Turkish Cappadocia has made millions of travelers fall in love with the now famous “Fate fireplaces”, those strange rock formations that seem sculptures created by giant burloni: pinnacles of volcanic tuff modeled by wind and rain for millennia, surmounted by basalt hats that protect them from erosion, a lunar landscape where the ancient inhabitants escaped houses, churches. underground city. But who said that to admire these wonders you have to fly to Türkiye?
Italy hides its personal fairy fireplaces, scattered along the boot as bread crumbs in a fairy tale of the Grimm brothers. Of course, you will not find hot air balloons who get up at dawn over the valleys dotted with pinnacles, but the magic remains intact. And perhaps even more precious, because it is truly unexpected.
The pyramids that challenge time in Val di Cembra
We start from Trentino Alto Adige, where the Pyramids of Segonzano rise as stone sentries up to 40 meters high the official name suggests something geometric and perfect, even if the reality is wilder. Imagine columns of land and stones up to twenty meters high, crowned by huge boulders that look like hats put by a spiteful wind.
The story begins over 50 thousand years ago, when the glaciers retired leaving Morenical deposits. Rain and frost did the rest, digging and modeling to create these natural sculptures. The boulders on the top? These are the umbrellas that saved the columns below erosion. A precarious balance that has lasted for centuries and that every thunderstorm tests.
To find them, just follow the signs for the “land pyramids” as soon as they entered Segonzano. The path that leads to the pyramids is also suitable for children – who will inevitably ask if you make them still live there. The right answer? “Only at night, when nobody looks.”
The stone mushrooms growing in Piedmont
We go down to Piedmont, in the Villar Ciciu Nature Reserve, near Cuneo. Here the Fairy fireplaces have decided to disguise themselves as mushrooms. The clubs call them “Ciciu” – which in Piedmontese dialect means “puppets” – and to look at them well they really seem like an army of stone men with too large hats.
The anatomy of the formations is fascinating: a hat of gneiss hard like granite protects a stem of earth and clay that crumbles just looking at it. Some reach eight meters high, others are as small as children. There are about 450, dispersed in an area that is covered in a couple of hours of peaceful walk.
The local legend says that they are Roman soldiers petrified by San Costanzo to escape persecution. Science instead says that 12,000 years ago, when the Faussimagna torrent transported huge boulders that then protected the ground below from erosion. Choose the version you prefer.
The fireproof Canyon that sets the brands on fire
The red blades of Fiastra are the twist of this journey. Hidden in the Monti Sibillini National Park, these rock formations have chosen to dye fire red, burnt orange and ocher. The iron contained in the rocks made the miracle, creating a corner of Arizona in the heart of the Marche (here you will find our article about it).
The path to reach them starts from Lake Fiastra – already in itself a show, with the splendid turquoise waters – and winds through about an hour and a half through woods that smell of resin and moss. Then, suddenly, the green leaves room for red and find yourself in a canyon that seems painted. Tens of tens of meters high stand up against the sky, striated as geological millefeuille cakes.
The blades change appearance to each season. In winter the frost carves them, in the summer the sun turns on it of impossible shades. The photographers love them at the golden time of sunset, when the red becomes incandescent. But even in the rain they have their Gothic charm, with the water that digs new furrows and redesigns the geography of the canyon.
The places just described show how much Italy still know how to amaze, even those who think they know it by heart. The Italian Fairy Fireplaces are perfect destinations for a trip out of town that knows of adventure, where nature has fun playing with shapes and colors. And where you make them, if you really believe it, they have certainly left their mark.
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