Parco Nazionale Appennino Tosco-Emiliano

Even though the path goes uphill for nearly one kilometre, the stage is restful compared to the previous ones.

• Trail Conditions: On foot

• Departure: Passo del Cerreto (1,261m)
• Arrival: Passo Pradarena (1,579m)
• Duration: 5 hour/s
• Length: 10.8 km
• Difference in height: Uphill 940m - Downhill 620m
• Accomodation structures: Carpe Diem

From the road to Cerreto Laghi one goes up towards Mount La Nuda, bristling with rocks and towers among which is the mighty shoulder of the Gendarme. By hiking at first through the wood, strewn with morainal blocks, then along the rough stony ground of the Valle dell'Inferno (in a majestic mountain habitat populated by a colony of marmots) one reaches the small Rosario bivouac, near a spring. Going up what is clearly a glacial cirque one arrives at the ridge in the saddle at the foot of Mount La Nuda (1895 m), which is topped by buildings of an old radio station.The ridge offers sweeping views towards the Garfagnana and the Apuan Alps, by now near, while on the Po Valley side, the unmistakable outline of the Bismantova Stone stands out beyond the forests of the valley of the Riarbero stream, and dominates the mamelons of Triassic evaporates, where fluvial erosion cut the characteristic glistening slopes. After the stony grounds of the Borra Grande the path becomes less rough, and it descends to Belfiore Pass through low blueberry heaths dotted with rhododendrons, an alpine plant which grows only in a few locations in the Apennines. The first twisted beeches are the spearhead of the forest that envelopes the trail shortly afterwards. At Cavorsella Pass, not far away, one meets a comfortable forest path that leads to Pradarena Pass, the highest vehicular pass in the northern Apennines.

4 lap of: Alta Via dei Parchi

Accommodation: Carpe Diem