Distance: 12.6 kilometres
Height difference: + 400 metres
Departure point: Car park Loc, Stazzi – Mount Subasio.
Suitable for families: the trail is suitable for families and children over the age of 8 accustomed to walking.
Activities to do: bird watching on the summit meadows: take-off point for paragliding along the trail.
Accessibility: departure point with your own vehicle. The trail is unsuitable for wheelchair users. The trail is suitable for all-terrain wheelchairs.
From Assisi follow the signs for Mount Subasio and once you have passed the Eremo delle Carceri, continue for 4 kilometres as far as the car park.
The circular itinerary crosses some smaller meadows that entirely cover the summit of Mount Subasio, from where you’ll be able to get a 360° view towards central Italy as though you were standing on a balcony.
Start form the car park in Località Stazzi, that stands at a height of 1,083 metres a.s.l., where you can clearly see the first of the bronze statues dedicated to the elements along the trail. Right behind the square stands Colle San Rufino, one of Umbria’s most obvious and interesting fortified villages, scene of some major archeological finds, including the very well-known Mars of Subasio.
Continue along the panoramic road that rises as far as the first bend and go straight on for about 300 metres alongside the wood where you’ll find path no. 361.
Continue across the meadows that gradually rise to open up over impressive views of the Apennine chain with wonderful panoramas of the Sibillini Mountains and, on a very clear day, as far as the Gran Sasso.
Another interesting aspect of this itinerary is Mount Subasio’s majestic karst phenomena. The trail runs alongside a sinkhole until it reaches the summit where some information panels illustrate all the peaks and mountain groups you can identify from Mount Subasio.
Continue towards the aerial masts to path no. 350 and once you have reached the panoramic road, you’ll find the second bronze statue on the trail, dedicated to the wind.
From here path no. 350 crosses the most evocative area of the Park, Mortaro Grande and Mortaiolo, considered by many, not even so long ago, to be volcanic craters, whereas they are actually wonderful examples of dolines, karst phenomena due to the calcareous composition of the rocks in the area. Rain water, which is naturally slightly acidic, has infiltrated the cracks and dissolved the calcareous rocks to create structures that look like large funnels, according to a very visible mechanism on every calcareous soil, which is at its maximum in the Karst area, from which the phenomenon takes its name.
The Mortaro Grande measures approximately 300 metres across and 60 metres deep. In the past, together with the other depressions, it was used to store ice by collecting and covering the snow that had fallen inside.
Your itinerary continues along path no. 350 as far as Fonte Bregno, where you’ll find the third statue dedicated to water. The path continues along the border between the wood and the meadow as far as Croce di Sassopiano, a perfect viewpoint over the Umbra Valley and Assisi.
From here, take the same path to the refuge of Vallonica and leave path no. 350 to follow the track that will take you back to your starting point.
