Cammino dei Briganti

The Cammino dei Briganti starts and ends at Sante Marie (AQ), at an elevation of 850 meters, in the province of L'Aquila, on the western edge of the Marsica: a loop of 108 kilometers divided into seven stages that touches 18 villages between Abruzzo and Lazio, marked with red-and-white waymarks and dedicated metal plaques. The salvacondotto, that is the credential of the walk, is picked up at the Salvacondotti Office in Sante Marie, on the ground floor of the town hall, entrance on the right side, open 9:00 to 13:00 with extended summer hours of 8:00 to 20:00, telephone 0863 679132 and mobile 333 8601069. It's optional, gives no right to discounts, and serves to collect stamps up to the final certificate. You don't pay any ticket to walk the Cammino dei Briganti. The elevation almost always stays between 800 and 1,300 meters, with the sole exception of the optional stage to Lake Duchessa, which climbs to 1,788. The official tools are two: the 1:25,000 map by Edizioni Il Lupo, third edition of May 2023, 10 euros, and the printed guide, sixth edition of June 2024, 128 pages, 16.50 euros, which you request by writing to info@camminodeibriganti.it. From Rome you arrive by car on the A24 and the variant of Via Tiburtina Valeria, or by train on the Rome-Pescara line: the Scalo Sante Marie stop exists but has a very limited service, so it's best to get off at Tagliacozzo and cover the last 6.5 kilometers with the local shuttle service. Book lodging and dinner before leaving, always: along the Cammino dei Briganti the beds are few and family-run.

If you want to put in context the environment the route crosses in its Lazio part, the page on the Duchessa Mountains describes the reserve the high stage enters.

What the Cammino dei Briganti is

The Cammino dei Briganti is a long-distance loop trail that runs astride the administrative border between Abruzzo and Lazio, inside two historical-geographic regions that have ancient names and different characters: the Marsica, on the L'Aquila side, and the Cicolano, on the Rieti side. It should not be confused with the brigands' path of the upper Tuscia, which is something else and lies 200 kilometers away. Here you walk on mule tracks, sheep tracks, dirt roads and old connecting roads between villages that until 70 years ago were the only possible route. The landscape alternates beech woods, ridge meadows, pastures with herds, valleys cut by streams and stone villages where the resident population is counted in the tens.

The route was born from the bottom up, without significant public funding, and this origin still shows today in everything: in the hand-tended signage, in the stage stops that are private homes or small family businesses, in the direct tone with which the organizers address walkers. The result is an itinerary that resembles very little the walks built at a desk with European funds and very much a pact between those who walk and those who live there.

The numbers of the Cammino dei Briganti

A total of 108 kilometers, seven stages, 18 villages crossed, lowest elevation around the 770 meters of Le Crete and highest 1,300 meters on the base route. The daily elevation gain ranges between 350 and 570 meters of climbing: numbers that frighten nobody taken singly, but which added up over seven consecutive days demand accustomed legs. The average duration declared by the organizers is seven days. Those who add the Lake Duchessa loop get to eight. The Cammino dei Briganti is done on foot, but since 2023 there is also a mountain bike version of 216 kilometers that doubles the route.

Why the Cammino dei Briganti is a loop and not a line

The loop is not an aesthetic choice, it is a precise logistical choice. Anyone walking a linear itinerary has to solve the transport problem twice, going and returning, and in the inland Apennine areas that problem costs time and money. A loop, instead, brings the walker back exactly where he left the car or where the train arrived. In the case of the Cammino dei Briganti the center of the loop is occupied by the Duchessa mountains and the Velino ridge, which almost always remain visible on the right or on the left and work as a natural compass.

The recommended direction on the Cammino dei Briganti

Clockwise is the direction recommended by the organizers, and it's the direction in which the signage was designed and painted. Those who decide to walk the Cammino dei Briganti counterclockwise must expect to read the signs backward, with all the mistakes this entails at junctions, and must rely on the official GPS tracks. On trails marked in one direction only it's easy to get lost: if you don't have a strong reason, walk clockwise and spare yourself two hours of doubt a day.

How to get to Sante Marie, the start of the Cammino dei Briganti

Sante Marie has just over 1,000 inhabitants and stretches along the slope that looks over the Imele valley. The name derives from Altum castrum Sanctae Mariae, the height on which a Marian place of worship stood, and the first documentary attestation dates to 1187, in the Catalogus baronum compiled under William II. The municipal territory includes the hamlets of Castelvecchio, San Giovanni, Santo Stefano, Scanzano, Tubione and Valdevarri: four of these are stops or passages of the Cammino dei Briganti, which explains why the town was chosen as the gateway.

By train to the Cammino dei Briganti

The Rome-Pescara railway line, activated in 1888, cuts through this part of the Marsica and has a stop named after Sante Marie, in the locality of Scalo, between the hamlet of San Giovanni and the main town. The service, however, is reduced to the bone: a single regional train a day toward Roma Termini, coming from Avezzano. For those arriving from the capital the realistic solution is a regional train to Tagliacozzo station, much better served, and then the local shuttle. On the same line there is also the Villa San Sebastiano stop.

By car to the Cammino dei Briganti

From Rome you take the A24 toward L'Aquila, exit at Carsoli or at Tagliacozzo, and follow the variant of Via Tiburtina Valeria, the road built between the 1960s and 1970s that connects Carsoli, Tagliacozzo and Sante Marie. The trip from the eastern outskirts of Rome takes a little over an hour in normal conditions. At Sante Marie you leave the car for seven days: since it's a loop, you find it where you left it. Ask for directions on parking directly at the Salvacondotti Office when you pick up the credential.

Shuttles and luggage transport on the Cammino dei Briganti

There is a transport service for people and backpacks run by local drivers, priced per kilometer and not per person: 1.50 euros per kilometer actually traveled, with the same price for one or for four passengers, for one or for five backpacks. A few example rates: from Tagliacozzo to Sante Marie, 6.5 kilometers, 10 euros. From Nesce to Grotti, 17.7 kilometers, 27 euros. From Nesce to Torano, 22.6 kilometers, 34 euros. The phone contacts are Valerio or Gianni for Sante Marie at 333 8601069, Pasquale for the Torano and Nesce area at 329 9632228, Luca for Cartore at 340 8276002, Giuliano for Scurcola at 348 7127042. Reservations should preferably be made by 20:00 of the previous day, the luggage must be ready by 9:00 in the morning and is delivered by 16:30. A professional tip: luggage transport is not a surrender, it's what allows a mixed group to get to the end without leaving the slowest member behind on the road.

The salvacondotto of the Cammino dei Briganti

Every walk has its credential. Here they called it salvacondotto, with a wordplay alluding to the safe-conduct the brigands didn't have and badly needed. The organizers themselves hedge and define it as a nice game: it's not mandatory, it's not essential, it gives no right to discounts. It does serve, that much, to build the material memory of the journey and to get the walker through the doors of bars and town halls, which is after all the best way to get to know a town.

Where to pick up the salvacondotto of the Cammino dei Briganti

The Salvacondotti Office occupies the ground floor of the town hall of Sante Marie, with the entrance on the right side of the building. The ordinary hours run from 9:00 to 13:00, in summer they extend from 8:00 to 20:00. Those who fill in the online registration form in advance find the document already ready at the counter. On telephone request it's possible to arrange an afternoon pickup at a bar in town, a useful solution for those who arrive late and want to leave at dawn the next day.

