Bolognese Apennines

The Italian expression Appennino bolognese is used in geographical, historical, administrative, tourist and rural-development contexts. Its extent varies according to the source. A narrower meaning usually refers to the mountain and high hill territory south of Bologna, while broader public and tourist uses include lower hill municipalities and, in some cases, the eastern hilly and mountain areas near Imola.

The expression has a documented historical use. In 1882 the Bologna section of the Club Alpino Italiano published L'Appennino bolognese: descrizioni e itinerari, a guide prepared in connection with the International Geological Congress held in Bologna in 1881. The volume described the mountains and valleys south of Bologna through geological, historical, archaeological and itinerary material.^[2]

Contemporary public bodies use different perimeters. The official Appennino Bolognese tourism portal managed within the regional tourist information system lists 23 municipalities, including mountain, valley and foothill municipalities from Alto Reno Terme and Lizzano in Belvedere to Casalecchio di Reno, San Lazzaro di Savena and Zola Predosa.^[3] The eXtraBO tourism portal uses a wider list of 29 municipalities, adding eastern hilly and mountain municipalities such as Borgo Tossignano, Casalfiumanese, Castel del Rio, Castel San Pietro Terme, Dozza and Fontanelice.^[4] The regional STAMI strategy for the Bolognese Apennines uses a narrower development-policy perimeter of 15 municipalities, including the municipalities of the Unione dell'Appennino Bolognese, Loiano, Monghidoro, Monterenzio and Alto Reno Terme.^[5] The GAL Appennino Bolognese describes its territory as the hilly and mountain belt of the Bolognese Apennines, with exclusions or partial inclusions for some municipalities.^[6]

The Bolognese Apennines occupy the northern side of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines in the territory of Bologna. To the north, the hills descend toward Bologna, the Via Emilia corridor and the Po Valley. To the south, the Apennine watershed separates Emilia-Romagna from Tuscany, including the Mugello, the Montagna Pistoiese and the mountains of Prato. The western sector borders the Modenese Apennines, while the eastern sector approaches the Imola Apennines.

The area is formed by a series of valleys and ridges rather than by a single compact massif. The Reno valley is the main western and central axis. Other valleys include those of the Setta, Savena, Sambro, Idice, Zena, Brasimone, Limentra, Lavino, Samoggia, Santerno and Sillaro.

A landscape-research study published in Landscape Research treated the Bologna Apennines as a hilly and mountainous territory of about 2,110 square kilometres, with an altitudinal range from about 40 to 1,945 metres above sea level. The study distinguished lower hillside areas, historically shaped more by agriculture, from mountain areas characterised more by forests and semi-natural land cover.^[7]

The highest sector is around Corno alle Scale, in the municipality of Lizzano in Belvedere. The middle mountain sector includes the Suviana and Brasimone basins, while the lower hills closer to Bologna include sandstone cliffs, badlands, gypsum outcrops, agricultural landscapes and peri-urban valleys.

The Bolognese Apennines have historically been closely connected with Bologna's water supply and hydraulic infrastructure. In antiquity, Roman engineers captured water from the Setta stream near Sasso Marconi and carried it to Bologna through a long underground aqueduct. The Appennino Bolognese tourism portal dates the work to around 15 BC and describes it as still contributing to Bologna's potable water supply after its reactivation in 1883.^[8]

The Reno valley is also linked with the medieval Chiusa di Casalecchio and the Canale di Reno. The Canali di Bologna organisation describes the Casalecchio dam as an artificial barrier built in the middle of the fourteenth century along the Reno, allowing part of the river water to be diverted into the Reno canal. The canal contributed to Bologna's economic development, hydraulic defence and water-powered urban production from the Middle Ages onward.^[9] The waters derived at Casalecchio powered or supplied mills, fulling mills, paper mills, tanneries, silk-related workshops and other urban activities.^[10]

Because of its altitudinal range, the Bolognese Apennines include low-hill, middle-mountain and high-ridge climatic conditions. The lower valleys close to Bologna have a more subcontinental hill climate, while the highest ridges around Corno alle Scale experience colder conditions, frequent winter snow and stronger Apennine exposure.

Official climatological data for municipalities and weather stations in Emilia-Romagna are published by ARPAE, the regional environmental agency. Its climatological tables provide temperature and precipitation statistics for all municipalities in Emilia-Romagna and for ARPAE measuring stations, with reference periods including 1961–1990 and 1991–2020.^[11]

The landscape of the Bolognese Apennines reflects the geological structure of the northern Apennines. Geological itineraries published by the Emilia-Romagna tourism authority present an area in which river valleys cut across Apennine structures and expose terraces, ancient riverbeds, uplifted surfaces and eroded slopes.^[12]

Part of the mountain area is linked to the Ligurian geological units, including the argille scagliose, or scaly clays. In regional geological documentation, these rocks are presented as a mixture of fragments such as ophiolites, marls, sandstones and limestones embedded in a clay matrix, connected with tectonic movements during the formation of the Apennine chain.^[13]

One of the main geological features near Bologna is the Contrafforte Pliocenico, a sandstone front crossing the Reno, Setta, Savena, Zena and Idice valleys. The nature reserve protects a rocky system about 15 kilometres long, including reliefs such as Monte Adone, Rocca di Badolo and Monte Rosso.^[14] The Contrafforte also preserves fossil shells and trace fossils from shallow marine environments that occupied the area during the Pliocene.^[15][16]

