Monte Bicco and Monte Bove Sud: the disfigured mountain

Putting together a holiday as an alternative to the “usual” muggy, crowded seaside is not as complicated as one often ends up believing. The Monti Sibillini offer an excellent chance for rest and relaxation in a system of valleys, gorges and gentle mountains that is very reminiscent of the hills of northern Italy. Hospitality, care for the land and lots and lots of green make the Monti Sibillini National Park a real pearl for tourism in central Italy.

Spending a holiday at one of the Park's many agriturismi (farm stays) gives the visitor the chance, on the one hand, to enjoy a quality of life far superior to a stressful seaside holiday. A holiday in the Monti Sibillini Park gives the hiker the chance to enjoy its mountains, its paths and its wonderful summits. We are talking about the easy hikes to Monte Vettore, to Monte Argentella, to the precious and magical Lago di Pilato. We are thinking of the unmissable appointment with the “fiorita” (the flowering) at Pian Grande near Castelluccio.
Very interesting too are the summits of Palazzo Borghese and Monte Porche, easily reached from the Baita del Monte Prata.

Aria Sottile has explored the ski and tourist area of Frontignano, not far from Ussita. We were deeply struck by the deep signs of decay that the surrounding mountains still bear.
We are talking about the chairlift that cuts through the woods and climbs to within a few hundred metres of the summit, interesting all the same, of Monte Bicco (2052 m). Not to mention the environmental and scenic havoc you meet when, within sight of Monte Bove Sud (2189 m), your eye falls on the hideous top station of the by now sadly famous Funivia di Frontignano Selvapiana (cable car), which climbs to Monte Bove and even goes over the top into the Val di Bove. The cable car is disused and the cables still lie today  rusting (for about seven years now) inside the valley and along the open grassy slopes that skirt Monte Bicco. The hiker looking for wild, unspoilt places certainly cannot take pleasure in looking at so much havoc and such poor upkeep of a land which, as we said, is capable of giving much more.

For those who want to venture, at least once in their lives, onto these two summits (Monte Bicco and Monte Bove Sud), Frontignano is the almost obligatory place to start their hikes.
At the Hotel Felicyta you can conveniently leave the car and go up the path that climbs on its right, keeping an eye on the Christ with open arms that stands right below Monte Bicco. Out of the wood you bend left into a small valley that is in fact nothing more than one of the ski runs coming down from the Selvapiana col. Near Selvapiana, where the bottom station of the cable car is, you keep right along a dirt path. You pass (alas) close to the cable-car pylons and under the cables, part of which are still on the ground, half buried in the soil. Monte Bicco is on the left, a tower   shaped by water erosion, which has dissolved the limestone it is made of and given rise to truly evocative forms.

From Monte Bicco it is very simple and intuitive to reach the summit of Monte Bove Sud, which you get to along a long, unbroken ridge. From the summit of Monte Bove the view is certainly not impressive. The ridges overlooking the Val di Bove are all bare and without vegetation; they are also without rock formations or erosion features of any particular interest. What does remain interesting is the panoramic view of Pizzo Berro and Monte della Priora, which leaves the hiker pleasantly surprised.

Probably more interesting is the ascent that runs inside the Val di Bove and reaches Monte Bicco, keeping the havoc of the ski station and the cable car hidden from view... (but this is only the opinion of a poor hiker who likes to find nature intact and safe).