Loop Madonna di Sirino, Monte Papa, and Lago Laudemio from Madonna del Brusco

Premise

This route was traveled on September 3, 2023, and all subsequent observations and considerations may fully apply only to that day.

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Ascent to the Sanctuary Madonna di Sirino or Madonna della Neve from the Church of Madonna del Brusco

From the Church of Madonna del Brusco, take the forest road uphill, soon encountering the junction with the final return path of this excursion, and continue very comfortably for about 1.7 km.

Then the road becomes a wide path where you find arrows indicating "MADONNA DI SIRINO" at some forks, and you exit the woods with the first beautiful views towards Lagonegro and the sea.

Continue with easy switchbacks in open fields until joining the well-marked CAI path that climbs from the Lago Sirino area (as a possible example of ascent from that side see the route → Sanctuary Madonna di Sirino and Monte Papa from Varcovalle of Nemoli).

After a little more than 5 minutes, you arrive at the Sanctuary Madonna di Sirino or Madonna della Neve.

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From the Sanctuary Madonna di Sirino or Madonna della Neve to Monte Papa

From the Sanctuary Madonna di Sirino (which was open this Sunday) descend on a little road to a car-accessible pass, from which there are at least three options to climb toward Monte Papa.

We chose the central one, called the "Donkey's Back", which starts with a few dozen meters on a ridge that is not difficult, where you can sense the best way and also see some red marks: watch out for some loose stones.

Then you enter a fairly dense small wood with a main track where we saw a couple of small cairns near two branches.

There are several cow paths that can cause confusion, but just stay near the ridge line (more to the left in the ascent direction) and you get to the final well-marked CAI paths in open fields.

More or less below the vertical of Monte Papa’s summit, we cut directly across the grassy slope, where you also find some red dots painted on stones on the ground.

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From the summit of Monte Papa to Lago Laudemio (or Lago Remmo) and continuation of the loop until the start of the final off-trail section

From the main summit of Monte Papa (with cross and guestbook), in a short walk you reach the subpeak rated 2 meters lower, and from there we did not continue on the official trails heading south toward the third summit – instead, we descended directly east towards the pass where the ski lifts arrive from Lago Laudemio.

Standard descent towards Lago Laudemio following various summer paths, a short visit to Lago Laudemio ("not at its best" this season) and then enter the trail opposite the roundabout preceding the parking area for the ski lifts.

The trail-road makes a big curve to the left under other ski lifts, then starts descending.

Continue through a beautiful beech forest until entering Val dei Porcili (toponym from IGM) where the route ascends near a large clearing with a fixed stone barbecue station.

The wide road so far continues, meeting a "MADONNA DI SIRINO" arrow, then "merges" briefly with a shallow flat canal where a couple of cairns reassure that everything is fine – it finally becomes a path rising on the wooded right flank relative to the direction of this excursion.

With several switchbacks on a always well-recognizable path, you reach the dirt road leading to the Sanctuary Madonna di Sirino or Madonna della Neve.

Here you must decide whether to close the high loop towards the Sanctuary or try the "final off-trail assisted by IGM mapped track to be faced with calm, flexibility, CAUTION, and territorial observation spirit."

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Final off-trail return to the Church of Madonna del Brusco following an old track from the IGM maps

Today's final section is definitely shorter in km compared to a standard closure passing again through the Sanctuary Madonna di Sirino, but longer in time due to the neglect and abandonment state of the old trail.

It would be a nice alternative not too difficult if restored to a normal hiking standard.

From here on, we ALWAYS FOLLOWED the line of the old IGM map path staying a few meters away from what was visible terminally to adapt to the current reality of the mountain slope.

At the entry point to the car road, right in front, there is the start of a path crossing a wide corridor between beech trees (likely an old logging cut).

After a short distance, we turned left descending almost straight down the gentle slope with a soft and quite comfortable ground.

At the beginning there is a guide track (but it is from animals, not a true trail), and we crossed and left another track corresponding to another IGM mapped path that goes crosswise without descending.

We continued descending with some small movements to the left to identify the key point of this first part, the crossing of the Valle del Palummo ravine (toponym from IGM): following the line on the map, we found the easy crossing arriving without encountering any continuous real walking path.

Before crossing the Valle del Palummo ravine, we saw from the other side the start of a small path.

After crossing, we exited a few meters above this small path, and after reaching it, we followed it without problems on the long traverse until exiting the high forest on an open slope with tall "non-stinging" grasses with various bands of scattered stones (this slope is a wide ridge dividing Valle del Palummo from Valle della Nevera).

From here, looking up, you notice the fence of the Sanctuary Madonna di Sirino.

The slope map shows in this open band the "steepest steep": even to the eye (and ... for the legs) it is so.

Some bands of the slope are around 30° (thirty degrees, not thirty percent) with peaks of 35°: with care and slowly you always walk down without putting your hands down – tripping is forbidden.

The IGM mapped path line here makes several switchbacks, but we detected only a couple of very short walking sections among the tall grasses.

Therefore, we descended directly keeping an eye on the "virtual switchbacks" to not lose general direction, then entered the next small wood below shortly before the second key orientation point of this descent.

You must find, at the edge of this small wood, a trail trace that starts a long traverse to the left: we found the start of this turn exactly where it was marked on the IGM map, and the start was blocked by a large bramble easily bypassed.

After a few meters, another large "easily passable" bramble, and we arrived in a more sparse wood where, of course, there was a first almost continuous band of brambles.

Here, slowly, we moved to the right always following the IGM mapped line to reach an open stretch with low shrubs alongside a "pasture fence" bounded by an orange electric wire, powered by battery when cows are present to prevent them from escaping.

From this point, we advanced comfortably until a stretch with a wire mesh overlapping the orange wire, and after a few meters, we found the most difficult and annoying sector for the brambles.

For a stretch, the IGM mapped path continues along the "pasture fence" and at the start the "bramble islands" were slowly bypassed but quite distinguishable at first glance.

When the IGM mapped path line turns left to point to the crossing of Fosso Tapparo (IGM toponym), the "bramble islands" became closer and therefore ... even slipping between broom bushes became a good option. 😁

Anyway, still calmly, we found the passages with few tries, until descending into a short wide free little valley, just a few meters from the already visible Fosso Tapparo ravine.

To make about 100 meters as the crow flies (always more or less on the IGM lines) and cross the ravine, we took about half an hour.

We had to make several small ups and downs in the free valley to approach some "false corridor starts" pointing into a wide continuous band of thick brambles guarding the passage.

In the end, but it cannot be explained where, we saw a sort of tunnel where you could pass dragging yourself seated for a few meters and with few displacements of brambles, and the continuation was on low trampled brambles.

Obviously, with a machete, you would not need all these considerations, which serve to preserve clothing and avoid scratches as much as possible.

It's better not to wear shorts, or light-structured long pants.

After crossing Fosso Tapparo, there is a somewhat obstructed trail (but you can also go directly up) that reaches a few meters above a real forest road, which definitively leads to the initial junction seen right after departure from the Church of Madonna del Brusco.

Conclusion: the descent is doable – we even did it with ... a four-legged child 🐾 – but it must be faced knowing that it is something different from the rest of the excursion, you must have a "wild spirit" and ABOVE ALL the group must be UNITED.