Where to get stamps along the Cammino dei Briganti

Stamps are collected at the partner accommodations, that is farm stays, hostels and bed and breakfasts, and then at the bars, restaurants and town offices of the villages crossed. Once the collection is complete, you pick up the certificate on arrival. It's worth asking for the stamp even where you aren't sleeping: many owners keep custom-drawn stamp pads, and the final page of the salvacondotto becomes a small graphic catalog of the Cicolano and the Marsica.

The seven stages of the Cammino dei Briganti

The division into stages of the Cammino dei Briganti is deliberately measured: no day exceeds 21 kilometers and the first has fewer than six. This is not a weakness of the project, it's a choice. The organizers write clearly that combining two stages, which on paper seems easy, takes away from the journey exactly what it was built for, namely the time to stop in the villages, talk with the people who live there and eat without watching the clock.

First stage of the Cammino dei Briganti: Sante Marie - Santo Stefano

5.6 kilometers, with 380 meters of climbing and 160 of descent, from Sante Marie at 850 meters to Santo Stefano at 1,050. It's half a day, and it's designed that way: you arrive at Sante Marie by car or train, pick up the salvacondotto, have lunch unhurried and set off in the afternoon to enter the spirit of the journey without wearing yourself out on the first day. The path climbs through the woods and in a short time delivers the first wide view over the valley. At Santo Stefano you sleep at a farm stay, with local cooking: walks are also judged by the first dinner, and this is a good start.

Second stage of the Cammino dei Briganti: Santo Stefano - Valdevarri - Nesce

13.9 kilometers, 400 meters of climbing and 625 of descent, from Santo Stefano to Nesce passing through Valdevarri, which lies at 1,020 meters. Here the Cammino dei Briganti enters the Val de' Varri, a fold of territory that tourism has never touched. At Valdevarri the paved road arrived only very recently, and the village keeps rhythms that disappeared elsewhere two generations ago: at the village fountain you still meet women who washed clothes there for 40 years and have no hurry to buy a washing machine. A variant lets you touch Poggiovalle, a village that gave men to the brigand bands. You then descend to Nesce, 850 meters, where you sleep in bed and breakfasts and tourist lodgings, while at Valdevarri the hospitality is in private homes.

Third stage of the Cammino dei Briganti: Nesce - Villerose - Spedino - Cartore

16.6 kilometers, 440 meters of climbing and 330 of descent. You walk a long way along the Salto river, touch Villerose and Spedino and arrive at Cartore, 944 meters, or alternatively at Corvaro, 842 meters. Cartore is the dark and fascinating heart of the whole story: the band that held the Cicolano in check for years took its name from here. The village is almost depopulated today, set at the mouth of the Val di Teve, and keeps that air of a suspended place that abandoned places have only when the abandonment is recent. The main lodging is a farmhouse with food service.

Fourth stage of the Cammino dei Briganti: the Lake Duchessa loop

Between 12.3 and 15 kilometers, as a loop, with start and finish at Cartore or Corvaro. It's the only truly mountain day of the Cammino dei Briganti and the only one that exceeds 1,300 meters: the lake lies at 1,788. Those with legs, training and experience can add the variant to the summit of Monte Velino, 2,489 meters, but this is no longer a walking stage, it's hiking mountaineering and should be treated as such, with a start at dawn and attention to the weather. The stage is optional: many skip it and are wrong, because it's the day the landscape changes register completely.

Fifth stage of the Cammino dei Briganti: Cartore - Rosciolo - Massa d'Albe

15 kilometers, 500 meters of climbing and 600 of descent, from Cartore to Massa d'Albe passing by the church of Santa Maria in Valle Porclaneta and by Rosciolo, a medieval village at 909 meters that works very well as an intermediate stop. The Porclaneta, at 1,022 meters, is the absolute masterpiece of the route and deserves a long stop, not a passing photograph: I'll talk about it at length further on. Massa d'Albe, 880 meters, closes the day.

Sixth stage of the Cammino dei Briganti: Massa d'Albe - Magliano de' Marsi - Le Crete

19 kilometers, to which you can add 3 optional kilometers to visit Alba Fucens, with 350 meters of climbing and 450 of descent. Magliano de' Marsi is the biggest and best-supplied town on the whole Cammino dei Briganti: here you find real grocery stores and one of the very rare ATMs on the itinerary. You finish at Le Crete, 770 meters, in the territory of Tagliacozzo. The detour to Alba Fucens costs a little over an hour and gives back a Roman colony of 303 BC with forum, basilica, baths and amphitheater: 3 kilometers better spent than that are hard to find.

Seventh stage of the Cammino dei Briganti: Le Crete - San Donato - Scanzano - Sante Marie

21 kilometers, 570 meters of climbing and 480 of descent: the longest stage, put at the end when the legs are by now made. You pass beneath the castle of San Donato, cross Scanzano and Poggetello and return to Sante Marie, closing the loop at 850 meters. On arrival you pick up the certificate. It's the day with the most ups and downs and the widest panoramas toward the Imele valley, and it's also the stretch where the sculpture chosen in 2025 through a public competition will be placed.

Where to sleep along the Cammino dei Briganti

The accommodation on the Cammino dei Briganti is tiny, family-run and almost always full on spring and autumn weekends. There are no chains, no hotels, no centralized booking system: you phone place by place, and you phone in advance. Anyone who shows up without a reservation in a village of 40 inhabitants seriously risks sleeping outside. This is warning number one that the organizers repeat everywhere, and it's the only one that allows no shortcuts.

The stage stops of the Cammino dei Briganti, village by village

At Sante Marie the offer is the widest: a hostel set up at the castle with a bed between 25 and 30 euros, a guest house around 30 euros per person, a bed and breakfast at about 35 euros and a private rental between 40 and 60 euros. At Santo Stefano you sleep at a farm stay, with half board around 60 euros. At Valdevarri the private houses charge between 40 and 45 euros per person on half board. At Nesce there are a tourist lodging and a bed and breakfast at about 30 euros. At Villerose there are a farm at about 28 euros and a small farmhouse by the old spring between 30 and 40. At Cartore the farmhouse with restaurant is the only solution and costs around 75 euros on half board, a figure explained by the isolation of the place and by the fact that there is no alternative for dinner there. At Rosciolo two bed and breakfasts, one per room between 55 and 80 euros and one around 40 per person. At Massa d'Albe a family-run place between 40 and 80 euros per room. At Magliano de' Marsi a bed and breakfast between 40 and 60. At Scurcola Marsicana an inn at about 40 euros and a farm stay at about 35. On the final stretch, at San Donato you sleep for around 20-35 euros, at Scanzano about 25, at Poggetello between 25 and 45 in a village relais. At Tagliacozzo, useful for the night before or after, a bed and breakfast at about 30 euros per person.

Camping on the Cammino dei Briganti

Camping is allowed and is in fact one of the reasons the Cammino dei Briganti attracts a younger crowd than the average Italian walk. The rules, however, exist and are serious: those who pitch a tent must bring a trowel to bury organic waste and their own reusable dishes, because single-use plastic is banned. Sleeping in a tent lowers the cost of the trip enormously, but it also removes the most interesting part of the experience, which is the dinners in people's homes and the chats with the hosts. For mixed groups the solution is to alternate: four nights indoors, two in the tent.

