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Gran Sasso

The highest peak in the Apennines, with a glacier remnant, a high plain used as a film location, and wolves and bears in the park.

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Illustrative image - a scene in the spirit of the place, not a photograph of it. Real photos are below.

Typemountain

WhereAbruzzo

Nearest cityL'Aquila

Best seasonJune to September; winter for skiing

Time to allowTwo to four days

Getting thereIn Abruzzo, about two hours east of Rome

EntryFree; cable car and refuges charged

The Gran Sasso rises to two thousand nine hundred and twelve metres at the Corno Grande, the highest point in the Apennines, and holds the Calderone, until recently the southernmost glacier in Europe and now reduced to a remnant that is expected to disappear within a generation. Below it lies Campo Imperatore, a high plain of around twenty-seven square kilometres grazed by sheep and horses, treeless and empty enough that it has stood in for Tibet and for the American west in films. The national park around it holds Apennine wolves, chamois and a small population of Marsican brown bears.

What you actually see

Corno Grande - the highest summit in the Apennines.
Campo Imperatore - the high treeless plain, grazed and empty.
The Calderone - the disappearing glacier remnant below the summit.
Apennine wildlife - wolves, chamois and the Marsican bear.

When to go

June to September for walking, with the plain at its best in June when it flowers. Winter brings skiing and the road to Campo Imperatore closes in heavy snow. The summit route is a serious mountain day requiring experience.

Honest expectations

Corno Grande is a genuine mountain with exposed scrambling on the normal route and rockfall risk, and people die on it every year; it is not a walk. Weather changes fast and the plain is exposed. The 2016 and 2017 earthquakes damaged villages in the area and rebuilding continues. Bears and wolves are effectively never seen.