Campocecina, with its large meadows, ease of access, and memorable views, is a popular destination for residents of the province of Massa Carrara, and a fascinating destination for tourists. Reaching it is quite easy, with road travel taking less than an hour from the beaches of Marina di Carrara or Marina di Massa, which is also pleasantly passable by two-wheelers thanks to a recent resurfacing of the formerly quite impassable track.
For fans of trekking and nature walks, the site offers multiple opportunities, serving as a starting point for challenging hikes or as a place for pleasant walks suitable for everyone. The advice is always to leave your vehicles in the locality of Acquasparta (1275m), and walk along the slope with a stone bottom next to the source (CAI path 173).
We therefore propose three routes, in ascending order of difficulty, suitable to meet the needs of families with children or hikers, more or less experienced.
- The Mount Ballerino Loop Trail
Once you enter the climb, turn left, after a few dozen meters, following the signs for the CAI Carrara Refuge (1320m), which you reach in about ten minutes at a relaxed pace. If you do not wish to tackle the hairpin bends of the trail, you can continue and take the next branch, again on the left, which proceeds more gently.
At the Refuge you will find a picnic area, a small playground and the little church of the Madonna of the Apuan Alps (1962); following the signs for the “Anello del Ballerino educational trail,” you venture on an easy half-hour walk, in which you will face a total of 60m of elevation gain. With the help of special signage, the trail allows you to discover the secrets of the fauna and flora of the Apuan Alps, rich in biodiversity and with some endemic species. The activity is particularly suitable for families with children, and the trail can also be tackled by mountain bike.
The trail leads back to the Carrara Refuge, at which there is a bar and restaurant service, as well as at the Belvedere Refuge below, near the Piazzale dell’Acquasparta.
- The ascent to Mount Borla
Following the CAI 173 path, from the piazzale del Belvedere, you reach in a quarter of an hour, with a relaxed gait, the meadows of Campocecina (1345m), a spectacular grassy basin from which there are beautiful views of the Apuan Alps, the valley and the coast. With a small detour to the right you can reach Zucco del Latte (1356m), a mound from which the panorama sweeps more freely. Resuming the path, and passing the ruins of the so-called Vaccheria (an alpine pasture building built between 1920 and 1925), you enter the forest: a few minutes later you take a detour to the right and continue to the summit of Borla (1470m), after a scant half-hour from the start. Here you will find an old boundary stump (1892), which marked the passage between the states of Massa and Carrara and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and a table with benches for resting.
The view ranges from Mt. Sagro, known as “the sacred mountain of the Carrara people,” to the magnificent Pizzo d’Uccello (“the Matterhorn of the Apuan Alps”), and includes a wide stretch of coastline. The very rare Borla’s Cornflower, an endemic species found only in this arid, limestone micro-environment, blooms on the mountain, and other endemics of the Apuan Alps can be observed. A webcam is constantly active on the summit of Borla (monteborla.altervista.org) and allows you to monitor the weather conditions before tackling the climb.
- The climb to the summit of Monte Sagro.
A more challenging route, but suitable even for inexperienced hikers, the ascent to the summit of Mount Sagro is an enthralling experience: not many massifs rise so close to the coast, and perhaps nowhere else allows the eye to embrace such a varied panorama, ranging from the jagged outlines of the Apuan Alps, to the moonscapes of the marble basins, and extending to the valley below and the Tuscan coast as far as Livorno.
One of the most striking ways to tackle the ascent is to stay overnight at Rifugio Carrara and set off at dawn following CAI Trail 173. Passing the meadows of Campocecina, Mount Borla, and reaching the Foce di Pianza (1272m), you will undertake the actual ascent by switching to the CAI 172 trail. After about three hours from the start you reach the summit (1749m), from which, weather permitting, you can even see Monviso, Corsica and Elba Island.