Water, food and money along the Cammino dei Briganti

Water is not a problem: fountains, drinking taps and troughs are distributed in the villages and along the paths, and the organizers have mapped their positions, distinguishing the springs, always open, from the outlets connected to the aqueduct, which in summer may be shut at certain times of day. The collection of the water points was handled by local volunteers. Practical rule: always fill up when you pass a safe source, without putting it off to the next kilometer.

Shopping for food on the Cammino dei Briganti

The grocery stores along the Cammino dei Briganti are very few and concentrated: Sante Marie, Magliano de' Marsi and Scanzano. All the rest of the route crosses villages where at most you find a bar. Those walking on their own must therefore organize the shopping in advance and accept that the packed lunch is often the one prepared the evening before by the stage-stop host. Ask for it explicitly: almost everyone does it, and it costs less than any highway-stop sandwich.

ATMs and cash on the Cammino dei Briganti

There are no ATMs along most of the route: the only ones are at Magliano de' Marsi and Scurcola Marsicana. Many accommodations are private homes that work in cash. Leave with the cash needed for the whole week, counting dinner, overnight and breakfast: it's the practical banality that ruins more trips than blisters do.

Eating and drinking on the Cammino dei Briganti

The cooking you meet is that of the Marsica and the Cicolano: legume soups, handmade pasta, lamb, sheep's cheeses, potatoes. The portions are home portions and the menus are not chosen, they are received. There is also a craft beer dedicated to the walk, produced by a small local brewery with seven hop additions like the seven stages, and you find it in bottles at the stage stops. It's not a folkloric detail: it's an example of the minimal economy that the passage of walkers has made possible.

Sheepdogs on the Cammino dei Briganti

Sheep are raised here, and where there are sheep there are guardian dogs, the big white Abruzzo shepherd dogs that are not pets and are not aggressive dogs either: they are workers with a precise task, defending the flock from the wolf. The organizers of the Cammino dei Briganti are very clear on this point and reject the idea that the dogs should be removed for the tourist's convenience. The walker must learn to handle the situation, and the handling is simple: you stop, you don't run, you don't shout, you don't raise sticks, you go around the flock on the widest side keeping calm and without turning your back. The dog barks, assesses, escorts the passage and goes back to its place. Those who bring their own dog must keep it on a short leash and consider that in the presence of flocks the problem multiplies.

When to walk the Cammino dei Briganti

The Cammino dei Briganti can be walked all year, and it's one of its least advertised qualities. Since the base route doesn't exceed 1,300 meters, in winter it remains passable, possibly with snowshoes on the high stretches. In summer it can be hot, but the route mostly runs on ventilated slopes shaded by woods.

Spring and autumn on the Cammino dei Briganti

These are the two best windows, and not only for weather reasons. In spring, between April and June, the pastures are in flower, the springs run full and the villages start moving again. In autumn, between September and October, the beech woods of the Duchessa change color and the low light makes every ridge more legible. The season in which the flow of walkers concentrates runs from March to October, and this means two things: open accommodations and full accommodations.

Summer and winter on the Cammino dei Briganti

July and August bring heat in the middle hours, and the answer is the usual one in the Apennines: start early, stop at midday, set off again in the afternoon. On the other hand in summer everything is open and the Lake Duchessa stage is at its best. Winter is for experienced and equipped walkers: the villages are half empty, many accommodations close, snow can make the paths deceptive and the Duchessa stage becomes a mountaineering outing. In winter, in our judgment, the Cammino dei Briganti should be done in single stages, not in seven consecutive days.

Difficulty and preparation for the Cammino dei Briganti

Anyone arriving at the Cammino dei Briganti expecting something like the Francigena pilgrim road will be thrown off, and the organizers write it without diplomacy: here there are no comfortable lanes between the fields, no waymark at every crossroads, no millions of euros of public funding behind the maintenance. The Apennine nature is the real kind, the paths get overgrown, in some places you need to read the terrain. For a comparison with an itinerary of a completely different setup it's worth looking at the page for Via Francigena: they are two worlds.

Guide and map are mandatory on the Cammino dei Briganti

The printed guide and the map are not accessories, they are safety tools. The map, published by Edizioni Il Lupo on a 1:25,000 topographic base, reached its third edition in May 2023 and covers a good part of the mountain bike route. It costs 10 euros and is found at the publisher, in specialized bookshops, at the Salvacondotti Office in Sante Marie, in a stationery-bookshop in Tagliacozzo, at the farmhouse in Le Crete and in other businesses along the itinerary. The guide, sixth updated edition of June 2024, has 128 pages, costs 16.50 euros and contains the stage maps, the updates on lodging and the brigandage stories tied to each stretch. Official GPS tracks also exist, for walking and for mountain biking.

Training and gear for the Cammino dei Briganti

You need broken-in trekking boots, not new shoes bought the day before. You need poles, because the descents are long and in some stretches on loose ground. You need a waterproof shell even in July, because Apennine afternoon thunderstorms don't ask permission. You need at least a liter and a half of water capacity each and a reserve of emergency food. On training I'm strict: if you don't walk regularly, do at least four outings of 15 kilometers with a loaded pack in the six weeks before. The fatigue of the Cammino dei Briganti is not in the single stage, it's in the accumulation.

Post-unification brigandage: why it's called the Cammino dei Briganti

The name is not a marketing trick. Between 1860 and the early 1870s these mountains were one of the hottest theaters of armed resistance to the new Kingdom of Italy. The reason is geographic even before it is political: until 1870 the ridge that the Cammino dei Briganti follows separated the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from the Papal States, and a border between two states, in mountainous and wooded country, is the ideal condition for anyone who needs to vanish. It was enough to cross a valley to leave the jurisdiction of those chasing you.

One border, two states, a civil war

After the annexation of the Kingdom of Naples, a reaction developed in the Cicolano that brought together Bourbon nostalgics, supporters of the pope and peasants crushed by compulsory conscription, new taxes and the sale of common lands. The Papal States, and a good part of the clergy, offered refuge and assistance to the bands. Francis II of Bourbon, who had taken refuge in Rome, received the band leaders in his residence and promised weapons and money. The rhythm of the phenomenon was seasonal and followed that of the transhumance: the brigands spent the winter, from early November to the end of April, under shelter in the Papal States, and with spring they came back into the Cicolano in small bands.

The Cartòre band

The formation that gives its character to the whole Cammino dei Briganti operated in the Duchessa mountains and numbered between 20 and 30 men, recruited in the towns of the surrounding area: Santa Anatolia, Poggiovalle, Grotti, Torano, Rosciolo. Two documented episodes are enough to explain what brigandage really was, beyond any romanticism. On May 18, 1863 six or seven men of the band kidnapped Alessandro Panei at the mill of Baron Antonini in Torano, demanding a ransom of 3,000 lire. The ransom was paid, but Panei was tortured, tied to a beech tree and burned alive, and his body was found on June 1 on the Duchessa mountain. In the night between June 7 and 8 of the same year about 30 brigands broke into the house of the parish priest don Costantino Placidi, looted it and kidnapped him, demanding 1,000 ducats. The failed negotiation was followed by reprisal, with the killing of about 15 oxen.

