ITINERARY: FINALPIA – LOC. MONTE – ARMA DELLE MANIE (CAVE) – VIA JULIA AUGUSTA – VERZI – FINALPIA
By car (from Finale Ligure’s train station FF SS): you take the national road Aurelia (Strada Statale 1) in the direction of Savona for 1,6 Km until the fork with the SP8 (Via Calvisio, before the tunnel). Continue along this way to reach the square “Piazza Abbazia” on your right hand side. You can park there.
Duration: 4 h Length: 11,5 Km Elevation gain: 280 m
Trail mark: red triangle
The trail is well signaled and easily walkable.
Starting from the square “Piazza Abbazia” you go up “Via Asilo” until the junction with the bigger paved road (SP45). Follow this road, overstep the first bend and then walk for about other 50 m and take the narrow trail on your left side that goes up the hill and leads to the locality “Monte” where you will be able to enjoy a fantastic view over the valley of Finalpia, over the mount Caprazoppa and over the coastline.
At the end of the trail you are going to bump into a paved road: follow this road to the little Church of “Sant’Antonio” and take the narrow street on your left side that goes uphill through the houses.
Keep following this trail for about 1 Km to reach an important fork: if you go straight on, you are going to arrive to Verzi; if you turn right (that’s our way) you are going to reach the plateau of Manie (Altopiano delle Manie) in 700 m. Once arrived to the “Altopiano” you are going to have to follow the paved road SP45 for about 1,4 Km to arrive to an abandoned Church. Here you turn left and you keep following the narrow paved road to reach a little bridge and the little Church of “San Giacomo”. You have now to turn left and to go on for about 300 m until you arrive into a large square. Here, check your left side to see the trail that leads to the cave “Arma delle Manie”.
Back to the square, you keep following the road, crossing the square and going straight on.
Trail mark: red square
The trail is well signaled and easily walkable.
The trail goes now downhill for about 1,5 Km leading into the “Via Julia Augusta” , an ancient Roman route which is famous for its 5 Roman bridges. In this itinerary, you are going to see three of them. Once you arrive into the crossroad with the Roman route, continue on it going in the left direction.
Trail mark: red ball
The trail is well signaled and easily walkable.
Just a few meters after the last fork, you will bump into the well preserved Roman bridge “Ponte Muto” and then into the remains of the other Roman bridge “Ponte Sordo”. After other 700 m you will arrive to a third Roman bridge, the best preserved one, the “Ponte delle Fate” (its name derives from the cave of the same name “Arma delle Fate”). Surpassing this last bridge, the unpaved road runs along the climbing crags of the “Rocca di Corno” and leads to the Menhir called “Idolo di Pen”, just a few meters from its conjunction with the paved road. Keep going uphill to reach the Pre- Medieval hamlet “Verzi”. Cross the village, always following the road, unitl you arrive to a large crossroad next to a graveyard. The trail mark changes here.
Trail mark: red rhombus
Take the narrow trail on your right hand side. This stretch of trail, 1,8 km long, is going to lead you back to the starting point, offering a beautiful view over Finalpia, Calvisio and San Bernardino: after about 900 m you will have to cross the paved road called “Vico Riparo” to find the trail again, 150 m after that, on the other side of the road. The trail end after other 700 m into the paved road SP45 where you can easily find the deviation for “via Asilo” and, at the end of it, the square “Piazza Abbazia”, our starting point.
PUOI SCARICARE LA TRACCIA GPS DELL’ITINERARIO QUI:
