Full Vallone Acqua del Milo from Moiano, Croce della Conocchia and Molare

Premise

This route was traveled on April 30, 2025, and all subsequent observations and considerations can fully apply only to that day.

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From Moiano to the bottom of Vallone Acqua del Milo for the first part on marked paths

From the small square below the Church of San Renato, ascend via the road to the right, then turn at the hairpin following the sign for «Il Covo del Buongustaio».

After the restaurant, continue through the village for a couple of hairpins on narrow asphalt until the last houses where, on the right, the trail begins that enters the valley.

Almost immediately, red markers are seen which, in the first part, are not continuous.

The path, however, is obvious and leads, after a fork where you follow the right descending track, to the crossing of the bottom of the valley from left to right upwards (or from right to left hydrologically speaking).

At the crossing, take a hairpin to the right and go back about 200 meters to a small hairpin (now grassy and barely visible) on the left that resumes the ascent direction of the valley in the area indicated as «RADICCIA» on the IGM maps.

After a stretch, the small path joins the one coming from Santa Maria del Castello (Agriturismo La Sorgente del Melo), and small close red markers appear along with various construction tape ribbons.

Continue always traversing, high above the bed, on the left bank among sparse vegetation.

Then enter a small wood just before a hairpin, preceded by easy rocks, which skirts the bottom of a channel.

Following the trace, it makes an arc around a rocky formation and continues traversing until reaching the bed of Vallone Acqua del Milo above a waterfall.

In the last part, the ground trace is less evident, and attention must be paid to the many small red markers present – today there were 5/6 meters blocked by regrowth of brooms but without brambles, and it was not difficult to circumvent this small «vegetal wall».

Here the first marked part ends.

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From the arrival waterfall to the bottom of Vallone Acqua del Milo to the exit traces coming from Vena Longa

At first, I followed the lines of the already mentioned hike → Acqua del Milo, direct ascent Vena Longa, Pistillo and Croce della Conocchia, with some later variations to try to completely avoid areas with brambles or invasive shrubs.

Just above the waterfall, on the right, there is an old wooden bench of which I could not say what it was used for.

After the bench, there is a wild boar trail (I can say this because today I heard many even if I did not see any) ascending on the right side (or left hydrologic side) of the valley, leading under a jump of grade II rocks.

Moving a few meters to the left at the base of the jump, there is a stepped crack where you just rest your hands to climb, and you enter a clearing still continuing the trail.

Upon re-entering the woods, the trail is no longer unique and is lost inside various «islands of dense shrubs».

It is useless to chase animal traces that continue traversing directly toward the valley head, because the vegetation below is a true wall and leads to the roughest part of the various secondary channels running along the slope of Vallone Acqua del Milo.

Climbing with a sharper diagonal, one ends against a band with various almost continuous vertical sections (between 5 and 10 meters) partly wet with spring water.

In the previous above-mentioned hike, I passed staying on the left of the smoother and vertical part; today I tried on the right.

I identified a «quasi weak point» about 5/6 meters practically vertical but with good holds and solid shrubs to help: I would say a grade II «vegetal mineral».

Surely, this is not the only solution and everyone must look for their own based on their skills and preferences.

Then continue always ascending on the steep with slight deviations to avoid some brambles and some large rocks, and arrive under the high dark rocky band with abundant dripping at whose base runs the ledge which, to the right, can lead to an easy early exit towards Vena Longa near an electricity line tower.

To continue toward the head of Vallone Acqua del Milo, go to the left.

The ledge breaks almost immediately but the interruption is circumvented by descending without difficulty on the steep but not too much slope.

The ledge path resumes under the rocky band with more shrubs and reaches the crossing of a basin-channel where it interrupts again.

Descend more for the detour for several meters compared to before, and briefly resume until a smaller basin-channel where today there was a lot of wet brushwood on the ground.

Carefully passing the wet area with spring water, the ledge path resumes for the last short stretch to the edge of a ridge where it ends above a precipice.

Just before the ridge edge, there are rested and very holdable rocks that allow several climbing lines up to grade I, and with a few meters using hands, you climb onto the ridge crest.

