The Sentiero Italia: The Forgotten Trail That Crosses Every Mountain Range in the Country
7,000 km from Friuli to Sardinia: the Sentiero Italia is the world's longest trekking route and almost no one knows it. A guide to the finest stretches.
Foto: albategnius (CC BY-SA 4.0) — Flickr
The Sentiero Italia is a route of roughly 7,000 kilometres that crosses every mountain range in Italy — from the Alps through the Apennine all the way to Sardinia and Sicily. It was conceived in the 1980s by the CAI and mapped in the 1990s, but remained essentially unknown until recently, when a handful of walkers began completing it in full and writing about it.
Walking it all at once is not realistic — it would take 6–8 months — but it can be broken into sections of 3–10 days, each with its own character and beauty. These are the stretches that deserve the most attention.
The Carnic Alps in Friuli offer the most alpine section: the trail runs along the Austrian border through mountain pastures, highland farms and the trenches of the Great War, still visible in the landscape. The mountain huts are welcoming and lightly frequented; the views stretch from the Dolomites to the Adriatic.
The Ligurian Apennine, behind Genoa, is the loneliest section: impenetrable woodland, abandoned borghi, medieval mule tracks. You can walk for days without meeting a soul, the sea hinting at itself beyond the ridge.
The Majella in Abruzzo is the wildest section: a massif rising to 2,800 metres that feels like a mountain island in the middle of the Mediterranean. Medieval hermitages are carved into the rock, chamois graze undisturbed, and the beech forests are among the oldest in Europe.
The Aspromonte in Calabria is the most surprising section: a tropical mountain overlooking the Strait of Messina, with giant ferns, hidden waterfalls and Greco-Calabrian borghi where a Greek dialect is still spoken.
Eastern Sardinia, from the Supramonte to the Gennargentu, is the most remote section: here the Sentiero Italia crosses one of the wildest territories in Europe, with limestone gorges, primordial holm-oak and juniper forests, and shepherds living as they did a hundred years ago.
Each section has its ideal season: the Alps in summer, the Apennine in spring and autumn, Sardinia from October to May. Accommodation varies enormously: well-equipped rifugi in the Alps, nothing on the Ligurian Apennine, agriturismi in Sardinia.
The Sentiero Italia is not a brand or a tourism product. It is simply a thread connecting all of Italy's mountains, and walking it — even just one section — means understanding that this country is made of ridgelines, not coastlines.
Practical guides for Messina
Practical info
When is the best time to visit The Sentiero Italia?
The recommended time is May, June, July, August, September and October, when it is less crowded.
Is The Sentiero Italia crowded?
The Sentiero Italia is a almost deserted destination compared with the more touristy ones.
Where is The Sentiero Italia?
The Sentiero Italia is located in Italy.
