Living in London means that I now have a whole lot of new area to explore by cycling or walking. I try to take every opportunity to spend a free day or weekend out. One of the most important things when on the move is knowing where you are, where to go, and how to get there — and for that, you need a map. As I soon learned, the maps to use in the UK are the Ordnance Survey ones (either the Landranger/Explorer series, or maps by another publisher, such as AA, based on OS data). However, the Landranger series encompasses over 200 1:50000 maps, standing at some £8 each, and when that level of detail is not enough, there are more than 400 Explorer maps on top of that. Not only does this get pricey after a while, but also the sheer volume of map juggling quickly becomes impractical when you cycle a lot outside of town.

I’ve recently done a week-long hike in the Umbria-Marche region of the Italian Apennines (the vicinity of Monte Catria, near Cantiano, to be more precise), and here are some tips I’d like to share.

• The Umbria-Marche Apennine doesn’t seem to be frequented by a lot of tourists, especially in mid-March. The information offices, although helpful, are often closed (this is not only the case with the mountain region: contrary to information available on the Web, the tourist information at Forlì airport was closed on Sunday morning), and most of the Italians we’ve met didn’t speak English.
• The tourist trails in the region are not well marked. Direction marks are nowhere to be found, nor are the signs visible on junctions. We had to ask the locals when leaving Cantiano for Monte Tenetra (and ended up on M. Alto instead anyway).
• There are a lot of rifugi (mountain huts), but most of them are closed at this time of year. We passed by six or seven, out of which only one was available for sleep: Rifugio Fonte del Faggio (depicted), merely a small bothy with one worm-eaten bunk bed. Another one, Cupa delle Cotaline, with restaurant facilities and situated by a station of a local skilift, opened in the morning, but was closed for the night.