The best cycling routes around Albareto

I went back after a year. The place is still beautiful, but I found the refuge a bit dirty around it: wrappers, abandoned bottles, cans, etc. All right around the refuge's own tables. In these places I would prefer to see a bit more care... I understand an unmanaged refuge, but in this case it wouldn't take much...

Very little waves but gets really full

A beautiful mountain pass at 1,400 meters. There's a refuge, a small chapel, a monument—in short, everything you'd expect in a place like this. There's even a small clothing store. The only thing that's jarring is the constant noise of a combustion engine, which I assume is a generator for the refuge's operation.

Situated at 956 meters between the Vara and Aveto Valleys, the Bocco Pass is one of the historic passes of the Ligurian Apennines, used since ancient times as a connection between the Tyrrhenian coast and the Po Valley hinterland. Already in Roman times, it was part of a secondary transit network, but it was especially in the Middle Ages and modern times that the pass assumed a central role in local traffic: a route for merchants, shepherds, and pilgrims, it connected Chiavari and the Riviera with Varese Ligure and the Emilian plains. Traces of the ancient paving are still visible today in the surrounding woods. During the Second World War, the area served as a refuge for partisan groups, thanks to its secluded location and dense forest cover. Today, the pass is a destination for cyclists and hikers, immersed in an unspoiled mountain landscape of beech and fir forests and highland meadows, at the gateway to the Aveto Regional Natural Park.

The historic center of Varese Ligure is truly surprising in its urban structure, to the point of deserving the nickname Borgo Rotondo. The medieval building plan, which is due to the Fieschi, had a defensive purpose. In the center is the castle, with its high and sturdy walls. Around it, the houses are arranged in rows following the round curvature of the square, with porticos on the ground floor that allowed access to the shops and warehouses (some of which have now been transformed into public places). Also very interesting are the recently restored eighteenth-nineteenth century buildings with polychrome facades, which recall the pictorial decorations of the past. Furthermore, Varese Ligure is at the center of the Val di Vara biodistrict.

The descent from the pass towards Varese Ligure is brand new and tarred - it works! The other side of the pass is not quite as scenic and the asphalt looks a bit like cobblestones.

It is located on a hill at approximately 322 m above sea level. and the territory of the hamlet is made up of the steep terraces distributed along the provincial road 523 of Colle di Centocroci, which connects the Genoese valley of the Petronio stream with the middle Val di Vara in the province of La Spezia. A first mention of the church of the village of Missano can be found in the papal bull Officii nostri of Alexander III of 16 March 1162, where it is indicated as a possession of the Benedictine abbey of San Fruttuoso di Capodimonte (Camogli). Another document that commemorates the town is an act of territorial cession from 1189 by the Genoese consuls. The construction of what later, variously modified and enlarged, would become the local parish church also dates back to the 12th century. In the 17th century, the flourishing artisanal activity of the «corbari of that place inhabiting the church of Missano» is remembered: «The genesis of this activity, characteristic of the church of Missano and of the nearby Villa del Connio, was probably linked to the cultivation of the vine, the whose collection required the use of light, capacious and shoulder-carrying containers, of which the "corba" represents the most suitable model". «The corbari of Missano are baskets made with chestnut shoots, particularly flexible and resistant, therefore suitable for being woven and holding a heavy load. Today they are almost a museum object and it is surprising to think that there were different sizes: children, women, men up to 50 kilos in weight"

The pass crossing is scenically beautiful. At the top you can relax and rest wonderfully