The elements of nature cradle Cantiano, caress and cuddle it with their rich presents. From here we can see Mount Catria, Mount Acuto and Mount Tenetra rising and piercing the clouds. They make up one of the most important mountain areas in Marche.
Only apparently dark and severe, the range lets one discover all of its wonder. Many paths were designed along its slopes, suitable both for a peaceful excursion and a more engaging trekking. They lead us up to the most secret recesses in the mountain. The naked rock is only apparently uniform: it makes up a real “geological atlas”, because of the lot of information which tell careful observers about the long story of the rise and growth of the Apennine. The green heart of the area is the Natural Reservation of Bosco di Tecchie, a protected area about 195 hectares wide which lushly expands along the Serre di Burano, a long mountain range marking the border with Umbria. Only reachable by means of narrow and winding roads in the middle of tall trees, this woody area was never touched by human hands and keeps its whole purity. One’s lungs breathe perfectly clean air as one walks in the middle of century-old beech trees whose wide crowns, into this crowd of woody and sappy giants, hide the sky together with the leaves of imposing oaks. Each season paints the leaves of these and of many other different trees with new colours, in a cycle eternally renewing itself and evoking the evolution of a painter’s creative periods. The wet ground, at times as soft as a carpet, hides a rich variety of mushrooms and is crossed by a heterogeneous and bizarre fauna. One can hear the sharp croaking of red frogs, the quick escape of a fire salamander and the heavy steps of an ungulate. Both into the Reservation and anywhere else on the Catria, water is a constant presence whose freshness softens the rocks and perfumes the air. Rivers, creeks and water rivulets feed the plants; since the dawn of its creation they are a priceless wealth to Cantiano and its untouched echosystem.
Monte Catria