The Sentiero del Brigante: from the Aspromonte to the Calabrian Serre

When people think of Calabria, the beaches of the coast come to mind, and yet its most authentic heart lies up high, among the mountains of the Aspromonte and the plateau of the Serre. The Sentiero del Brigante crosses precisely this vertical, silent South, partly retracing the paths that the brigands once used to move through the woods unseen. It's one of the least-travelled of the great Italian long-distance trails: you often walk it for hours without meeting anyone, in landscapes that seem suspended in time.

The route

The route winds from south to north, starting from the area of Gambarie, the small mountain resort of the Aspromonte, and climbing the ridges cloaked in ancient beech woods. You cross the environments of the Aspromonte National Park, with its uplands, clearings and rock formations that spring up suddenly among the trees. Heading north the trail drops and climbs along the fiumare, the wide gravelly riverbeds typical of Calabria, and touches inland mountain villages where life still runs slow. You pass near towns like Mongiana, tied to the history of the old Bourbon ironworks, and you enter the territory of the Serre Regional Natural Park, where the woods of silver fir and beech take centre stage. The finish is in the northern part of the Serre, in the direction of Serra San Bruno, the town of the famous Charterhouse set among the woods.

The effort

From a hiking standpoint it's a multi-day route, to be tackled with preparation. It's not technically mountaineering, but it demands trained legs and good self-sufficiency: the stages are long, the elevation gain accumulates day after day and support points are sparse. It's worth studying in advance where to sleep and eat, because services in the small towns you pass through are limited and not always guaranteed. Waymarking exists but in some stretches it can be faded or covered by vegetation, so it's essential to carry a GPS track, map and compass, and not to rely on the signs alone. Water must be managed carefully: in summer some springs can dwindle.

When to go

The best period to walk here is late spring, between May and June, and then autumn, in October. In these months the temperatures at altitude are pleasant, the beech woods are in the full green of spring or ablaze with autumn colours, and you avoid both the stifling heat of the Calabrian summer and the uncertainty of the cold season, when there can be snow at altitude. These are also the periods when the mountains are most solitary: the vast majority of tourists in those months are elsewhere, and there's no flow of hikers here anyway like the one you find on the Alps or the better-known Apennines. To walk the Sentiero del Brigante means having entire days of woodland all to yourself.

A slow journey

It's worth saying a word about the value of this slow journey. To cross the Aspromonte and the Serre on foot is to come into contact with a Calabria that resists depopulation, made of shepherds, ancient woodland traditions and a nature that has remained intact precisely because it's little frequented. Every village tells a story of emigration and tenacious roots, and the landscape changes constantly, from the Aspromonte peaks looking out over the Strait to the orderly woods of the Serre. It's a way of travelling that asks for time and curiosity, but that repays you with encounters and silences impossible to find on the more beaten routes.

A practical tip: don't treat this walk as a simple hike, but as a small journey through a territory where hospitality must be sought out and built. Phoning ahead to those who run stage-stops, farm stays or B&Bs in the mountain villages makes the difference between a serene day and a complicated evening. Stopping to talk with the locals, besides being the best way to figure out where to resupply, gives you the true sense of this inland South: hospitable, proud and still little used to walkers. Set out with food supplies for several days, well-broken-in shoes and the flexibility to adapt the stages to your strength.