Festival della Montagna

4th Oct, 2015

1_festa 1.jpg

1_stalls at festa motana.jpg

1_festa montana full park.jpg

1_combo festa montana.jpg

L'Aquila, Parco del Castello, 2nd - 4th October

'The mountain is in Town! Three days of sports, excursions and festa dedicated to mountain enthusiasts, and those who have yet to discover it.' (http://www.festivaldellamontagnalaquila.it/programma-festival-montagna-laquila-2015/)

The festival of the mountain has taken over the Parco del Castello, and the Renzo Piano Auditorium del Parco, in the historic centre of L'Aquila. There are stalls dedicated to all mountains sports, activities and produce, with many opportunities to try new food and skills. In general, the festival appears to be the 'grand opening' of L'Aquila's ski season, however there are also lectures and debates about issues such as the environmental development of the Gran Sasso mountains. One day of the festival has been dedicated to the earthquake victims of Nepal, in solidarity after L'Aquila's own earthquake, and all proceeds of that day's events will go to various Nepal charities.

During this weekend, I went for a walk in the Gran Sasso mountains, alongside the highest peak of the Apennines - Il Corno Grande (nearly 3000m above sea level). The walk started from Campo Imperatore, one of L'Aquila's two major ski bases. There was no snow, although this will quickly arrive, at which point the relatively quiet Campo and few visiting mountaineers will make way to hundreds of snow sports enthusiasts. The somewhat tired hotel at the base will take on new life when the funicular and cable cars start up again after the summer.

It was interesting to observe the importance L'Aquila places on the ski season. It is clearly an important economic period for the city - which can therefore be only more vital to promote post-earthquake. The first Festival della Montagna was held in 2014 and attracted 20,000 people to the city centre; many visitors are from outside L'Aquila, as shown by the extensive information about 'where to stay' during the event on their website. Clearly, it was initiated as a post-earthquake attempt to revitalise the tourism industry during the winter months; it was evidently a success, shown by this second festa in 2015.

signage for campo imperatore.jpg

campo imperatore.jpg

combo gran sasso views.jpg

Uncaught Exception

Uncaught Exception

Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated

Origin

system/boot.php on line 41

Trace

#0 [internal function]: System\Error::shutdown()
#1 {main}