5,000km trail links all Alpine countries from Trieste to Monaco
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Your support makes all the difference.The Pennine Way was never like this. Yesterday, at Innsbruck in Austria, a series of walking trails was inaugurated, known collectively as Via Alpina.
The Pennine Way was never like this. Yesterday, at Innsbruck in Austria, a series of walking trails was inaugurated, known collectively as Via Alpina. Linking the eight Alpine countries, the Alpine Way offers walkers 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles) of the most ravishing countryside in Europe along traditional paths.
It is not a challenge to galvanise devotees of ultra sports. Few are likely to attempt its entire length - it would take about a year. You don't need crampons and the peaks are mostly to look at; you can take the family; you can try a few kilometres then go home. But the Via Alpina opens new horizons for those seeking healthy, peaceful, escapist holidays not far from home.
The Alpine region covers 191,000 sq km (74,000 sq miles), and contains 19 million people. It accounts for a 10th of world tourism with 370 million overnight stays a year. But the Via Alpina is intended to wrap the region together and bring it to life in a new way. The trail begins at sea level, at Trieste, on Italy's Adriatic coast, and climbs gently to a maximum altitude of 3,000 metres, making a long, serpentine arc through the mountains and finishing back at sea level in Montecarlo, Monaco. Most paths are at a height of 1,000 to 3,000 metres, open for walking from 1 July to 15 September.
Grande Traverse des Alpes, a French organisation promoting eco-friendly tourism, is behind the venture, to which €4m (£2.9m) has been committed. It claims to have carefully chosen paths "of moderate difficulty, avoiding climbing and glaciers" and "close to the most renowned sites of natural and cultural interest"; in case of crowding at peak periods, alternative routes are offered.
The paths already exist and are well marked; a discreet "Via Alpina" icon added to signs shows you are on the right trail. Sights include old churches, snowy slopes, sheep-filled pastures, ancient Alpine villages. Along the trail are 300 places to spend the night, ranging from hotels and village pensions to mountain retreats.
Underpinning it all is a vision of the Alps as a single cultural entity. The spine of the project is the "red trail", which crosses the borders of Alpine countries 44 times and skirts some of the highest peaks, including Bernina and Mont Blanc. Languages and dialects include German, Italian, French, Slovenian, Romansch, Ladine, Walser, Franco-Provencal and Langue d'Oc.Four other trails explore various facets of the Alps, including some 40 national parks.
Details at: www.via-alpina.com
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