with a video for each stage):


This next link shows “The path retraces the steps of S. Francesco towards Monte dell'Angelo Michele in the Gargano.”

So the part of the Saint Francis Way, from north of Rome through Abruzzo to the western coast of Italy. Again, terrific scenery, not much talk, but in Italian (his blog with a you tube video for each stage).

Also same videos on youtube:;
 
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