Monte Amaro up the backside: a bittersweet ascent in the Apennines

Welcome to this, the second in my series of Apennine ‘up the backside’ posts, so called because I tackle the mountain from the opposite of its usual side. I have previously talked about an ascent of Monte Marsicano via its rear passage. In this week’s post I tackle Monte Amaro (2,793m), the second highest peak in the Apennines.

In Italian, Monte is not a gentleman’s name but the short form of the word ‘mountain’, used in much the same way as we use ‘Mount’ in English, by appending it to the front of the name to indicate...