Berardino Viola, the brigand of the Cicolano

The best-known figure is Berardino Viola, born on November 24, 1838 at Vallececa, a hamlet of Pescorocchiano, into a family that was anything but destitute: his father Angelo worked at the customs house, his mother Marianna was a spinner. Moved as a child to Teglieto, he attended school until age 15 and then worked as a day laborer. His first arrest came on September 23, 1860 at Fiamignano. Enlisted in the national guard, he abandoned the Savoy cause after the military defeats against the Bourbon forces and passed into armed clandestinity between the Cicolano and the Marsica. In September 1862 he founded with Giovanni Colaiuda the Cartòre band, based in a thick wood near Borgocollefegato. He was arrested in Rome on January 20, 1864, briefly exiled to Barcelona, and captured again at Tivoli on October 27 of the same year. Sentenced to life imprisonment on June 17, 1873, with the sentence later reduced to 24 years, he got out on April 9, 1897. On November 3, 1898 a murder put him on the run again. Arrested on July 29, 1900, he was sentenced again to life on May 25, 1901 and died in 1906, at age 68, in the penitentiary of Santo Stefano.

José Borjes and Carmine Crocco

An international story also passed along this border. José Borjes, born at Vernet in Catalonia in 1813, a general of Carlist background who later went over to Isabella II, landed in Italy in October 1861 to organize the Bourbon bands militarily and met Carmine Crocco in Basilicata. The attempt to turn Crocco's band into a disciplined unit foundered on mutual distrust and on the absence of the reinforcements promised by the Bourbon government in exile. Borjes went back north with a few men and in the night between December 7 and 8, 1861 stopped at the Mastroddi farmhouse, near Sante Marie, in the Luppa valley not far from the hamlet of Castelvecchio. The bersaglieri of Major Enrico Franchini, warned by local people, surrounded the farmhouse. After the firefight and the burning of the building, Borjes and his men were captured, taken to Tagliacozzo and shot without trial. The affair had a European echo, Victor Hugo protested against an Italian government that shot royalists, and the Catalan's diary was published and translated several times. It is the reason why the Cammino dei Briganti, by starting from Sante Marie, starts from a place that is by no means secondary in the history of Italy.

Brigands or partisans

The reading proposed by the creators of the Cammino dei Briganti is openly partisan: those men were not mere criminals, they were also a peasant resistance against a military occupation and against a draft that tore sons from their families. Serious historiography today holds the two things together without choosing: there was a real component of social revolt and there were atrocious crimes, often against other poor people. Walking here with both versions in mind is the only honest way to do it, and it makes the journey much more interesting than a stroll in the woods.

The Museum of Brigandage and of the Unity of Italy at Sante Marie

A few dozen meters from the Salvacondotti Office, in the historic center of Sante Marie, the Palazzo Colelli, an 18th-century building, houses the Museum of Brigandage and of the Unity of Italy. It's a small and well-conceived collection: original documents on local brigandage, relics, historic weapons, ransom notes, the photographic equipment used to document the brigands who were killed, the coins of the two rival dynasties, the uniforms of the three armies that faced each other in the period of unification, and reconstructions of popular domestic interiors. The ticket costs 2 euros, children under 10 get in free. To visit it you contact the Reserve office located right next door, and it's best to book. The section on the ransom notes, with their threatening and ungrammatical grammar, is the one that stays with you: it is worth on its own the half hour's stop before setting off on the Cammino dei Briganti.

The Duchessa Mountains and the lake on the Cammino dei Briganti

The optional stage leads into the regional nature reserve that protects the Lazio side of the Velino group, in the territory of Borgorose, province of Rieti, on the border with L'Aquila. Lake Duchessa lies at 1,788 meters and is a rare case for the Apennines: a small basin of glacial origin of the Alpine type, about 400 meters long and 150 wide, without inflowing streams, whose shape suggests the ancient merging of two sinkholes. In summer the level drops and the water turns cloudy, the meadow around it covers with buttercups and flocks and herds climb up to drink. In winter the lake freezes and disappears under the snow. Among the amphibians that frequent it is the crested newt.

Lake Duchessa and communiqué number 7

On April 18, 1978, in the thick of the Moro kidnapping, a false communiqué number 7 attributed to the Red Brigades named Lake Duchessa as the place where the statesman's body would have been sunk. On the shores of this small Apennine lake police forces and divers poured in, forced into extremely difficult operations beneath the frozen surface. The communiqué was a misdirection, and remains one of the darkest episodes of that spring. Those who arrive up here after five hours of climbing from Cartore struggle to imagine the scene, and it is exactly this short circuit between Alpine silence and Italy's dark history that makes the day memorable.

Monte Velino seen from the Cammino dei Briganti

The Velino, 2,489 meters, is the third peak of the central Apennines and dominates the whole loop. From the lake basin starts the normal route, which is a long climb on scree, without technical difficulties but exposed to the wind and without shelter. It's not a variant to improvise at the end of the day. For those who want to stay at altitude without risk, the circuit of the lake and the climb to the panoramic pass above the basin offer 90 percent of the view with 10 percent of the effort.

Wildlife and environment around the Cammino dei Briganti

We are in an area that belongs to the system of the great carnivores of the central Apennines: the Apennine wolf lives here, the Abruzzo chamois on the higher slopes and, in transit, the Marsican brown bear, whose historic core is in the nearby Abruzzo National Park. The chances of meeting them while walking are very low, and anyone who promises sightings is lying. What remains is the precise feeling of crossing an untamed territory and the practical need to handle waste impeccably. Those who want to explore the context can read the page on the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park and the one on the La Camosciara Nature Reserve.

Santa Maria in Valle Porclaneta, the masterpiece of the Cammino dei Briganti

If I had to give a single reason to walk the Cammino dei Briganti to someone who doesn't like walking, I'd point to this church. It lies at 1,022 meters, in the municipality of Magliano de' Marsi, near the hamlet of Rosciolo, on the slopes of the Velino, and belongs to the fifth stage. The construction dates almost certainly to the first half of the 11th century, of Benedictine layout, and was probably born as part of a monastery now vanished together with the cloister. Between 1077 and 1080 Count Berardo III donated it to Abbot Desiderius of Montecassino, the future Pope Victor III: a donation that says how much this place counted.

The wooden iconostasis of Santa Maria in Valle Porclaneta

Inside is preserved a structure very rare in Italy: a wooden iconostasis supported by four small columns with twisted shafts and carved capitals, which according to an established reading would allude to the layout of the ancient Temple of Solomon, with the columns of Jachin and Boaz. To find a wooden screen of this kind in an Apennine church is an almost unique fact, and it is explained by the persistence of Eastern models in the Benedictine liturgy of the Cassino area.

The ambo of Roberto and Nicodemo

The ambo and the ciborium were made in 1150 by the masters Roberto and Nicodemo, whose names are documented: it's a signature, not a hypothesis. The rectangular chest, in stone covered with stucco, is decorated with small human figures interwoven with plant scrolls, with Old Testament scenes including David and Jonah. The design of the original 11th-century church is instead attributed to the master Nicolò. Look at the ambo up close and from three-quarters: the modeling of the stuccoes changes completely depending on the light coming through the small windows.

The wounds of the Porclaneta

The history of the building is a sequence of traumas. It was damaged in 1268, during the battle of Tagliacozzo, abandoned from 1362, contested between noble families and dioceses, restored between 1424 and 1430 at the wish of Jacovella da Celano, and hit hard by the Marsica earthquake of 1915. Alterations followed in 1930-1931 and in 1967. The fact that the iconostasis and the ambo made it all the way here, after all this, is a small marvel. The church has no continuous opening hours: ask at the stage stop in Rosciolo the day before, which is the most effective way of finding it open.