Follow the ridge on the steepest slope, not difficult at all and mostly in open ground, with beautiful views of various corners of Vallone Acqua del Milo.

Then re-enter sparse woods and meet, under the upper rocky band, the obvious exit path that comes from Vena Longa, as in the already mentioned hike → Vallone Acqua del Milo from Vena Longa, Molare and Croce della Conocchia.

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Exit finale at the head of Vallone Acqua del Milo

From here, I simply followed the lines of my previous hike.

A few meters after the arrival point under the rocky band, there is a series of narrowings and small interruptions of the ledge, which can be bypassed quite comfortably by descending a little on the slope ahead of them.

Continue entering a small wood with multiple tracks, cross an easy channel and then find another more marked and «almost comfortable» stretch of ledge path that leads to the edge of another channel with vertical and landslide sides: an unsolvable channel at this point.

The solution is before arriving at the vertical edge of the channel, and you climb right a stepped crack in the low rocky band above found in that stretch: the steps are so regular that I suspect it might have been shaped by «the hand of man».

Anyway, after the steps, I climbed the steepest slope beside the channel up to the head: to cross, you must descend a few meters on a trail inside a kind of small basin, then cross to the other side finding a more evident path beneath the rocky band.

Now attention is needed to locate the attack of the finale which is on the other side of the main bed of Vallone Acqua del Milo.

Looking from the other side, two channel-valleys interrupt the verticalities at the head of Vallone Acqua del Milo – the right one (visible from the start of the deviation from Vena Longa) continues almost straight above the main Vallone Acqua del Milo, but you must aim for the left one.

The «quasi ledge trace» being followed points directly to the right channel and must be abandoned before some difficult discontinuities.

So, descend on acceptable slopes to the bottom of Vallone Acqua del Milo and reach under the right channel, then cut left in a diagonal ascent on very holdable rocks with passages where the entire body fits between one rock and another.

After the first diagonal left, I returned right still among easy rocks, up to a jump of several meters that seemed to me the easiest and most logical continuation point.

Here I climbed with a couple of grade I max holds farther left than my previous hike and did not pass by the small tree I had seen with a white plastic band wrapped around the trunk base.

After this jump, there is a wide path among grass and rocks, probably frequented also by goats and wild boars, leading under a notch to the right of a beautiful slab.

Climb back onto the slab – with a beautiful direct view of Capri 📸 – and ascend among countless solid holds: the slope measured with the phone clinometer is about 40° on average, and also at maximum due to its regularity.

After the beautiful slab, there remains a last stretch mostly grassy basin to reach the CAI 338 path.

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Ending the hike from the exit point at the head of Vallone Acqua del Milo

Today I wanted to return to Moiano following CAI 338 on the right hydrological side (north side) of Vallone Acqua del Milo.

Given the certainly nice weather, before starting the return, I went to Croce della Conocchia and then proceeded to Monte San Michele or Molare.

From Molare I returned to the exit point at the head of Vallone Acqua del Milo following the trail that passes by the characteristic Roccia Elefante.

Then about 600 meters of road to the sign «Casa del Monaco 1150 m».

Here now the CAI signage directs towards a wider route for continuation, but I turned down left on the old path where faded markings are still visible.

Descend a stretch in open field and then turn right into the woods where I also saw some construction ribbons.

I cut directly toward the sign «Loc. Ammascura 1150 m» where I rejoined the now official trail.

Then all beautiful and panoramic crossing under Monte Cerasuolo up to the area named Bandera.

Reach a fork without directional arrows but with evident CAI painted signs continuing in both directions: straight ahead CAI 338b and sharply descending left CAI 338.

Now there is a continuous descent always on good slope where care must be taken not to lose sight of the many markers.

Encounter more than one small jump facilitated by metal staples, arriving at a long traverse to the left that returns to the crest of a comfortable ridge.

In the first part of the ridge, pass next to a large cairn and then beside a small rock with a spotlight and a destroyed base that must have housed a Madonna statue.

The path continues entering a shrub area but always wide and very free, and turns right into the undergrowth alongside a long fence.

Finally, return onto asphalt about 400 meters before the Church of San Renato: the parking is just beyond.