Some 700 people from all over the world will be taking part in the 5 day
Tenerife Walking Festival in March this year. Participants will be based in
Puerto de la Cruz to the north of the island and will be able to choose from 15
trails of differing length and difficulty split into three categories – volcanic,
coastal and jurassic . There will also be additional activities such as visits
to wineries, agricultural fincas, museums, star gazing, a
welcome meeting with cocktails and an official closing ceremony.
Amongst other incentives, the Spanish airline Iberia
is offering a 15% discount on its flights, and international associations such
as ERA (European Ramblers Association), FEDME (Spanish Federation of hiking and
FECAMON (the Canary Federation of Mountaineering) have all been actively involved. 
In one of
his latest blogs, Giovanni Visetti asks why such an event has so far proved impossible
to organize here in our area. The Amalfi Coast, the Sorrento Peninsula, Capri
and the Monti Lattari offer a rich variety of spectacularly panoramic hikes,
with more than enough hotels and B&Bs to accommodate everyone, no lack of transport
and many excellent and expert local guides. 
Many years ago, realizing that the development of
hiking as an incentive to tourism in this area was also dependent on a reliable
support network of suitable and convenient accommodation, he developed and presented
a project to this effect and sent it to all the relevant local authorities
(of which there are many) from Capri to Maiori: mayors, tourist boards, councillors for tourism etc. He received just
one reply, from the Director for Tourism of the Province of Naples. Not one of
the Sorrento or Amalfi Coast councils even bothered to acknowledge his proposal. More
recently, he tried again, proposing something similar to the Tenerife Walking Festival, be it on a smaller scale. Again nothing.
Having
failed to enlist the support of the relevant authorities Giovanni then proceeded to organize
all by himself, an annual “Inn to Inn” Amalfi – Capri trek (the first was in
2009) which varied in duration from 5 to 7 days with overnight bases in
Agerola, Faito and Sant’Agata. Anyone
was free (literally) to come along: for just a day, for a couple of days or for
as many days as you wanted. There was no registration fee, no guiding fee and
all you had to pay for and organize was your accommodation and meals (and here
too there were suggestions and special rates).
I was lucky enough to participate in several
of these hikes and people came from all over: Australia, USA, Hong Kong, Great
Britain, Portugal, Germany and of course Italians from near and far. They were
not easy hikes and you needed a good degree of fitness, but they were spectacular, they were fun, you met interesting like-minded people and had the opportunity to walk along trails that you would probably
never have found by yourself, all under the expert guidance of Giovanni.
This area
has so much to offer a keen hiker. Over the past few years we have seen a
certain increase in the number of people (mainly foreigners) walking our
trails, some in organised groups, others by themselves, many of them clutching a copy of Giovanni’s maps. However if you
compare the signage and maintenance of the majority of our paths to those of places
like the Balearic Islands and the Canaries, we are sadly lacking. Unfortunately,
as Giovanni correctly surmises, there is not sufficient interest, not only from
the local governments and their officials, who are often totally unaware of the
resources surrounding them, but also from the majority of our hoteliers who are
much keener on filling their rooms with the traditional package tourist, sending
them off on over-crowded and over-priced
day trips to Pompeii, Capri, Vesuvius, Positano and Ravello than trying to
develop and expand an alternative form of tourism to which this area would be
perfectly suited.
Personally
I feel that there is room for both.
Link to Giovanni's blog
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