Piemonte without cars | Vernante-Limone Piemonte Stage 2: Palanfrè-Limone Piemonte

After passing a small stream, you leave a track on the left that descends towards the bottom of the valley, you pass two other streams and, exiting the wood, you reach Gias Piamian (1,432 m.), from here the mule track narrows; the path runs along a stretch halfway up the hillside high above the stream (Fontana al Gias Piamian).After passing another stream, the path forks: you have to abandon the old straight path, subject to landslides and falling material, which is why it was closed, and take the fork to the left, passing on the right orographic side of the valley, through the dry riverbed, which burrows into the ground further upstream. You climb inside the beech forest with fluid hairpin bends, then you cross halfway up the mountain pines and then you lower in altitude until you cross the dry riverbed again to return to the wide original path previously abandoned on the left orographic bank, which climbs in hairpin bends inside the beech forest. Once out of the forest you reach a saddle and you lose a little altitude to rejoin the valley floor. You then climb back up the Vallone degli Albergh with an initial stretch halfway up the hill on rocks and debris until you return to the level of the stream. At the well-marked crossroads, at an altitude of 1,800 m., for Passo della Mena / Lago Frisson, take the path on the left, signposted L12, towards Lago degli Alberghi / Passo di Ciotto Mien.

The path climbs the ridge in a mountain pine forest and reaches a grassy plateau, the Gias del Vilazzo, where you cross the small emissary of the Laghetto del Vilazzo (1,870 m.) on the left and continue to climb, passing a second ledge always inside the sparse pine forest and you arrive at another grassy plateau, under the crest of the Costa Lausea gullies, after which you quickly reach Lago degli Alberghi (2,038 m.) nestled in the basin in front of Monte Chiamossero, which with the previous one and the two Frisson lakes, completes the group of Palanfrè lakes, included in the territory of the Maritime Alps Park.

From the southern shore of the lake, you climb up the coast above the body of water and then vertically climb the scree with friable rocks to the east. The last section, a very steep and exposed traverse, is equipped with metal cables, but allows you to reach the Passo di Ciotto Mien (2,274 m.) on the watershed between the Valle Grande di Vernante and the main branch of the Valle Vermenagna.

From the pass, you descend to the east and the L12 path crosses the steep slopes and meadows, bending around the reliefs, and then continues almost straight, descending into the valley, with some steep sections among the tracks of the mountain cattle. After passing a small grassy basin, past the junction of the L23 paths for the Lago dell’Oro and L28 for the Passo delle Giosolette, you arrive at the ruins of a mountain refuge, the classic “gias”, (1,875 m.).

You cross a small stream and continue to descend decisively along the path, and near a large grassy meadow, you reach Pian Madoro (1,765 m.), here you take the agro-forestry pastoral track that reaches the Ciabot di Pedù (1,665 m.). You continue along the dirt road that descends for a long time to an altitude of 1,410 m, where it joins a small asphalt road: following it downhill you arrive at the village of Limonetto (1,284 m.), also called Gä verbally, and Guado dei Toselli on the maps, which seems to have been an ancient camp for the Saracens, given that it was reachable thanks to the Roman road that connected the Vermenagna Valley to the Roya Valley passing through the Colle di Tenda.Once you leave Limonetto, you take this itinerary leaving the provincial road, descending to the SS.20 of the Colle di Tenda and arriving in Piazza San Sebastiano. The best preserved stretch is the one that from the sixth bend leads to the meadows of San Lorenzo where it is still possible to observe the construction technique of paving and masonry with the use of large pebbles. About two thirds of the way between Limonetto and the meadows of San Lorenzo there is still a milestone that marks the fifth mile. Once you arrive in Limone Piemonte (1,010 m.) you can reach the railway station

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