Excursions

1. The trail of the hermits

Duration: 4 hours and half (one way only).
Difference in level: mini.: 33 m - maxi: 630 m
Difficulty: quite well indicated, for everybody

This is an excursion for people who wants to walk only for some hours, in a route between verdant woods, rocky tops, and finally a beautiful dive into the transparent north-western sea.

We start soon in the morning from Sant'Andrea's Cape, we go up towards La Zanca through the old but well-preserved mule-track and we come on to path n° 13 that leads, after a 30 minutes walk, into one of the finest woods of the island.

Through secular chestnutts and other high trees, we reach Madonna del Monte (630 m., 2 hours), where you can take refreshment with water gushing from cloister's springs and enjoy the coolness offered by chestnutts and pines shading near clearings.

Fino a non molti anni fa, questa mulattiera rappresentava l'unica via terrestre di collegamento tra Marciana e le località sulla costa occidentale e, nonostante l'incuria ed il transito di moderni mezzi fuoristrada che ne stravolgono l'assetto, per molti tratti è ancora ben conservata,

Lungo il percorso, e fino a raggiungere il santuario ed il romitorio, una serie di 14 cappellette affrescate ricordano la via crucìs, a testimonianza del motivato e tradizionale sentimento religioso del popolo marcianese. Occorrono circa 40 minuti di cammino, tra castagni e macchia mediterranea, per raggiungere il romitorio dove nel 1735 predicò San Paolo della Croce e (una memoria scritta sta lì a ricordarlo) nel 1814 dimorò Napoleone I.

The area is also interesting under archeological aspect, because here there are a lot of caves ruins of shelters used by island's inhabitants since prehistory. Who wants to go higher can easily reach, in 25 minutes, overhanging Monte Giove's top (800 m.), one of the most panoramic places of western area, and descending on west crest until Serraventosa; here there are a beautiful well-preserved goatfold, some pens and strange beautiful rocks, with Sant'Andrea's Cape, Marciana, Corse and Capraia's background.

From Serraventosa it's easy, through a planning road, to return to Madonna del Monte. After the break and the refreshment we can start again on the afternoon and, by descending on path n° 3 and then on path n° 13, we reach the Provincial road on San Rocco after another beautiful chestnutt- wood. We run along for 1,5 km. on Provincial road until Maciarello's road-fork.

From Maciarello we descend towards Cotoncello - S. Andrea (The path to Cotoncello - S. Andrea begin on the left, near an Enel cabin).

Map from the book:
"Sentieri nel Parco Nazionale dell'Arcipelago Toscano"
Author: Giorgio Leonelli / Editore: Il Libraio, Portoferraio