Alba Fucens, the Roman detour of the Cammino dei Briganti

Three optional kilometers in the sixth stage lead into one of the best-preserved Latin colonies in Italy. Alba Fucens was founded in 303 BC in Aequian territory, northwest of the ancient Lake Fucino, and Rome sent 6,000 colonists there to keep central Italy under control along the route that would become Via Tiburtina Valeria. The colony remained loyal to Rome during the Punic Wars and sent troops against Hannibal in 211 BC.

What you see at Alba Fucens

You can recognize the forum, heart of political life, the three-aisled basilica that housed administration and justice, the macellum, that is the food market, the baths with their heating system, the traces of the theater's cavea carved in the rock, the sanctuary of Hercules with the esplanade used for the animal trade, and the amphitheater, an oval of 96 meters by 79. On the hill of the same name stands the church of San Pietro, built on the remains of the temple of Apollo, and the structures of a Benedictine monastery with cloister are preserved. The systematic excavation campaigns began in 1949 by a Belgian mission and continued for about 30 years. The 1915 earthquake destroyed the medieval village that had grown on the acropolis around the castle.

Cartore, Corvaro and the necropolises along the Cammino dei Briganti

Corvaro, 842 meters, is the most populous hamlet of Borgorose and lies in the upper Cicolano at the foot of the Duchessa Mountains. In the plain below the town a collective funerary mound about 50 meters in diameter has been excavated, originally around four meters high, with a star-shaped plan formed by triangular sectors, in use in the archaic period between the 7th and 5th century BC: it yielded 368 tombs. The necropolises stretch between the plain of Corvaro and the half-abandoned village of Cartore and belonged to the Aequiculi people: about 300 burials emerged from the excavations begun in 1984, over a chronological span running from the 9th to the 1st century BC. The medieval village of Corvaro formed in the 11th century around a castle, and the 1915 earthquake pushed the population to rebuild farther downhill. Those who walk the Cammino dei Briganti thus cross a stratification that starts from the Iron Age and arrives at the depopulation of the 20th century, without a break.

Val de' Varri, Nesce and the villages of the Cammino dei Briganti

The second and third stages cross the most remote stretch of the loop. Val de' Varri is a fold of mountain where time has walked slowly and where asphalt arrived only a very few years ago. Nesce, Villerose, Spedino and Poggiovalle are villages of the Cicolano living on a few dozen permanent residents. Poggiovalle has a specific reputation, being one of the towns that gave men to the bands. The dominant feeling, for someone arriving from a city, is that of crossing a territory that is emptying out, and this is exactly the reason the Cammino dei Briganti was built: to bring a minimal but continuous economy to places that would otherwise close.

The castle of San Donato on the Cammino dei Briganti

In the last stage the route passes beneath the castle of San Donato, at 1,171 meters, in a dominant position over the Imele valley and the Tiburtina Valeria. It is documented already in 1057 as the castrum of Pomperano in the papal privileges, belonged to the counts of the Marsi, a family of transalpine origin settled in Italy in the 10th century, and in 1067 Count Oderisius II named it as his residence. The name Pomperano gives way to San Donato around the middle of the 12th century. What remains is a fortified perimeter with quadrangular towers, three circular towers at the corners and internal divisions, in rubble masonry with limestone blocks and ceramic fragments. Scholars recognize two phases: the layout of the 11th and 12th centuries and a later reinforcement after the 13th century, with the addition of a rectangular body at the highest point. Reforestation and modern interventions make it hard to read today, but the position remains eloquent.

Who invented the Cammino dei Briganti

The Cammino dei Briganti was born from the idea of Luca Gianotti, a guide and writer from Modena who lived 20 years in the Marsica and who had already devised other itineraries, including the Sentiero Spallanzani and Via Cretese. The fieldwork was done by a small group of volunteers, with Gianotti, Fabiana Mapelli and Alberto Liberati, who put their own resources into the marking, the maintenance and the building of the hospitality network. Gianotti has said that walking taught him pages of history that school textbooks skip, starting with the real effects of Italian unification and the role of the brigands as fighters against a military occupation.

From a spontaneous route to recognition

At first the institutions looked at the project with skepticism. Then the walkers came, and with them the money that stayed in the villages between March and October, and the skepticism melted. The decisive organizational and media support came from the Compagnia dei Cammini, the Italian association that promotes the culture of walking. In 2016 the municipality of Sante Marie allocated 1,000 euros for administrative materials and facilities: a figure that makes you smile when compared with the budgets of other walks, and that says everything about the way this one was born. The official inauguration of the Cammino dei Briganti took place on May 21, 2016.

How many people walk the Cammino dei Briganti

The figures released by the organizers for 2021 speak of 2,900 wayfarers and about 14,500 overnight stays. A quarter came from Lazio, then Lombardy at 12.5 percent, Emilia-Romagna at 11, Veneto at 10.6, Tuscany at 9, Abruzzo at 7.5, Campania at 6.5, with just 1 percent from abroad. The age distribution shows what sets the Cammino dei Briganti apart from other Italian itineraries: the 31-49 age group weighed 37 percent, 19-30 year olds 22.5, 50-65 year olds 22, under-18s 8 and over-65s 6.8. It's a young walk, and the possibility of sleeping in a tent together with the theme of brigandage explains a good part of this anomaly.

The sculpture on the Cammino dei Briganti

In 2025 the organizers launched a competition for a sculpture to be placed along the route. The winner, announced on November 29, 2025, is Cesare Pergola, an architect and multimedia artist of Molise origin who lives between Florence and São Paulo, Brazil, with a work titled La Carovana sul Cammino: a brigand leading a mule, followed by two present-day walkers and by an eagle, fox, wolf, chamois and bear, made of perforated corten steel so as to remain light and transparent against the landscape. The planned location is on a mountain between San Donato and Scanzano, on the border between the municipalities of Sante Marie and Tagliacozzo, in one of the most panoramic stretches. The prize was 700 euros and the jury chose unanimously among 15 proposals.

The Cammino dei Briganti by mountain bike

Since 2023 there has been a cycling version, the MTB Tour, which more than doubles the walking route: 216 kilometers with 5,630 meters of climbing and as much descent, between 580 and 1,570 meters of elevation. The surface composition is 20 percent asphalt, 44 percent dirt roads and 36 percent single track, with a few stretches to be done pushing the bike. Times vary a lot: three or four days for the very fit, four or five for enthusiasts, five for those going easy. It is not a gravel route: you need full-suspension bikes with sturdy wheels and tires of at least 2.2 inches, and you need experienced hands, because the surface changes constantly. There are three starting points to close the loop, Magliano de' Marsi, Sante Marie and Sant'Elpidio di Pescorocchiano, each with a registration office. The route follows the walking path in part and in part widens toward neighboring territories, including the Simbruini Mountains.

The Cammino dei Briganti with kids

It's one of the few long-distance itineraries in the Apennines that really works with kids, and the data confirm it: 8 percent of the walkers counted in 2021 were under 18. The stages are short, the elevation gains modest, and every evening you arrive in a village and not at an isolated mountain hut. The first stage of 5.6 kilometers is perfect as a break-in. The fourth, the one to Lake Duchessa, must be assessed honestly: for a child under 10 it is too much. The luggage transport changes everything, because it lets the little ones walk with a light small backpack. The brigandage museum at Sante Marie, with the weapons and the ransom notes, is the best possible introduction: the kids set off with a story in their heads, and a story in the head is worth 10 kilometers of legs.

