Sentiero Italia — Calabria

Calabria is Italy's most southerly mainland region and, in terms of wilderness trail running, its least developed. The Sila plateau in the north, the Aspromonte massif in the south, and the Pollino park on the regional border represent three distinct mountain ecosystems that have been connected by the Sentiero Italia — Italy's 7000km national trail — but see relatively few thru-travelers compared to the northern sections of the same trail.

The Sila is a high granitic plateau at 1200-1400m elevation, covered in the dark Calabrian pine forest that is one of the region's defining landscape features. The plateau receives snow in winter and is fully snowbound from December through March; the running season in the high sections is short. The tracks through the Sila forests are generally good — forestry roads and hunting paths in reasonable condition — but services in the small towns are limited and the distances between them require planning.

The Aspromonte in the south is the final mountain range before the Strait of Messina and Sicily. The highest point (Montalto, 1955m) is a prominent landmark visible from Sicily on clear days, and the mountain's southern flanks drop steeply to the coast in a series of fiumare (dry riverbeds) that flood after rain and are bone-dry in summer. The terrain in the Aspromonte is rougher than the Sila — the rock is crystalline, the paths less maintained, and the remoteness more genuine.

Navigation requires care throughout. The Sentiero Italia waymarking in Calabria is less consistent than in the northern regions — some sections are well-marked, others are more concept than infrastructure. Offline GPS tracks are essential. The ability to ask for directions in Italian is useful: Calabrians are generally hospitable and will go out of their way to help someone who is clearly lost.

Most runners take 15-18 days.