Monte Faudo Summit

Enduro mountain peak from Mt. Faudo (S2, downhill with alpine passages)

There's something mystical about Mount Faudo: a trail of ancient stories, far back in time. Today, it's best known for the marathon trail that climbs from Imperia to its summit and for the antennas dotting it; yet for centuries, it was a contested land between the church, neighboring states, and the villages on its slopes. Since the ancient Ligurians, well before the Romans. It shares this burden with Mount Follia and Mount Sette Fontane.The oldest evidence of human settlement in the Dolcedo area is near Mount Follia, a conical peak on the southern slope of Mount Faudo. Traces of metalworking have emerged there, with furnaces and residential structures, dating back to the Iron Age castellari, fortifications placed high up for observation and defense, in visual contact with other castellari in the area. Today, the site is abandoned: one can still walk and imagine the defensive landscape of the ancient Ligurians.