A curiosity about the Cammino dei Briganti

The credential of the Cammino dei Briganti isn't called a credential and isn't even called a pilgrim's passport: it's called salvacondotto. The term is chosen with philological precision and with a touch of black irony. In the administrative vocabulary of the 19th century the salvacondotto was the document that guaranteed a wanted person the possibility of moving about without being arrested, and it was exactly the instrument around which the life of many repentant brigands, or brigands in negotiation with the authorities, revolved: those who obtained it survived, those who didn't ended up shot or in prison for life. To hand a salvacondotto today to a walker crossing the same woods, and to have him stamp it in a bar in Nesce or in the town hall of Magliano, is a gesture of memory far subtler than any educational sign.

The second part of the curiosity is that the organizers hurry to play it down: the salvacondotto, they write, is not mandatory, not essential, gives no right to discounts, it's just a nice game. This voluntary subtraction of importance is itself a curiosity, because it goes in the opposite direction to all the other Italian walks, where the credential has become an object of worship, a certificate to show off and in some cases a small industry. Not here. Here the only recognition that counts is the final certificate, and even that counts little, because the real criterion of success of the Cammino dei Briganti declared by its creators is another: that the walkers' money stays in the villages and that the villages stay inhabited. Few tourism operations are as lucid about their own purpose.

Something nobody tells you about the Cammino dei Briganti

That this loop, in fact, has only one direction. The red-and-white signage and the metal plaques were designed, painted and installed for those walking clockwise. Those who decide to walk the Cammino dei Briganti the other way don't find mirror-image signage: they find signs calibrated to be read by someone arriving from the opposite direction, which means arrows that appear behind you, junctions where the right branch is not marked, and a quantity of wrong micro-decisions that, added up, cost hours. The organizers say so, but they say it in one line in the middle of the practical information, and almost nobody reads it. Those who want to go counterclockwise must download and follow the official GPS tracks, and must accept walking with the phone in hand.

The second little-known piece of information concerns money. Along the Cammino dei Briganti there are no ATMs, except at Magliano de' Marsi and Scurcola Marsicana, and most of the accommodations are private homes that take cash. It means you have to leave Sante Marie with the cash for the entire week, dinners included. The third thing nobody says is that there is no telephone assistance service here: the organizers expressly ask you not to phone or write for information that is already on the website, in the guide and on the social page, because behind the project there is no full-time secretariat but a few volunteers who cut brambles on the path in their free time. Getting upset over an unanswered email means you misunderstood where you have arrived.

The advice I give you for visiting the Cammino dei Briganti

Don't combine stages. It's the most boring advice and the most important I can give about this itinerary. Looking at the numbers it comes naturally to think of joining the first with the second, or the fifth with the sixth: they are 5.6 and 13.9 kilometers, they are 15 and 19, with modest elevation gains. Those who walk regularly do them without effort. The problem is that the Cammino dei Briganti is not built on distances, it's built on villages: the stages are short so that there's time to arrive in the early afternoon, sit down, talk with whoever runs the stage stop, visit the church, have the museum opened for you, eat dinner without watching the clock. A walker who shows up at seven in the evening, eats and collapses has covered 108 kilometers and seen nothing.

Second piece of advice, just as concrete: buy the guide and the map before leaving, not along the route. The 1:25,000 map by Edizioni Il Lupo costs 10 euros, the sixth-edition guide 16.50. Together they cost less than a dinner and are the only thing that gets you out of an uncertain junction on a foggy afternoon. Third: book every night and every dinner before leaving, all of them, even those you think you'll decide along the way. Fourth, and this is the professional's advice: plan on the luggage transport service at least for the longest stage, the final one of 21 kilometers. It's not a defeat. The difference between a successful trip and a ruined one almost always runs through the shoulder of someone who carried 10 kilos too many out of pride.

Another well-known fact, yet rarely cited

Lake Duchessa, which is the highest and most photographed point of the whole Cammino dei Briganti, entered the history of Italy because of a fake. On April 18, 1978, while Aldo Moro was a prisoner of the Red Brigades, a communiqué numbered seven was circulated announcing that the statesman's body had been immersed in the depths of Lake Duchessa. The document was false, a misdirection whose origin is still debated by historians, but it produced immediate and very concrete effects: the police forces went up in force to 1,788 meters, in the middle of an Apennine April, and had to organize underwater searches beneath a still-frozen surface. The images of those divers on the frozen lake are among the most surreal of the whole Moro affair.

The fact is very well known to those of a certain age and completely unknown to those under 40, and almost nobody connects it to the Cammino dei Briganti, partly because the Duchessa stage is sold exclusively as a nature day. And yet the short circuit is formidable: a glacial lake without inflowing streams, 400 meters long, frequented by flocks and crested newts, which for a few days in 1978 was the center of Italy. When you get there, sit on the shore and try to hold the two images together. This is the kind of stratification that makes the Cammino dei Briganti different from any ordinary trek: every place has at least two stories laid over each other, one of stone and one of blood.

The right photo to take on the Cammino dei Briganti

The photograph that sums up the Cammino dei Briganti is not the lake and is not the ridge panorama: it's Cartore. The village lies at 944 meters at the mouth of the Val di Teve, is almost uninhabited and has a particular quality of light in the first hours of the morning, when the sun hasn't yet cleared the Velino ridge and the stone houses stay in cold shade while the pastures behind them are already lit. Get low, on the access road, and frame the village with the mountain above it: the scale relationship between the few houses and the wall tells by itself why a band of 30 men could remain invisible for years.

The other two shots worth taking are very different from each other. Inside Santa Maria in Valle Porclaneta, the wooden iconostasis should be photographed head-on, without flash, resting the camera on a bench: the natural light filtering through the small windows models the twisted shafts of the little columns much better than any artificial lighting, and the flash flattens the stuccoes of the ambo of Roberto and Nicodemo until they are unreadable. At Alba Fucens, instead, the right photo is the amphitheater from the top of San Pietro hill, with the 96-by-79-meter oval standing out against the green and the Velino in the background. A methodological warning, which applies to the whole Cammino dei Briganti: people who walk photograph badly, because they photograph without stopping. Decide at the start on two or three photo stops a day and give yourself 20 real minutes each. It's worth more than 300 shots taken without taking off your pack.

Some important events that happened here in history

On August 23, 1268, on the plain at the foot of Tagliacozzo, one of the decisive battles of 13th-century European history was fought: Conradin of Swabia against Charles I of Anjou. The maneuver attributed to Alardus of Valéry, who held back an Angevin reserve while the field seemed lost, overturned the outcome of the clash and handed the Kingdom of Sicily to the Angevins. The consequences reached all the way here, because it was on that occasion that the church of Santa Maria in Valle Porclaneta suffered serious damage.

In the night between December 7 and 8, 1861, at the Mastroddi farmhouse near Sante Marie, the bersaglieri of Major Enrico Franchini surrounded the Catalan general José Borjes and his men, warned by local inhabitants. After the firefight and the burning of the building the survivors were captured, taken to Tagliacozzo and shot without trial. The news went around Europe and drew the protests of Victor Hugo.

