The pathway
From Casa Marina the trail continues as a dirt road upward on a gentle slope, surrounded by vineyards, olive groves and cherry trees. On the right, you’ll see the wooded slope of Mount Venda and, almost on its top, the remains of the ancient Olivetano Monastery appear.
A little equipped rest area marks
the beginning of the real trail, which can be covered also by people with motor disabilities. The first part of the trail has a southern exposure and is characterized by thermophilic plant species:
downy oaks, strawberry trees, tree heaths and brooms; on the left, the sight opens wide onto the southern part of the Hills, with the pleasant town of Faedo, the Fasolo Mounts, Gemola, Rusta, Lozzo and, looking south-west you’ll see the plain and if the day is clear also the Apennines on the horizon.
On the right there is a deviation of the trail which leads to the equipped rest area
close to the big stony slope of the southern side of the Mount Venda.
A little further you’ll reach a wide majestic area topped with chestnut trees : they are the hundred-year-old “maronari” of the Venda.
In this area, which is also equipped with tables and benches for stopping over, there is something magical about these splendid twisted-shaped vegetable monuments, with their hollow trunks sloping into a depression in the ground, that in the rainy seasons changes into a little lake, a wet area of great naturalistic interest.
If you go further along the trail which is now completely flat, you arrive at the northern, fresher, side of the mount that is characterized by a chestnut wood with hornbeams and ash trees. After a short stretch, you’ll come out into the glade of a former quarry, where there is a rest area.
You’ll go back to the departure point by covering the trail backwards.
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