It is a nice walking route from the village of Casertavecchia to Mount Virgo – about 2 km – 1 h and 15 – 250 meters in altitude and medium difficulty….when done in daylight… If done at night, all seems more mysterious and harder than it really is. But still, great fun!!!
It is one of the most important paths of the Tifatini hills both because it reaches the highest peak and because it starts from one of the most beautiful villages in Italy: Casertavecchia.
The starting point is located at the small church of San Rocco, at the feet of the driveway to Casertavecchia, and is immersed in the steeply climbing pine forest. From here we take the road that leads to the panoramic view, it would be the second on the right looking at the path to the ancient village; we continue along the road for about 300 meters and then take a narrow road on the right immediately in a steep climb.
We walk along small plots of cultivated fields until the asphalted road ends and then we continue now on a dirt road opening on the right a beautiful view of the underlying villages of Sommana, Pozzovetere and Casola while in the background the sharp peaks of the Taburno.
The dirt road makes a wide half-bend to reach a thick pine forest full of asparagus when it is time. Now let’s go up along the ridge with a couple of hairpin bends while in the valley the panorama begins to widen more and more and the houses of Casertavecchia lose more and more altitude!
After passing the last pines, we reach a crossing point at the top of the summit ridge, here we follow the dirt road making the hairpin bend and take the second left towards a visible and nearby antenna but a moment before reaching it we find a dirt road on our right.
The track climbs straight up to the top surrounded in late spring by lively asphodels while on our left they watch us beyond the fence of the curious cows! Reached the top we cannot fail to be amazed by the extraordinary 360 degree panorama, from there we admire all the mountains of Matese, Maggiore, Taburno-Camposauro, Partenio and Vasuvio and the whole Tyrrhenian coast of northern Campania including the islands of Capri and Ischia!
For the return we can retrace the path of the outward journey backwards or go down the path that climbs from the north-east side down to Sommana and along the asphalted road back to Casertavecchia.
This is in all an amazing hiking path, worth the fatigue!!! If you want to see more images of this wonderful hike, check the shop here .