Frassati Path of Basilicata and Monte Arioso

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This route was traveled on April 24, 2022, and all subsequent observations and considerations may only fully apply to that day.

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The Frassati Path of Basilicata officially starts in front of the Municipality of Sasso di Castalda.

Following the signposts, you exit the town on an asphalt road which you follow for about 600 meters before turning right.

Between leaving the town and the first part of the asphalt road, you walk alongside the fence of the Deer Wildlife Oasis where a "face-to-face" encounter with the numerous deer housed there is probable.

From the junction exiting the asphalt road, a small farm track begins that, with ups and downs, leads alongside the San Michele Stream and then crosses another asphalt road near a small picnic area.

From here you enter the Costara Forest on path-like walkways until the San Michele Crossing where the loop part of the hike begins.

For enthusiasts of the genre, the beech forest of Costara is spectacular, and it is appreciated more on the return when you cross it for a much longer stretch.

From the San Michele Crossing, you turn left and a few meters later you arrive at the San Michele Chapel with a drinking fountain nearby.

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From here we followed the original variant of the Frassati Path of Basilicata called "Way of the Shepherds"; for some time now, shifted to the right in the direction of ascent, there is also the variant "Way of the Merchants" which is gentler and better marked – all of this is clearly indicated by a large sign near the San Michele Chapel.

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In today’s continuation, a few meters before the Saint Michael Spring Fountain, you take a small farm track and then at a fork where signposts are faded, you turn right resuming path walkways with a steady ascent in open fields.

With some subsequent diagonals, you reach the Madonna del Sasso, where you cross another asphalt road and take a descending path through a spruce forest with a "nordic" appearance until the clearing at Fossa Cupa Fountain; here there is another asphalt road to cross for the start of the final ascent towards the ridge connecting to Monte Arioso.

This ascent has a long section with many switchbacks and a path consolidated with dry stone retaining walls.

Then, in the Serra Giumenta area, you enter a dense forest of tall beeches and shortly after we found the first snowy stretches.

You follow a very rounded secondary ridge and arrive at the upper station of the first (in the context of this hike) ski lift of the "Sellata Arioso Ski Resort".

From here, heading south, you stay near the main ridge and, passing under another ski lift and crossing a ski slope, you reach the summit of Monte Arioso where there is the upper station of a third ski lift.

In this last part we did not strictly follow the Frassati Path signposts to avoid some stretches where it was difficult to proceed due to isolated accumulations of heavy snow during thaw: however, everything is very intuitive.

Unfortunately, we arrived at the summit of Monte Arioso just as a cloud bank was forming that allowed us to barely see Monte Volturino.

From the summit of Monte Arioso, you continue along the ridge towards Tempa Albano or Timpa d’Albano: today in the first part in the forest the path was super evident due to the bright green wild garlic in full growth.

After crossing another ski slope, you reach the base of the last ski lift of the day.

Here, the Frassati Path passes just above and alongside the road arriving at the ski lift parking, but we descended the road for just over 100 meters to avoid the last heavy snow accumulation.

Resuming the path, you arrive at the Tempa Albano area among other patches of snow, and then we made an out-and-back detour to the marked viewpoint: as on the summit of Monte Arioso, there were still clouds that severely limited visibility.

From the Tempa Albano signpost, the path is very clear as a footprint on the ground with good markings at every junction: just follow the arrows with the "SF" initials of the Frassati Path.

You encounter several drinking fountains/springs including the more "generous" Acqua Ceresola and re-enter the most spectacular part of the beech forest of Costara.

With a nice and relaxing descent, you arrive at a large picnic area where you turn right towards the characteristic Beech of San Michele, and then shortly complete the loop section until the San Michele Crossing already seen on the way out.