On May 18, 1863 the Cartòre band kidnapped Alessandro Panei at the mill of Baron Antonini in Torano: the ransom of 3,000 lire was paid, but the man was tortured, tied to a beech tree and burned alive, and the body was found on June 1 on the Duchessa mountain. A few weeks later, in the night between June 7 and 8, about 30 brigands attacked the house of the parish priest don Costantino Placidi, kidnapped him demanding 1,000 ducats and, when the negotiation failed, killed about 15 of his oxen in reprisal.

On January 13, 1915 the Marsica earthquake leveled entire towns of this district, destroyed the medieval village of Alba Fucens on the acropolis, badly damaged the Porclaneta and forced the inhabitants of Corvaro to rebuild farther downhill: almost all the villages the Cammino dei Briganti crosses still bear the scar of that date. On January 20, 1944 American planes bombed the center of Sante Marie, causing 28 victims and extensive destruction. On April 18, 1978 the false communiqué number 7 brought the search for Aldo Moro's body to the frozen Lake Duchessa. On May 21, 2016, finally, the Cammino dei Briganti was officially inaugurated, the only happy event in this list.

Who has passed through the Cammino dei Briganti

The most illustrious figure to have passed through these parts did so as a prisoner: José Borjes, a general born at Vernet in Catalonia in 1813, Carlist by training and later an officer in the service of Isabella II, who arrived in Italy in October 1861 to give a military structure to the Bourbon bands. After the failure of the alliance with Carmine Crocco in Basilicata he went back up the Apennines and stopped in the Luppa valley, where he was captured and from where he was taken to die at Tagliacozzo. His diary, published and translated into several languages, remains one of the most-read sources on post-unification brigandage.

Through these woods for years passed Berardino Viola, from Vallececa of Pescorocchiano, founder in September 1862 of the Cartòre band together with Giovanni Colaiuda, arrested in Rome in January 1864 and at Tivoli in October of the same year, sentenced to life in 1873 and again in 1901, dead in 1906 in the penitentiary of Santo Stefano. With him the men of Santa Anatolia, Poggiovalle, Grotti, Torano and Rosciolo who made up the band, and their opponents in uniform, the bersaglieri of the young Kingdom of Italy.

Much earlier, in 1268, the armies of Conradin of Swabia and Charles I of Anjou passed by here, and with them the French cavalry of Alardus of Valéry. In the 11th century Count Berardo III of the Marsi donated the Porclaneta to Abbot Desiderius of Montecassino, future Pope Victor III, and Count Oderisius II lived in the castle of San Donato. In the 15th century Jacovella da Celano, countess and central figure of Marsican history, ordered the restoration of the Porclaneta between 1424 and 1430. In 1150 the masters Roberto and Nicodemo signed the ambo and the ciborium of the same church.

In recent times the Cammino dei Briganti has brought here Luca Gianotti, its creator, with Fabiana Mapelli and Alberto Liberati. The magazine Meridiani Cammini devoted a monographic issue to it with contributions from, among others, Pino Aprile, Federico Taddia and Walter Mariotti. Radio 24 covered it in the program Grand Tour, first for the mountain bike edition and then for the inclusive one, and a documentary on brigandage was shot here. In 2025 the competition for the sculpture to be placed between San Donato and Scanzano brought to the Cammino dei Briganti the work of the architect and artist Cesare Pergola. In the midst of all this, from 2016 to today, tens of thousands of ordinary walkers have passed through: in 2021 alone there were 2,900.

What to see around the Cammino dei Briganti

With the loop closed, a few destinations within an hour's drive remain that complete the sense of the journey. Toward Lazio, the reservoirs of Lake Salto and Lake Turano draw the Cicolano of today, born from the dams of the 1930s, while the reserve of Monte Navegna and Monte Cervia continues the system of protected areas toward the west. Going down toward the Salaria you meet Cittaducale, an Angevin foundation of 1308 with a perfectly legible urban layout, Rieti itself with its Roman underground, and farther north Antrodoco with the gorges of the Velino.

Toward Abruzzo the choice is between L'Aquila, half an hour away by highway, and the great natural areas of the central Apennines, from the Sagittario Gorges to the slopes of the national park. On the road back to Rome, just before Carsoli, the Pietrasecca Caves are worth a stop, karst caverns that can be visited with an escort. Those who have taken to the theme can then compare this loop with the Sentiero dei Briganti of the upper Tuscia, which has a similar name and an entirely different history.

Frequently asked questions about the Cammino dei Briganti

How long is the Cammino dei Briganti?

The Cammino dei Briganti measures 108 kilometers as a loop, divided into seven stages, with no day exceeding 21 kilometers and the first counting fewer than six. There is also an optional detour toward Lake Duchessa, which adds between 12.3 and 15 kilometers to the base route.

How many days does the Cammino dei Briganti take?

You need seven days of walking for the base route of the Cammino dei Briganti, eight including the optional Lake Duchessa stage. It's worth adding a night at Sante Marie, the starting town, if you arrive from far away the day before.

Is the Cammino dei Briganti suitable for people with no trekking experience?

The Cammino dei Briganti requires real preparation: the organizers themselves warn that there are no comfortable lanes between the fields here, no waymark at every crossroads, and the maintenance doesn't have big public funding behind it. The Apennine nature is the real kind, with paths that in some places require knowing how to read the terrain, so it is not recommended for those on their first long-distance experience.

Is the Cammino dei Briganti suitable for children?

Yes, it's one of the few long-distance itineraries in the Apennines that really works with kids: 8 percent of the walkers counted in 2021 were under 18. The stages are short, the elevation gains modest and every evening you arrive in a village and not at an isolated mountain hut, with the first stage of 5.6 kilometers perfect as a break-in.

Where do you sleep along the Cammino dei Briganti?

The accommodation along the Cammino dei Briganti is tiny, family-run and almost always full on spring and autumn weekends: there are no chains or centralized booking system, so you phone place by place, in advance. Anyone who shows up without a reservation in a village of a few dozen inhabitants seriously risks sleeping outside.

When is the best time to walk the Cammino dei Briganti?

The Cammino dei Briganti can be walked all year, since the base route doesn't exceed 1,300 meters of elevation, and it is therefore passable even in winter, possibly with snowshoes on the high stretches. Spring and autumn remain the best windows for the climate, while in summer the route mostly runs on ventilated slopes shaded by woods.

Do you meet sheepdogs along the Cammino dei Briganti?

Yes, sheep are raised along the Cammino dei Briganti, and where there are sheep there are guardian dogs, the big white Abruzzo shepherd dogs that are neither pets nor aggressive dogs: they are workers with the precise task of defending the flock from the wolf. The organizers of the walk explain clearly how to behave in their presence, without downplaying their function.

For those organizing the trip from outside the region or accompanying a group, the licensed guides and tour leaders of the TourLeaderPro for Rome and Lazio network routinely work on these Apennine itineraries, while those hosting foreign friends will find in English the regional overview of ItalyPlanner on Abruzzo and the section dedicated to mountains and nature in Italy. For those who instead want to fit in a single day outside Rome without tackling the whole loop, the collection of day trips from Italian cities offers a useful comparison among the alternatives.

A last note for organized groups, school classes and companies: walking the Cammino dei Briganti with a licensed tour leader radically changes the management of bookings, shuttles and stage times, and those who want to structure a program of this kind can turn to the TourLeaderPro contacts.

