ITINERARY: MELOGNO – THE TRAIL OF THE SILVER – PURIN’S MINES(Silver mines)
By car (from Finale Ligure’s train station FF SS): you take the first way out to the right in the roundabout, and you drive on the national road Aurelia (Strada Statale SS1), direction Ventimiglia, for about 350 m. Then, you turn right to the SP490 until the roundabout in Finalborgo. You take the second way out going straight to the SP490 until you arrive to the square of Gorra. Here, you keep following the road (SP490) for 11.2 km towards Melogno (you can easily follow the road signals) ignoring every other deviation. You will arrive then to a large crossroad with a square (on the right hand side) that is used as a parking area: this spot is called “Din” and you can park here.
Car route’s total length: 15.6 km
Trail classification: trail of naturalistic and geological interest
Level: Moderate
Duration: 1 h 30 min Length: 4.2 Km Elevation gain: 90 m
Trail mark: vertical signage
The trail is well signaled, wide and easily walkable.
An unpaved road starts from the parking area “Din” towards South-east , running along the big house called “ Casa del Mago”. The first fork comes 250 m later: you turn left to reach our goal, the silver mines. (The trail on the right goes towards the church “Santuario di Nostra Signora della Guardia”).
As the trail goes on, you cross the pass between the mount “Bricco della Guardia” (985 m) and the mount “Bric Gettina” (1025 m) through a wonderful pine forest. You are going to reach (after 1.2 km) another fork where you have, once again, to turn left (this deviation is well signaled).
The trail starts now to rise lightly, getting around the “Bric Gettina” and reaches a new important fork where you have to turn left. This point is important because of an informational panel that describes the trail and the silver mines.
The trail goes now downhill and the trail mark changes
Trail mark: three red balls
The trail is well signaled. Some stretches are narrow and climb down steeply.
The descent is panoramic and very evocative and the trail reaches the silver mines in about 400 m.
The geological site of the mines consists in some short galleries along quartz veins rich in Galena , the natural mineral form of lead sulfide, an important source of silver. The biggest gallery is more than 30 m long. In the area you can still see the remains of some old buildings such as walls and a bigger construction, the blacksmith forge: the rocks were wrought there already, in order to form smaller blocks that were easier to carry along the arduous trail. The unused material waste was then dropped off into the “Ravaneto” (the remains are just next to the blacksmith).
Turn around and follow back your steps to get back to the starting point and the car.
PUOI SCARICARE LA TRACCIA GPS DELL’ITINERARIO QUI:
