Traverse of the Angels

Carrara · Italy

Challenging7 daysEurope~£1,500 est.

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Overview

The Apuan Alps are the strangest mountains in Italy: a compact chain rising between the Ligurian Sea and the Serchio valley, where the marble quarries that supplied Michelangelo have sliced whole flanks into blinding white geometry. A week's hut-to-hut traverse strings the drama together — the rock towers around Monte Procinto (whose 1893 via ferrata is Italy's oldest), Pania della Croce, the "Queen of the Apuans", with the sea filling half the horizon from its summit, and Monte Pisanino, at 1,946 m the range's highest point, above the quarry basins of Carrara. The walking is far harder than the modest altitudes suggest: paths cut across steep karst, several classic stages carry cabled sections where a via ferrata set is sensible, and water is scarce on the crests — the limestone drinks every stream. Rifugi such as Carrara, Donegani, Rossi and Forte dei Marmi space the nights well. May-June and September-October are ideal; high summer is hot and hazy, though sea breezes take the edge off. Come by train — Carrara and the Versilia towns sit on the Pisa-Genoa line — and budget around £1,500 for a week of half-board huts, with a detour into the Fantiscritti quarry galleries and lardo di Colonnata eaten in the village that invented it.