Italy
participants
The main goal of the activity was to hike in the Mountains and show the natural variety and beauties of the Marche region. The hike aimed too be around 10 km long, and its main attraction was the Fondarca arch.
ESN Ancona organized an excursion near Mount Nerone in the province of Urbino, with the help of a guy from outside ESN, Francesko Arra, who organizes frequent excursions into nature in the Marche region involving dozens of people each time, and Claudio Piloni, environmental guide, naturalist and hiking AIGAE.
The Erasmus were brought by ESN volunteers with their cars, the group left Ancona at around 8.30 in the morning. The first stop was Secchiano, to which we arrived at about 10 am and we reached the river that flows near the village (Bosso river) where some of us enjoyed a little swim the icy water. We left by car at about 11:00 a.m. to reach the village of Pleia at 11:30 a.m., from where, after a few photos, we left for the excursion at 12:00 p.m. The excursion began with a long climb, mostly in the woods, with several panoramic points towards the Umbria-Marche Apennines, until we reached some large meadows below the peak of Nerone where we found some free horses grazing. After crossing these meadows, we stopped for lunch at about 14:00 and left again at about 15:15. The descending took place mostly in the woods and was rich in panoramic points and water sources, and at the end of it we reached the main attraction of the excursion, the Fondarca arch. We visited this particular natural structure and, equipped with head flashlights, we partially visited some small caves present in the place (Nottole cave) where the luckiest ones saw some salamander or some newt, but all numerous bats. We took some pictures and we rested near the arch to leave at about 17:45. We returned to the village of Pleia with the lights of the sunset at about 18:15, here we sympathized with some locals who kindly offered us something to drink and celebrated with us the success of the day. We left at about 19:30 to return to Ancona at 21:20.
The excursion on the trails lasted about 6 hours, of which 4 hours of actual walking, for a total of almost 10 km, slightly challenging in the first part but on quite accessible trails without technical difficulties and very suggestive.
