Meeting at 9:00 am at the Barrea Tourist Office. Meet the guide and make a short transfer using your own cars to the trailhead. The route begins in the beech forest of Valle dell’Inferno and, after about two hours, reaches the karst basin of Lago Vivo, at the foot of a ring of rocky mountains and centuries-old beech woods, one of the areas richest in wildlife.

Lago Vivo, located at 1,591 m, offers striking views, naturalistic and geological features of great interest, and preserves the traditions of the pastoral world. The lake reaches its greatest beauty in spring, when melting snow raises the water level and blooms color the surrounding meadows, then almost completely drains through a network of underground rivers during summer. Its name, “Vivo” (Alive), comes from this very phenomenon linked to the Park’s geology: every year it is born, lives, and dies.

The trail continues easily among the great beech trees of Serrone, a forest that hides traces of ancient glaciations carved into the rocks, and reaches a natural terrace overlooking the deep Valle del Rio Torto, from which you can admire the entire chain of the Monti della Meta and the Mainarde mountains of Molise. Here we will relax and stop for lunch.

The descent continues through the beech forest until reaching the third panoramic viewpoint of this beautiful itinerary, overlooking Lake Montagna Spaccata and Molise. Crossing old mule tracks, dry-stone walls, clearings, and woods—where the people of Barrea once worked the land and grazed livestock—we will return to the starting point.