COURMAYEUR - The months of October and November are perfect for walking and admiring the foliage of woods, forests and gardens where the trees are tinged with a thousand colors and infinite shades of yellow, red and purple. Maps, guides and even apps help us to discover the right places and times to get involved in the beauty of larch, beech, chestnut and birch trees that change color, becoming authentic works of art. Here are some of the most beautiful walks in nature, from North to South of the country which in these autumn weeks is transformed into an evocative and full of beauty picture, a spectacle for the eyes and the spirit.
Courmayeur, the famous Aosta Valley town at the foot of Mont Blanc, is the ideal setting for hiking along the paths that lead through the red, orange and yellow colored woods.
To the north of the Courmayeur basin opens the Val Ferret, which offers exciting walks like the one you leave behind Lavachey and continues to the Bonatti refuge, passing through a larch forest.
To the west is the Val Veny, also full of trails for those who want to immerse themselves in the foliage, from Entrèves to the Col de La Seigne on the border with France.
Also from the center of Courmayeur you can walk to Val Sapin, the perfect place for walks accessible to all.
Info: courmayeurmontblanc.it In nearby Piedmont, Alpe Veglia deserves to be discovered, in the Ossola area.
It starts from San Domenico, a hamlet of Varzo, and follows the road up to Ponte Campo;
you cross the Cairasca stream and take the path to Alpe Veglia among dense woods that burn with a thousand colors.
Along the road you will find the Groppallo Chapel, 1723 meters high, a religious building built in the 16th century.
From here the route continues on a slight slope to a plateau surrounded by woods.
Info: valdivedro.it In Liguria, between Genoa and Savona, it is the regional park of Monte Beigua, a Unesco site since 2015, which offers enchanting walks;
among the most beautiful there are the Deiva forest in Sassello, a circular loop of 4 hours of trekking along an easy dirt road;
the archaeological path that always starts from Sassello and the Tiglieto regional forest that extends between Tiglieto, Campo Ligure and Masone.
Info: parcobeigua.it In northern Lombardy, close to the Sondrio Alps, the Val Masino extends, which can be reached by taking the road from Ardenno, in Valtellina.
Before arriving in Bagni di Masino there is a 23-hectare beech forest which in some places hosts monumental trees over 200 years old, a fascinating place especially in autumn when the branches are multicolored.
Info: valmasino.info In Cortina, in the natural park of the Dolomites, you can make beautiful excursions such as those to Lake Federa and the larch forest of Larieto, arriving at the Mietres refuge.
From the Rio Gere car park, take path 211 which in a few minutes arrives at the traditional El Brite de Larieto hut;
from here the path plunges into the largest larch forest in Europe, and one of the most beautiful in the Dolomites, with glimpses of Mount Faloria.
At the crossroads, take the left path and in a few minutes the larch forest opens onto a valley surrounded by the woods and the Dolomite peaks.
Info: dolomiti.org On the hills of the Emilian Apennines, the Val Nure is the most wooded of the Piacenza hills, nestled between Val d'Arda and Val Trebbia.
It is home to numerous forests of beech, chestnut, ash, hazelnut, fir and, between Albarola and Vigolzone, also of vineyards that are colored red and yellow.
During the excursions there are many places to visit, such as the villages of Grazzano Visconti, the castle of Paderna and the Gothic sanctuary of the Madonna della Quercia in Bettola.
Info: valnure.info Further south, on the slopes of the Tuscan-Romagna Apennines, the Casentino Forest National Park is considered the most colorful in Italy: it hosts, in fact, more than 40 species of trees which, in autumn, offer a true explosion of colors and yellow-red shades, transforming the landscape into a spectacle.
There are numerous nature walks that can be taken to discover small medieval jewels - churches, hermitages, parish churches and farmhouses - which cover the territory in the province of Arezzo.
There are two most famous routes, the Cammino di Francesco and the Via Romea, which go into the woods and allow you to visit the hermitage of Camaldoli and the Casentino valley with its spiritual and cultural testimonies.
Info: parcoforestecasentinesi.it Canfaito, in the Marche region, is a protected plateau at a height of one thousand meters on the slopes of Mount San Vicino, in the homonymous regional nature reserve, where you can walk among centuries-old beech trees.
The name itself, Canfaito, means "field of beech trees" and houses the oldest specimen in the Marche, inserted among the 300 monumental trees in Italy.
It can be reached from San Severino Marche, in the province of Macerata, via the road that leads to the castle of Elcito and a beech forest.
At the exit, the path continues along Viale dei Giganti, a path bordered by centuries-old beech trees.
The walk on the plateau continues towards the rocky belvedere over the Matelica valley from where the view extends to the Sibillini mountains.
Info: reservamontesanvicino.it One of the best spots to admire the foliage in the Majella National Park, in Abruzzo, is the dense beech forest of the Lama Bianca nature reserve, a few kilometers from Sant'Eufemia in the province of Pescara.
You can take the easy dirt path from Fonte Lama Bianca to Fonte della Fratta or venture on a slightly more challenging ring from Grotta Zappano to Fonte della Chiesa which reaches a panoramic view right under the Majella with a view that extends up to the Gran Sasso and the sea.
Equally magical in this period is the Sant'Antonio wood near Pescocostanzo with its centuries-old candelabra-shaped beech trees.
Info: parcomajella.it In autumn in the Sila National Park, in Calabria, maple, poplar, beech and chestnut trees are colored like a painter's palette and offer endless suggestive walks in nature.
Among the many itineraries of the largest plateau in Europe there is a ring route in the Sila Piccola that starts from Tirivolo, near Zagarise in the province of Catanzaro, and crosses paths lined with centuries-old beech woods.
Info: parcosila.it (ANSA).