The pact of the Cammino dei Briganti

There's an aspect that sets the Cammino dei Briganti apart from any tourist product and that should be said clearly to those setting out: reciprocity is asked of you here. The walk has not received public funding comparable to that of much less frequented itineraries, and it was born to help a depopulating territory survive by bringing economy to it. You don't pay a ticket, but everyone is asked to put something into the project. Concretely: keep it clean, carry down some trash found along the path, have a pair of pruning shears in your pocket to cut brambles and nettles on the stretches that tend to overgrow, build a small cairn at junctions where the signs have faded to help whoever passes tomorrow.

And then be there economically: spend in the families' businesses in the villages, which are after all the same ones that in their free time do the maintenance of the route and keep it alive. The organizers write it without beating around the bush: anyone who arrives demanding tour operator services has picked the wrong walk. I find this frankness one of the project's greatest merits. Very few territories have the courage to tell the visitor what they expect from him, and almost always those that do are the places you go back to.

Quick questions about the Cammino dei Briganti

How long is the Cammino dei Briganti

The loop route measures 108 kilometers, divided into seven stages, plus the optional Lake Duchessa loop which adds between 12.3 and 15 kilometers.

How many days does the Cammino dei Briganti take

Seven days of walking for the base route, eight including the Lake Duchessa stage. Add a night at Sante Marie before departure if you arrive from far away.

How much does it cost to walk the Cammino dei Briganti

The walk itself is free: there is no entrance ticket. The costs are food and lodging, roughly between 25 and 45 euros per person per night in simple accommodations, with peaks around 60-75 euros where half board is the only option available. To these add the map and the guide.

Where does the Cammino dei Briganti start

From Sante Marie, in the province of L'Aquila, at 850 meters of elevation. Being a loop, the start coincides with the finish.

How do you get to Sante Marie from Rome

By car on the A24 exiting at Carsoli or Tagliacozzo and then the variant of the Tiburtina Valeria, a little over an hour from the eastern outskirts of the capital. By train on the Rome-Pescara line, preferably getting off at Tagliacozzo and covering the last 6.5 kilometers with the local shuttle, which costs 10 euros for the ride.

Is the Cammino dei Briganti difficult

It presents no technical difficulties on the base route, with daily elevation gains between 350 and 570 meters of climbing and elevations under 1,300 meters. It does require orientation, because the signage isn't as dense as on other walks, and a good habit of walking on consecutive days. The Lake Duchessa stage and even more the variant to Monte Velino are of a higher hiking level.

Do you need the printed guide for the Cammino dei Briganti

Yes, and it should be considered indispensable together with the map. The sixth edition of the guide is from June 2024, has 128 pages and costs 16.50 euros. You request it by writing to info@camminodeibriganti.it.

Where do you buy the map of the Cammino dei Briganti

The 1:25,000 map by Edizioni Il Lupo, third edition of May 2023, costs 10 euros and is found at the publisher, in specialized bookshops, at the Salvacondotti Office in Sante Marie, in a stationery-bookshop in Tagliacozzo, at the farmhouse in Le Crete and in other businesses along the route.

What is the salvacondotto of the Cammino dei Briganti

It is the credential of the walk, on which you collect the stamps of the accommodations and villages crossed until you obtain the final certificate. It's not mandatory and gives no right to discounts.

Where do you pick up the salvacondotto

At the Salvacondotti Office in Sante Marie, ground floor of the town hall with entrance on the right side, hours 9:00 to 13:00 and summer hours 8:00 to 20:00, telephone 0863 679132 or mobile 333 8601069.

Do you have to book lodging on the Cammino dei Briganti

Always, and it's the warning the organizers repeat more than any other. The beds are very few and many villages have only one accommodation. Book the dinners too.

Can you sleep in a tent on the Cammino dei Briganti

Yes. Campers must bring a trowel to bury organic waste and reusable dishes, because single-use plastic is not allowed.

Is there a luggage transport service on the Cammino dei Briganti

Yes, run by local drivers, with a rate of 1.50 euros per kilometer actually traveled, the same for one or more people and for one or more backpacks. Book preferably by 20:00 of the previous day. The luggage must be handed over by 9:00 and arrives by 16:30.

Are there ATMs along the Cammino dei Briganti

Only at Magliano de' Marsi and Scurcola Marsicana. Leave with cash for the entire week.

Where do you find water along the Cammino dei Briganti

In the villages and along the paths, among fountains, drinking taps and troughs mapped by the organizers. The springs are always running, while the outlets connected to the aqueduct may be shut at certain times of day in summer.

What is the best time for the Cammino dei Briganti

Spring and autumn, roughly April to June and September to October. The route remains passable all year anyway, with snowshoes in winter on the high stretches.

Can you do the Cammino dei Briganti with kids

Yes, and it's one of the few long itineraries in the Apennines suited to kids, thanks to short stages and daily arrival in a village. The Lake Duchessa stage is however demanding for the little ones.

Can you bring a dog on the Cammino dei Briganti

Yes, keeping it on a leash and weighing carefully the presence of guardian dogs defending the flocks, who should be handled calmly and without abrupt gestures. Check place by place the willingness to accept animals.

Can you do the Cammino dei Briganti by bicycle

Since 2023 there is a dedicated MTB Tour of 216 kilometers with 5,630 meters of elevation gain, which requires a full-suspension mountain bike and good technique. It cannot be done on a gravel bike.

In which direction do you walk the Cammino dei Briganti

Clockwise, the direction for which the signage was made. Those going counterclockwise must rely on the official GPS tracks.

Can you do only some stages of the Cammino dei Briganti

Yes, the route can be split up and many tackle it over several weekends. The local shuttle service makes it possible to reach and leave the individual stages.

How many people walk the Cammino dei Briganti

In 2021 the organizers recorded 2,900 wayfarers and about 14,500 overnight stays, with attendance concentrated between March and October.

What is the difference between the Cammino dei Briganti and the Francigena

They are opposite itineraries in design. The Francigena has major funding, dense signage and structured accommodation. The Cammino dei Briganti was born from the bottom up, crosses untamed nature and requires a guide, a map and self-reliance.

Is there a museum dedicated to the brigands

Yes, the Museum of Brigandage and of the Unity of Italy in Sante Marie, in the 18th-century Palazzo Colelli: ticket 2 euros, free under 10, accessed by contacting the Reserve office a few steps away.

Can you visit Santa Maria in Valle Porclaneta along the Cammino dei Briganti

The church is met in the fifth stage, between Cartore and Rosciolo, at 1,022 meters. It has no continuous opening hours: ask for information at the stage stop in Rosciolo the day before.

The verdict on the Cammino dei Briganti

Most Italian walks resemble a product: a line drawn on a map, a credential, an app, a marketing office. The Cammino dei Briganti resembles instead an agreement among people. You see it in the small things, in the fact that at Cartore the only possible dinner is the one the farmhouse manager prepares for you, in the fact that at Valdevarri people still wash at the fountain by choice and not for aesthetic necessity, in the fact that the sculpture to be placed between San Donato and Scanzano cost a 700-euro prize and 15 proposals sent in by real artists. If you want comfort, go elsewhere and you'll do right. If instead you want seven days in which the history of Italy stops being a textbook chapter and becomes a farmhouse burned on a December night, then take the guide, fill your pack and set out from Sante Marie clockwise, on the first available Sunday of May or the second of September. Don't combine stages, greet the people you meet and leave in the villages more than you take away.

Article written by the editors of TourLeaderPro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

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