La Caurga – Sirta, a sports climbing wind down
With an airport day on the agenda we were looking for single pitch bolt clipping, near the road and not too far out of our way to Bergamo. This crag […]
Category Archives: Northern Italy
Luna Nascente
We made the most of a much improved forecast with an early start and were on the first shuttle bus at 8am. We made short work of the “1 to […]
Il Risveglio di Kundalini
Val di Mello has been likened to a European Yosemite Valley, but it isn’t really a fair comparison. Whilst VdM has cliffs that are almost as high, they’re broken up […]
Val di Mello – cragging at Sasso Remenno
Jim and I are on a 10 day trip to the Alps, with a rough itinerary involving Val di Mello and the Bregaglia. Typical stormy alpine weather greets our arrival […]
Santa Lucia
The very pretty Santa Lucia sector above Toraino gets a great write up in the guide. To be honest, it’s a bit too grey and slabby for our current tastes. […]
Erboristeria
This is the dark, gloomy north facing crag that dominates the entrance to the valley – very reminiscent of a shady Malham. We’d avoided it on our previous two visits, […]
Castelbianco
The original crag of the Val Pennavaire, Castelbianco has an old (ok, only 20 years, but that’s ancient in these parts) sector of very steep routes – entry grade is […]
Back in Italy
…yes, I know we said we were going to France, but somehow our random walk has taken us via Italy, and specifically the climbing in Liguria. There’s actually some logic […]
Telematica – back to Oltre Finale
Chasing a blast of sunshine on a generally showery coast, we blasted back to Oltre Finale, which seems to enjoy a great microclimate. Sector Telematica has generally easier routes, nothing […]
Grotti – no, not a verdict, but a crag near Rome
Grotti is a small village about 100 km north of Rome. A mixture of conglomerate and pockety limestone, the climbing bears similarly to Buoux and Margalef (according to reports on […]
Ferentillo
Heading down into Umbria, we’ve been for a trip down memory lane. We first (and last) visited Ferentillo more than 20 years ago on our “little big trip”. At that […]
Tuscany tourism – a morning in Sienna
We’re not great culture vultures – our only previous visit to Tuscany saw us taking in the sites of both Pisa and Florence on the same day (and they’re a […]
Muzzerone
A couple of hundred km down the coast from Finale lies La Spezia, a slightly unlovely port city in a beautiful setting. The harbour is at the southern end of […]
Toirano
We had a couple of days climbing on the impressive crags high above the famous showcave at Toraino. It really is an awesome place, with a real mountain feel to […]
Colosseo
Perched further up the Val Pennavaire is the pretty village of Colleta and a collection of crags high up the side of the valley. Colloseo, Euskal and Basura. There’s a […]
All roads lead to Rome. ..
We’re on the road again, heading for Sicily (via Rome, of course). It’s a couple of thousand miles to San Vito lo Capo near Palermo in Sicily, where we’re meeting […]
I Gumbi and Arivederchi to Oltre Finale
Another overcast day and another trip to an excellent south facing crag. I Gumbi (not to be confused with the Yorkshire crag of Eh by Gumbi 🙂 ) is lower […]
Paretone
Some welcome cloud cover brings the prospect of exploring some of the sunny crags above the village of Toirano in the Valle del Vero. Paretone is the middle crag in […]
Artista
In the next valley to the east – Val Varatella above the village of Toirano, we head for sector La Cava. This is another unlikely venue, approached through old quarry […]
Sector Enoteca
Another excellent crag with welcome shade. Only 20 odd routes but all excellent. Also its own walled pool – ideal to amuse the small creche worth of toddlers who’d been […]
