Hiking

Pick up your rucksack and head out for a day in nature, making a few stops along the way before reaching your final destination. Hiking itineraries in Romagna are great for healthy outdoor fun in groups or alone.

The Romagna's parks offer a vast network of trails for all types of hikers, experienced and otherwise. Detailed information about them is available at visitor centres.
Here below are the main hiking routes and the nature parks where you can find them.

Alta Via dei Parchi Ridgeway

Covering 500 km, the Alta Via dei Parchi is the longest hiking trail in the Emilia-Romagna Apennines. Starting from Berceto (Parma) and arriving at Carpegna (Pesaro-Urbino), the trail’s 27 legs pass through three regions, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Marche.

The parks that the Alta Via traverses are eight and three of these are in Romagna: the Casentinesi, Monte Falterona and Campigna Forest National Park, the Vena del Gesso Romagnola Regional Park and the cross-regional Sasso Simone and Simoncello cross-regional Park.

Given the length of the trail, you’ll pass through a variety of breathtaking scenery, such as vibrant forests, volcanic cliffs, mountain lakes, glacial cirques, crystalline streams and chalky crags. You can hike the perfectly marked single legs of the trail with routes of varying durations based on your level of experience.

The Pilgrims’ Routes

The map of the Pilgrims’ Routes in Emilia-Romagna is a collection of routes used by religious pilgrims in the Middle Ages on their way to sacred destinations like Rome and Assisi, or to reach Jerusalem and the Holy Land by sea.

Romagna has always been a passageway, which is why it is crossed by several roads still usable today by visitors following spiritual paths or simply hiking and exploring the rich history of the region.

The well-mapped and signposted routes include:

• the Via Romea Germanica connects Augsburg, Germany, to Rome by moving down across the Po Valley, crossing Ferrara and Ravenna and cutting through the Casentinesi Forest National Park;
• the Way of Saint Anthony travels through places touched by the saint. It goes from Padua through Ferrara, Bologna and the Sanctuary of Saint Luke, finally reaching the Casentinesi Forest National Park;
• the Assisi Way centred around Saint Anthony and Saint Francis of Assisi. It goes from Dovadola (Forlì-Cesena) to Assisi;
• the Way of Saint Vicinius winds through the provinces of Forlì-Cesena, Arezzo and Rimini, passing places from the life of Saint Vicinius;
• the Way of Saint Francis passes some of the places visited by Saint Francis during his trip in Valmarecchia crossing the provinces of Forlì-Cesena and Rimini in 1213;
• the Viae Misercordiae, a mainly flat route that takes you from the Pomposa Abbey to the Hermitage of Gamogna.

In addition to these routes, there’s Dante’s Walk connecting Ravenna and Florence. It’s inspired by the journey that the poet Dante Alighieri ideally would have made to reach Ravenna at the beginning of the 12th century.

Info - regional tourist site on the Paths and Pilgrimage Routes