Trail map: Monte Cucco Park

Monte Meru Editrice offers hikers a rather curious new product. The hiking map of the paths of the Monte Cucco Park.

The map shows the park area at a scale of 1:25,000 with an astonishing number of paths. Perhaps too many in places, but of undoubted interest. The front has the map with contour lines and shading of the natural landscape. The map comes with a legend of very clear, unambiguous symbols. On the back there is some interesting tourist information on the “main access points to the park's routes” and a few notions about the villages of this wonderful corner on the border between Umbria and the Marche.

All of this is offered to hikers on paper that is unfortunately not very sturdy, but certainly printed with care and love, and sold at an affordable price.
Another wonderful little effort from the publisher Monte Meru, ever more attentive to promoting the local area.

A curiosity: in the Monte Cucco park you can visit the Grotta del Monte Cucco which, with its 30 kilometres and more of passages, and a maximum depth of over 900 metres, is one of the most important cave systems in Europe. The website dedicated to the cave is also worth a look.

If you can't make up your mind, read whether a GPS or the classic paper map is better.

How to use this map in the field

The 1:25,000 scale is the best suited to hiking: it lets you read contour lines, paths and landmarks with the detail you need to find your way. The dense network of paths shown is useful for building tailor-made routes, but it's worth comparing the line on the map with the waymarking on the ground, because not all the routes drawn may be well maintained.

The map is printed on a material that is not very sturdy: we recommend keeping it in a waterproof sleeve and always folding it the same way so that it doesn't tear along the folds. The back, with the access points to the routes and the notes on the villages, is useful above all for planning the trip at home. For an overview of the protected area read the fact sheet on the Monte Cucco Regional Park.