No 7 - Mt. Calbarina and Mt. Piccolo Trail
- Departure: Loc. Costa - Arquà Petrarca (Arquà Petrarca)
- Arrival: Loc. Costa - Arquà Petrarca (Arquà Petrarca)
- Duration: 1 hour
- Difficulty Level: E - Hiking (level)
- Length: 3.5 km
- Difference in height: 130m
- Involved Municipalities: Arquà Petrarca
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From the crossing in the Costa di Arquà district, walk with the Fonte Raineriana shrine on your right and take the road to Galzignano. After around 50 metres, you’ll see a sign on your left indicating the start of the trail, which is cemented over at first and edged with hedges and wild plants.
No 7 - Mt. Calbarina and Mt. Piccolo Trail
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You climb gently across the southern side of Mount Calbarina, through farmland and European nettle trees, elder, privet and pomegranate. You can see Costa lake below: a natural body of water fed by hot springs, where archaeological artefacts dating from the Bronze Age were discovered.
The trail features two possible routes. The first is on the left, at high altitude, along a bridleway surrounded by hedges, olive groves and private land till you reach a fork in the road. Here you go left till you reach Via Costa; you then take the right immediately after it and keep going till you reach the fork in the road to the left for Mount Piccolo. The path rises gently uphill and continues on the right, running along the edge of farmland edged with black locust, elm, field maple and European nettle tree hedges. Soon after, the presence of ash trees, chestnut trees and hazelnut trees will signal a change in hillside slope. The trail crosses a wood of black locust trees, turns and climbs till it reaches a dry stone wall. Once having headed up a row of steps, you’ll see a stretch of mixed white oak woodland with tree heather and arbutus and, finally, a dense forest made up of chestnut trees for the most part. At the end of the climb, you reach a fence, the place where this footpath crosses the Atestino trail.
The second possible route turns right after climbing the southern slope of Mount Calbarina, through interesting field vegetation and wild plants. Soon after, head towards the marshland of Corte Borin; the woods are denser with undergrowth featuring ivy and butcher’s broom. The downhill path ends up in the picnic area near the pond. The trail continues following a level path through the countryside, running along the edge of fields and hazelnut trees and, after a short climb, the fenced-off clearing of Via Mondonego. The trail continues through woods of paper mulberry, followed by wide open spaces. The next clearing is a vegro, or chalky meadow, where many species of orchids flower in spring. Dog rose and smoke bush hedges grow all along the path as it climbs, with ash trees, white oak, acacia, tree of heaven and European hop hornbeam. At the entrance to the woods near a park bench, you’ll see several holm oaks, while just further on you’ll see an area where black pine is being replanted.
The footpath passes by other south-west-facing vegro fields featuring Mediterranean scrub plants such as holm oak and sage-leaved rock-rose. It starts climbing again as it passes through broom and black pines till it reaches a majestic cypress tree, where the path starts to go downhill, becoming increasingly steep and, after a wide bend, reaches a fork in the road. If you go straight on, you’ll get to a scenic spot, while if you turn back, after a bend in the road, the circular trail ends and the path joins up to the initial track.
