Mudslides and stone falls have damaged various stretches of road in our part of the world. The village of Montefegatesi is particularly affected, for example. Not only are the villagers inconvenienced but also trekking associations. From Montefegatesi a largely unmetalled road joins up with the even more unmetalled Grand Ducal road which leads to the Rifugio Casentini, an excellent starting point for some quite spectacular walks. At the moment there are various complaints from hikers that the rifugio is unreachable because of the bad state of the roads. We’ll see what happens in the next few days.
One very pleasant and well-signed walk from the rifugio is the ‘Orrido di Botri’ ring, or ‘anello’. It’s a walk I’ve done four times since 2008. Going back to January ten years ago I’ve rediscovered the following photographs of that walk.
The first part leads through a beautiful pine forest:
The path then opens out onto a ‘paleo’ or a wild grass covered meadow with expansive views.
The path now starts skirting the top of the ‘Orrido di Botri’, or Botri Canyon, a dramatic gorge created by the erosion of the Rio Pelago through the upper Apennine range in the Val Fegana. (The Orrido, whose sides almost seem at some places to be an arm’s length from each other, is another favourite walk I’ve done).
(Part of the Orrido di Botri).
The path becomes ever narrower and rockier but it’s easily traversable in decent weather unless, of course, one suffers from vertigo since there are some passages where one has to cling on one side of the path with a steep drop on the other. It’s not just a do-able path, it’s also a ‘dog-able’ path as the presence of two canines (near some goats) on this walk, done in January 2008, demonstrates.
The path then moves away from the precipitous Orrido (which is said to have inspired Dante when he described the gates of Hell in the ‘Inferno’ of his ‘Divine Comedy’) and transfers back inland into the pine forest, on the way passing a hillock from which there is a great view of the whole Val Fegana.
One then finds oneself back on the path leading to the Rifugio Casentini and reaches one’s starting point around three hours after leaving it.
In summer the rifugio is open for refreshments and is a most pleasant place to rest one’s feet (see its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/associazionerifugiocasentini/ ). We did this walk by ourselves and it’s easy to follow the clear path directions. If, however, you are not too sure about it there are guided walks run by the local trekking association. For more details see https://www.ilbivacco-toscana.it/en/botri-gorge-loop7
I’m truly looking forwards to better weather to do this walk another time. Tomorrow’s weather forecast predicts an improvement. Let’s hope so!
