Mingardo Gorges-San Severino Vecchio-Monte Chiancone from Mingardo Viaduct

Premise

This route was done on December 25, 2024 🎅🎄, and all the following observations and considerations can fully apply only to that day.

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Ascent of the Mingardo Riverbed on the right bank following the CAI 816 trail

The parking lot is beside the Mingardo Viaduct at km 0-IX of SR 562 just outside the Capo Palinuro area.

As a "general framework" it can be said that CAI 816 exists and as of today (December 25, 2024🎅) it is still recognizable; in the short stretches not easily passable there are always alternatives that can be quickly identified.

The official route is practically entirely marked by a mostly knocked down fence: even if down it remains a useful visual reference because there are no exposed sections requiring a "retaining fence".

In many points the official path preferably clings to the valley side and away from the watercourse.

When shrubs and brambles block the official path, you need to move onto meadows or pebble clearings closer to the watercourse.

On these meadow-clearings there are cow and goat tracks, and various other paths branch off parallel just upstream of the official route.

All this to say that the GPS track is indicative but on the ground each will make their own choices.

Sometimes we left the official path even if it was good to stay closer to the watercourse.

In a couple of cases we entered cow paths upstream of the valley side and then descended a few meters to find the riverbed again.

The important thing is to always keep the position of the fence in mind when leaving it out of necessity or choice.

To reach the end of CAI 816, as indicated on the maps, from the parking lot we traveled almost 5 km.

There is much to discover, and the main references are: 1) what looks like a large disused quarry at the entrance of a wide valley; 2) a large orange grove to circumvent towards the watercourse because it is all fenced; 3) a final olive grove on a beautiful clearing where there are classic gates through the barbed wire fence.

CAI 816, looking at the maps, ends right at the end of this olive grove.

Immediately after the end of the olive grove on the left opens a steep grassy slope, which is the chosen exit (today) from the Mingardo Gorges or Devil's Gorges.

You could already climb directly: it is a bit steep but well stepped and not difficult even with tall grass – there were various cows grazing halfway up the exit.

However, we did not climb immediately and continued as far as possible towards the narrow entrance of the Devil's Gorges also to intercept a "possible" non-CAI trail indicated with simple black dashes on the maps.

We had to rise on the valley side to avoid a thick band of brambles, then descended one last time beside the watercourse.

Where the little trail begins, barely recognizable, indicated on the maps, there is another very dense band of brambles blocking progress on the last "tongue of land" before the inevitable crossing of the Mingardo River.

Here we started to climb to exit the Mingardo Gorges, but you can safely decide to exit immediately after the end of the olive grove.

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Exit from the Mingardo Gorges / Devil's Gorges and arrival at San Severino Vecchio

The "uncertain path" of ascent initially runs diagonally under a rocky band.

Then it moves away from the rocky band south-west to aim for a less steep pasture area.

However, you must bypass the initial rocky band at the top, and at a certain point leave the uncertain path to climb directly on the slope which, in parts, is between 30 and 35 degrees of slope: it is possible calmly because there are foot supports even among tall grass.

There are almost 400 meters of elevation with beautiful views (behind) deep on the Mingardo River course.

You reach a small pass where the tall pasture grass gives way, on the other side, to a dense carpet of various shrubs.

There is a little path that "cuts through the shrubs" towards the east with low slope, up to the beginning of a steep ridge.

Here the continuation under the ridge with jumps was unclear and we descended the left valley which, in slope, can be compared to the one we just ascended.

We found this valley a bit more grassy and made several short zig-zags to use the many discontinuous transversal animal tracks: not absolutely difficult, but requires "firm footing".

Towards the end of the descent you enter an olive grove preceded by a band of brambles which we bypassed with a move to the left.

After the olive grove clearing we entered SP 17/b which we followed for almost 500 meters to the right until we found the dirt fork that goes directly to the Medieval Village of San Severino Vecchio.

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From the Medieval Village of San Severino Vecchio to Monte Chiancone passing through the Monte Chiancone Quarry

From the Medieval Village of San Severino Vecchio – which deserves much more time than we dedicated – you return to SP 17/b and continue to the left for about 750 meters until a left curve where a dirt road-trail branches off uphill.

It is a classic service road for forest-pastoral activities, mostly serving the olive groves in this case.

It is the start of a series of small roads-trails (partly indicated with black dashes on the maps) which cuts north all the flank of Monte Chiancone to reach the Monte Chiancone quarry.

The stretches alternate between road and trail, and where we saw more options we tried to maintain a general line of gentle diagonal ascent.

Thus, you reach a short asphalted road that in about 100 meters leads to the entrance of the Monte Chiancone quarry, where there is a fork with a branch on the left for Monte Chiancone and on the right to reach the Cammino delle Due Primule which returns to the start.

As written in the "SUMMARY" sheet, the detour to the summit of Monte Chiancone can be safely skipped because it is not very panoramic and the entire large summit area is literally overrun by impenetrable brambles and shrubs.

Anyway, after taking the left branch from the Monte Chiancone Quarry, you soon reach the fence of a large private property that includes the entire upper part of the north slope of Monte Chiancone.

At the start of the fence there is a trail road that climbs: it is also mapped on OpenStreetMap and leads quite easily (through dense undergrowth) to the ridge about 150/200 meters linear from the summit.

"Game over": from this point you would need a big brushcutter with adequate fuel reserve.

We went back and deleted this detour from the GPS recording.

You can continue on the road that passes under the private property until the end of the fence where an animal path begins passable among tall grass and shrubs.

You climb this path south near the fence and shortly arrive on the ridge just below the summit on the east side.

Always following the fence you reach a clearing "incredibly" free of shrubs from which you can see the entire vast rolling summit area, from here on absolutely impenetrable.

The arrival point can be defined as the "east summit" and the view is quite limited: at this point "we turned back" to return to the Monte Chiancone Quarry.

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Return to the start from the Monte Chiancone Quarry via the Cammino delle Due Primule

The return to the start from the Monte Chiancone Quarry can be defined as quite relaxing or almost.

The first part is on rolling roads running along the ridge south of the valley where Centola stands.

You arrive at a fork with CAI-style arrows indicating "Historic Centre" for those who want to go down to Centola, and "Cammino Due Primule Path" to follow to close the loop of this excursion.

Now you go to the end always on very wide paths often through "vegetable tunnels".

Few panoramic views mainly towards Capo Palinuro, but very interesting from a naturalistic point of view.

Today it was also interesting from a ... nutritional point of view 😋 for the numerous ripe strawberry trees❗😉

Pay attention to the directional arrows of the Cammino delle Due Primule and various CAI signs where there are some forks.

At the end you descend again beside the Mingardo River about 500 meters from the starting parking lot.