Savona Forest
From the Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy you can return to Savona along a panoramic path walking through a very interesting environment.
This pleasant walk runs through ‘Savona’s Woodland’, already known and protected since the Middle Ages, for its trees supplied the timber necessary to build ships. Today, this woodland is one of the most important green areas in Liguria. Its extraordinary fauna and flora are now being researched by many schools through learning activities, where students have the opportunity to study the ecosystem, plants life cycles, climate changes, and much more.
The hillside of Savona offers several routes, which include forest roads and firebreaks.
The most popular paths around the Hamlet of Santuario are:
- from S. Bernardo in Valle to Passo Perdoni, with a possible climb to Mount S. Michele and Mount Giardina: duration approx. 2 hours;
- from the hamlet of Crocetta, close to S. Bartolomeo (hamlet in the district of Santuario), to Naso di Gatto: along the way there are some isolated groups of houses and farmed land up to the picturesque, but now deserted, hamlet of Cà di Ferrè, consisting of stone houses with cattle-sheds and stores, a school and the small church of Saint Mary Magdalene;
- from Santuario – precisely from the hamlet of Palaiella to Monte Castellazzo: a circular itinerary in the footsteps of Napoleon. It is a short route through the places where the Napoleonic army fought against the Austro-Piedmontese troops in April 1796. The battle is commemorated by a memorial stone in tribute to General Rampon.
