Conero

First of all let me start saying that we are not what could be defined as “hard hikers”. Yes we love to walk on the mountains of Le Marche and we have been doing for a long while. Still any path longer than ten kilometers, or six miles, it’s a bit a strenuous for us…so we stick to real spectacular scenarios but please no free climbing! So we went for this lovely walk on the Monte Conero area.

If you want to have a general idea have a look at the Wiki page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Conero but let’s just say that is a wonderful area including fantastic beaches and villages and a conservation area of great beauty. The Park site is here http://www.parcodelconero.com/ente_parco/ and the website for tourists’ activities is here http://www.conero.it/en/ WE will have a lot more on this later. For now the walk…We reached the starting point that is only 14 Kms from our place in Ancona and started walking in order to reach the North Belvedere. The walk is really lovely, starting from a semi urban landscape among fields and villas that slowly changes in the more typical “High Macchia” with beeches and junipers standing out together with the very nice little village of Massigano.

From here the walk gets a bit more engaging for 20/25 minutes of a large path going up in the wood until Pian di Raggetti, a small plateau from where the amazing looking coastline is visible for the first time. There are also a few wooden benches to rest.

Pian di raggetti

Going from there in about ten minutes and deviating towards the left of the path there is a very interesting and mysterious site. Basically a big plate of rock stands out of the ground with mysterious grooves on it. Has been impossible to date them and many different theories has been formulated about what these really are: a place for the cult of rain, an altar for sacrifices and many others. Anyway it is pretty amazing as it is clearly something that has been carved in stone by men in prehistoric times.

The mysterious stone of Monte Conero

From here the path moves always very comfortable to follow, even if the signboards are as always a bit confusing, and just going up and following the indication Belvedere Nord it is possible to have a fantstic look at the Ancona bay. Really unique.

The view from Belevedere Nord

All this is about 5 Kms and therefore I have decided it wad enough…coming back via the wood we got back to the starting point…

Conero wood

…where there is a last interesting point: I must admit this is a bit too technical for me but just off the main road there is this major rock emerging from the ground that represents the perfect example of geological stratification from different eras. Specifically the ” global stratotype of the eocene oligocene boundary”. Well as I said we are not geologists but very interesting anyway.