Easy hikes and walks in Parco Provinciale Dei Monti Livornesi

The monument was dedicated to COSTANZO CIANO, and not to Edda Mussolini, daughter-in-law of Costanzo Ciano

Near the Sanctuary square there are benches where you can stop and enjoy a beautiful view from Livorno

Montenero Alto is definitely worth a visit, perhaps using (with a normal city bus ticket) the nice funicular that leaves from Piazza delle Carrozze, in Montenero Basso. The Sanctuary dedicated to the Madonna di Montenero, protector of Livorno and Patron Saint of Tuscany, is very interesting; the Church, in rich Baroque style, also houses an impressive collection of humble and rich ex-votos, the result of intense popular devotion over the centuries. In the Famedio, the portico in front of the entrance to the Sanctuary, there are cenotaphs and tombs of people who distinguished themselves in the world of culture, politics, art... who were born or lived in Livorno. Furthermore, from the Sanctuary square and its surroundings you can admire magnificent views from above not only of the city, but - proceeding from southwest to northeast - also of the sea and the islands of the Tuscan Archipelago (and on clear days even of Corsica), of the coast up to Liguria, of the Apuan Alps and of the western Apennines. Finally, going up via della Porcigliana to Castellaccio, you can reach the top of the Montenero hill (over 300 m above sea level) and from here enjoy a wide, splendid panorama.

Beautiful view of the city, the sea and the islands from the Ciano Monument

I would also put my signature on Uncle Scrooge's deposit. Too similar!

To reach the summit of Colle di Montenero, from the Via della Porcigliana pass, take a dirt road on the right and follow it for about 500 meters. At a fork, take another right onto a 200-meter uphill path that leads directly to the summit shrine, next to some radio antennas. On the way back, you can retrace the same path for 100 meters, then turn left, cutting across the astronomical observation field of the A.L.S.A. (a Livorno association of well-known amateur astronomers, https://www.alsaweb.it/), and then descend along the large rectangle occupied by the Livorno Coastal Radio Station until you reach Via di Quercianella, completing the circular route.

The locality of Castellaccio (the hamlet that overlooks the Sanctuary of Montenero and marks the pass between the side of the hill that looks north, towards the city, and the one that looks south, towards Cecina), is located in a saddle dominated by two modest heights highlighted respectively by the Torre del Castellaccio (a neo-medieval style tower built about a century ago near the ruins of a thirteenth-century Pisan fortification) and by the actual summit of the Montenero hill (312 m above sea level). On this last hill, where during the war the 10th Oberdan Church Detachment of the Garibaldi Brigade was located, today there is a shrine dedicated to the sacrifices of the Livornese Resistance, which among other things facilitated the advance of the allied troops, managing to avoid a last disastrous bombing of Livorno and contributing to the liberation of the city. It is a circular structure inside which, alongside the symbolic presence of a cross, an anchor and a cannon, there are some plaques with the names of the fallen and other important protagonists of the local resistance.

Along the itinerary, which from via del Tirreno climbs regularly towards the Sanctuary of Montenero, a short but demanding detour (narrow road, at times very steep and with a severely bumpy ground), leads to the Monteburrone locality and flanks the so-called Monumento a Ciano"; this should have been a mausoleum intended to contain the remains of the powerful fascist hierarch Costanzo Ciano and his family. The construction, started in 1940, had to include a high base on which to erect both a Ciano's statue 12 meters high and a tower, in the shape of lictor's fasces, of 54 meters. But it remained unfinished, leaving an enormous gray cube, almost twenty meters high, with an unpleasant and gloomy appearance, placed however in front of the enchanting panorama of the Livorno coast, its sea and islands. As for Ciano, the Pharaonic Mausoleum did not bring good luck to him, as he died before construction started, nor to his son Galeazzo, sentenced to death and shot by his father-in-law Benito Mussolini, nor to Mussolini himself who, two years later, lost government , war and life. The monument also suffered a sad fate: it remained unfinished and in a state of neglect among brushwood, waste and ruins. Lately there are those who have proposed to tear it down, some to transform it into a hotel, a museum or even, appropriately repainted, in the ... Uncle Scrooge's deposit!