Versione Italiana

Campo Imperatore

Campo Imperatore is the most impressive and the largest plateau of the Appennines, with a stretch of approximately 20 kilometers and a width that ranges from 3 to 7 kilometers. Its altitude ranges from 1500 to 1900 meters and has an alternating terrain with rolling hills, alluvial plains with moraines left over from the ancient glaciers, rockglaciers, glacial circles, moraines left by snow, flood waste debris, rock faces and high peaks. The plateau has tectonics origins and originated from the morphogenesis caused by periglacial phenomena and glacial snow, with evidence in the moraines of the glacier which used to be the biggest one in the Appennines 15.000 ago, with an area of 20 square kilometers. The almost exclusively herbaceous vegetation makes Campo Imperatore plateau an open space that fascinates and astonishes especially for its majestic vastness, and is known as “Little Tibet”. These wide oat grass pastures are used during the summer by sheperds and their sheep, goats, cows and horses coming back from Puglia during “Transhumance”, a traditional seasonal movement for pastoral activities. The Gran Sasso Mountain forms an amazing frame for the “Little Tibet”, highlighting the most suggestive and highest peaks of the Appennines.