Escursioni sui Monti del Matese

57 excursions in the Matese area, between Molise and Campania. We found an area full of wild corners, in the Anglo-Saxon sense of the term, wild. Places where there is no apparent trace of the passage of man, or where this, if there was, has been hidden by nature over time. With everything positive or negative this entails. The return of the native fauna and the increase in forest flora, which had been decimated and cut down in the recent past. The disappearance of the signs left on the mountains by peasant and pastoral civilization. A whole heritage of signs left by those who preceded us on these mountains. Testimonies of a hard, humble life which, step by step, stone by stone, created the paths, the dry stone walls, the "boxes", the pens and all those signs that have shaped the landscape/man's passage on the territory. They are signs that leave/send a strong message to those who rediscover them, signs that deserve to be remembered by future generations. We found a mountain experienced not so much by hikers, but by those who live in the mountains. Shepherds, farmers, woodcutters. A mountain that is a resource, as it has been for millennia, for those who live there. We encountered, with unusual frequency, foxes, roe deer, hares, and traces of many other mammals. Very often, looking up, we saw the birds of prey circling and heard the characteristic call of the fleeing rock partridges. We found the poetry and elegance of nature, in many hidden, undisturbed places, far from the most popular hiking trails. We found an area rich in water: rivers and streams, gorges, karst phenomena, sculpted fountains; and rich in history: stazzi, farms, remains of Samnite walls, medieval castles and Roman archaeological remains. Colle Bellavista, Monte Miletto, Monte Favaracchi, Monte Scoltrone, Monte Valle Diamante, Monte Ariola, Monte Erbano, Monte Mutria, Monte Tre Confini, Prato di Civita, Sant'Angelo in Sasso.