Spring in Val Borbera

Start:
End:
Path lenght:
Difference in altitude:
Difficulty:
Ring path:
Trekking date:

Camere Vecchie (AL)
Alpe di Cassissa
9 Km
300 mt

Easy
Yes
April


A quick and easy spring walk in a place where tranquility is at home.

SPRING IN VAL BORBERA

Sart: Camere Vecchie (AL)
End: Cassissa alp
Path lenght: 9 km.
Difference in Altitude: 300 mt.
Difficulty: Easy
Ring path: yes
Trekking date: april

Spring in Val Borbera

We share the coordinates:
44.657087, 9.030338
(Copy and paste in Google Maps search label)

Borbera valley.
Borbera valley.

On the border between Piedmont and Liguria, there is a place far from the spotlight of the most well-known tourism, due to its distance from the large urban centers and the shape of the territory squeezed between the mountains, which was gradually abandoned during the course of the twentieth century : the young people packed their bags towards the city, hoping for better living conditions than their fathers, peasant people, who lived by sweat and toil and spent the day in the fields, without knowing a day of rest, just to feed themselves and their family.

The small settlement of Camere Vecchie.
The small settlement of Camere Vecchie.

The depopulation of the hinterland, however, has created areas where the landscape and nature have remained as they once were, as if they were pockets of resistance where one can take refuge by walking away from the chaotic contemporaneity.

This is palpable when you reach this border area, after taking the Isola del Cantone motorway exit: following the signs for the small rural village of Montessoro, your eyes will see a landscape that enchants at every turn, while your mind experiences a sensation of calm transmitted by that pastoral environment which remained intact over time, indifferent to both depopulation and post-war industrialisation.

Over Bric delle Camere.
Over Bric delle Camere.

Once we arrive at Camere Vecchie, our starting point for the daily excursion, a few details will be enough to return to the time of the peasants: a small square with a reconstructed wash house, around which stands a small group of houses, surrounded in turn from an expanse of green cultivated fields.

The day is one of the best that spring can offer, with the first warmth helping the trees busy filling themselves with new leaves and repeating another cycle.

The view of the Vobbia Valley and the Stone Castle from Cassissa Alp.
The view of the Vobbia Valley and the Stone Castle from Cassissa Alp.

The path, which at the beginning coincides with the agricultural road and the Borbera-Spinti ring, deviates to the right after a hundred metres, and climbs up into the woods until reaching Bric delle Camere, our first stop. The view is unparalleled, and on clear days the sea is also visible.

Fields in the vicinity of Old Rooms.
Fields in the vicinity of Old Rooms.

Nature is awakening, you can observe it from the first yellow flowers that grow in the undergrowth along the ridge that leads to Alpe Cassissa, where the view crosses the Vobbia valley and the famous Pietra castle, an impenetrable eagle's nest nestled between the conglomerate spiers.

To close the ring, from Alpe Cassissa you go back slightly and take the path on the left which re-enters the woods and loses altitude returning to Camere Vecchie.

An easy excursion, also suitable for families, to be repeated in other seasons to observe the changes in clothes that nature can give us.

Trekking Map

Map of the hike from Camere Vecchie to Cassissa Alp.

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