Among secular forest and deep valleys. The Pollino

filled by Giulia

The Pollino massif is the largest mountain range in Calabria, with the presence of five peaks over two thousand meters. It is one of the most interesting of the southern Apennines, both in terms of landscape and natural features, presenting the visitor with some unexpected alpine scenery and a natural intact heritage.
Plan of Campotenese, near homonym motorway, take the road which goes up to Piani di Ruggiu, a large karstic plateau, on which edges is found the Rifugio de Gasperi and the nearby Fasanelli, the starting point for many hikes. From Colle dell'Impiso can be reached after an easy hike, the Plans of the Pollino, the typical Alpine connotations, surrounded by an amphitheater of extraordinary beauty, which is the heart and symbol of the Pollino National Park, where you can admire and reach the most important mountains of the Massif: Serra di Crispo, Ciavole of Serra, Monte Pollino and Serra Dolcedorme, which with a height of 2266 meters is the highest peak of the mountain range and the whole of Calabria.
On the upper part of the plans, near the Grande Porta del Pollino, meet the latest Loricate majestic pines, which, with their imposing and twisted forms remains stubbornly clinging to inaccessible crags of rock.
From the towns of Civita and San Lorenzo Bellizzi you can reach the most attractive places on the eastern side: the immense forest of beech Fagosa, the Timpa Falconara, the Timpa San Lorenzo with its cliff about 800 meters high, rising straight up Raganello waters of the river, the gorges of the Barile and Raganello, rocky canyon trails by crystal clear waters, one of the most popular destinations for tourists and hikers, starting from the Ponte del Diavolo, near Civita, the bed of the stream back to the discovery in ravines, cyclopean rocks and enchanted gardens, surrounded by high rock walls more than a hundred meters.
In the municipalities of Cerchiara of Calabria, San Lorenzo Bellizzi and Civita caving areas are concentrated most interesting, as Bifurto of the Abyss, 683 feet deep, currently ranked as the eighteenth deepest abyss of Italy, or the Owl Cave, the largest unexplored part of Calabria, or the Cave of the Nymphs, where sulphurous water gushes out at 50 degrees, used for thermal treatments.