Grande Anello di Arquata Stage 3: Colle d'Arquata to Pescara del Tronto

The route of Grande Anello di Arquata Stage 3

From the small square of Colle, on the side of the Chiesa di San Sebastiano, the route leaves the village past the Church of San Silvestro and follows the paved SP 20 Trisungo-Colle road for 2 km toward Spelonga. Near some temporary stables an arrow points left to a descending mule track: for about a hundred meters it is shared with the path to Pescara del Tronto, then at a junction the one for Grisciano continues straight downhill.

In the woods, the painted waymarks provide orientation. When the path comes out into a clearing, it re-enters the woods on the left, at the point shown by the marks: the wider track, which is tempting to follow, leads instead to a dry concrete fountain. Among the remains of dry stone walls the route descends to Grisciano and, on a gravel road, to the small bridge over the Chiarino stream.

From Grisciano the route crosses the Statale Salaria highway to the bus stop, where a footbridge crosses the Tronto. It follows the SP 129, closed to traffic pending post-earthquake works, and after about 300 m turns right onto a track marked by a signpost, sometimes covered by vegetation, which avoids about 1 km of asphalt. Back on the SP 129, after 200 m the route re-enters the woods on the left and climbs for 1 km through the chestnut groves of Colle Rapino to the junction between the Sentiero Italia and the Cammino nelle Terre Mutate.

The route turns right onto the Cammino nelle Terre Mutate: a gravel mule track descends in about 1 km to Tufo, crossing a small bridge over the Rio Capodacqua. From Tufo about 3 km of the SP 129 lead to Pescara del Tronto, the historic village and not the SAE area (emergency housing area).

Stage 3 technical data: Grande Anello di Arquata

• Start: Colle d'Arquata, small square of the Chiesa di San Sebastiano
• Finish: Pescara del Tronto (historic village)
• Length: 7.5 km
• Lowest and highest altitude: 640 m and 1,095 m
• Elevation change: +150 m of ascent, −450 m of descent
• Waymarking: present
• Difficulty: the complete Grande Anello di Arquata is classified EE, for expert hikers

About 5 km of the stage are on paved road: 2 km on the SP 20 leaving Colle and about 3 km on the SP 129 between Tufo and Pescara del Tronto. Drinking water is available in the small square of Colle, near the square of Grisciano, at the Tufo washhouse by the Chiesa dell'Annunziata and at the fountains of Pescara del Tronto.

The overnight stop at the end of the stage is in Grisciano: from Pescara del Tronto the way goes back 1 km along the provincial road, descends for 0.5 km on a marked gravel track to the Statale Salaria and follows it to the right for about 1 km. The previous stage is Grande Anello di Arquata stage 2, the next one Grande Anello di Arquata stage 4; the full overview is on the Grande Anello di Arquata page.

Map of Grande Anello di Arquata Stage 3

Arquata Potest publishes the GPS track of stage 3 and a GADA brochure for download; the track is useful in the clearing and at the turnoff after the bridge over the Tronto.

Points of interest along Grande Anello di Arquata Stage 3

Walls of the old border. In the woods above Grisciano, the walls that marked the border between the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal States can be told apart from ordinary retaining walls.

Tufo. Near the Chiesa dell'Annunziata there is a washhouse with drinking water.

Pescara del Tronto. Crossing the village toward the cemetery, the six drinking fountains and the washhouse appear on the left; they kept running even during the earthquake of August 24, 2016.