Naturalistic, Geological and Panoramic excursion to the Monolite di Pietra Cappa and the Rocche di San Pietro with the Asceteri.
An exciting and captivating excursion in nature that will lead us to discover in detail the valley of the Great Stones with Rocks, Monoliths and Caves that suggestively recall the landscapes of Cappadocia, in a strongly natural context. A unique experience that will amaze and excite us also for the history, covered with legends that hover along the valley rich in geosites. The experience with Mother Nature will be enhanced by a picnic lunch by the Proloco di Natile Vecchio.
True and Authentic Aspromonte.
The Tour:
A bit of History.
Pietra Cappa, one of the symbols of Aspromonte, with its enigmatic mass and full of legends, dominates the valley of the Great Stones. In the medieval documents the toponym reads Pietra Cauca, which indicates an empty, hollowed out stone, and you will notice how it is singularly eroded by the atmospheric agents, rich of rocks, caves and ravines. And it was precisely from the East that, in the early Middle Ages, numerous Basilian hermits came to take refuge in these caves. This was a civilization in search of solitary but panoramic places, in which it was difficult to be seen, but from which it was easy to control large tracts of territory. A civilization of tiny churches, built with poor materials, but always of fine workmanship that seems to want to blend in with the surrounding nature.
Panel and map:
Starting point: Natile Vecchio.
Point of arrival: Rocche di San Pietro and Pietra Cappa with possible surprise.
Walking time: about 6 hours including stops.
Path: ring-shaped, rough and rocky.
Height difference: +/- 600 meters.
Trail length: about 8 km.
Difficulty: excursionistic.
Lunch: In picnic area by the Proloco di Natile.
Water: at the forest exit of S.Giorgio; on the way back.
Category: Nature (geology) and villages.
Season: winter - spring - summer - autumn.
Geological, naturalistic and landscape description:
Pietra Cappa is one of the symbols of the Aspromonte National Park and of the whole Calabria. Its shape, roundish, contrasts considerably with the well-known and classic morphology of Aspromonte.
From the morphological point of view Pietra Cappa is a butte, that is a relief characterized by steep walls and flat top, where the diameter of the summit surface (about 70 meters) is smaller than the height of the walls, more than 100 meters high; its base is about 700 meters and the top is at an altitude of 826 meters. The butte shape of Pietra Cappa is due to the fact that its summit coincides with a rapid passage between well cemented rocks (conglomerates and sandstones) and very easily erodible rocks (pelites and sandstones).
Lithologically it is made up of conglomerates, sustained matrix conglomerates and coarse sandstones, well cemented, in sub-horizontal, amalgamated layers; sometimes the arrangement of the pebbles also suggests the presence of a subordinate inclined stratification.