These Pliocene sandstone and clay landscapes are linked to the so-called Bolognese Pliocene gulf. According to the regional geological service, between about 5.3 and 1.8 million years ago a marine inlet extended inland between the present Reno and Idice valleys, receiving sediments from Apennine streams. Its deposits later formed sandstone cliffs, clay landscapes and fossil-rich outcrops, including the arenaceous sequence of the Contrafforte Pliocenico.^[17]

The gypsum areas near Bologna are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Evaporitic Karst and Caves of Northern Apennines, inscribed in 2023. The UNESCO serial property includes the Gessi di Zola Predosa and Gessi Bolognesi components and is described as an extensive epigenic gypsum karst terrain, with more than 900 caves and over 100 kilometres of mapped caves in total.^[18]

Another geosite is the Labante Caves at Castel d'Aiano. The Emilia-Romagna regional geological service describes them as primary travertine caves, among the largest in Italy, and notes that their travertine deposits are the most important in the region by volume.^[19]

Like other parts of the northern Apennines, the area is affected by landslides, slope instability and hydraulic risk, especially where clay-rich formations, steep valleys and intense rainfall interact. Regional basin-planning documents for the Reno, Idice-Savena, Sillaro and Santerno catchments include specific provisions for landslide risk, slope stability and river management.^[20]

The hydrogeological fragility of the Apennine belt became particularly evident after the extreme rainfall events of May 2023 and the severe weather episodes that followed in 2024. A regional geological assessment described the May 2023 landslide events in the Apennines as unprecedented in the previous hundred years of regional records, with more than 56,000 activated landslides mapped while the census was still incomplete.^[21] In the Bolognese Apennines, the Idice valley around Monghidoro, Loiano and Monterenzio was later identified by the regional authorities as one of the areas affected by widespread landslides, road interruptions and continuing slope instability.^[22]

The Bolognese Apennines include several protected areas. The Emilia-Romagna regional authority lists, in the province of Bologna, regional parks including Abbazia di Monteveglio, Corno alle Scale, Gessi Bolognesi e Calanchi dell'Abbadessa, Laghi Suviana e Brasimone and Monte Sole, as well as the Contrafforte Pliocenico nature reserve.^[23] Several protected areas of the Bolognese Apennines also belong to the Natura 2000 network. Sites managed by the Eastern Emilia Parks and Biodiversity Authority include Monte Sole, Abbazia di Monteveglio, Laghi di Suviana e Brasimone, Gessi Bolognesi e Calanchi dell'Abbadessa, Corno alle Scale, Contrafforte Pliocenico and Boschi di San Luca e Destra Reno.^[24]

Together, these protected areas preserve a mosaic of habitats ranging from foothill woodlands, gypsum karst and badlands to beech forests, rocky cliffs and high-altitude grasslands. Characteristic or symbolic species highlighted by park-authority wildlife itineraries include the wolf at Monte Sole, red deer in the Suviana and Brasimone area, and the golden eagle in the high environments of Corno alle Scale.^[25]

The regional park around Corno alle Scale protects the highest mountain environment of the Bolognese Apennines and includes beech woods, rocky cliffs, high-altitude grasslands and ridge landscapes.^[1] Because of its altitude and position near the main Apennine watershed, the Corno alle Scale area preserves environments that differ from the lower hills of the Bolognese Apennines. Its landscape includes extensive beech woods, clear mountain streams, glacial cirques, high-altitude grasslands and bilberry heaths, with bird species such as water pipits, northern wheatears and the golden eagle.^[26] The Cavone cirque, between Corno alle Scale and Monte La Nuda, is the most significant glacial landform in the park, shaped during the Würm glaciation. Moraine deposits are found around Lake Cavone, and traces of glacial deposits are also recorded in the Dardagna valley near Madonna dell'Acero.^[27] The same park authority describes the Corno alle Scale massif as a high Apennine area where alpine-type habitats are preserved because of the altitude of Corno alle Scale and nearby summits such as La Nuda, Monte Cornaccio and Monte Gennaio.^[28]

The Regional Park of Suviana and Brasimone Lakes lies mainly in the municipalities of Camugnano, Castel di Casio and Castiglione dei Pepoli. It includes the artificial reservoirs of Lake Suviana, Lake Brasimone and Santa Maria, built for hydroelectric purposes and fed by the Brasimone and Limentra di Treppio streams.^[29]

The Monte Sole Historical Park extends between the Reno and Setta rivers in the municipalities of Marzabotto, Monzuno and Grizzana Morandi. Established in 1989, it covers about 2,500 hectares and preserves places connected with the Monte Sole massacre and the Stella Rossa partisan brigade during the Second World War.^[30]

The Gessi Bolognesi and Calanchi dell'Abbadessa Regional Park protects gypsum karst, caves, dolines and badland landscapes on the eastern edge of Bologna. Together with the Gessi di Zola Predosa, it forms part of the UNESCO-recognised evaporitic karst system of the Northern Apennines.^[18]

In broader tourist definitions that include the Imola Apennines, the eastern edge of the area overlaps with landscapes connected to the Vena del Gesso Romagnola Regional Park. The park includes municipalities in both the Metropolitan City of Bologna and the Province of Ravenna, including Borgo Tossignano, Casalfiumanese and Fontanelice on the Bolognese side.^[31]

The Suviana and Brasimone area is also connected with the history of hydroelectric development and energy research in the Bolognese Apennines. The reservoirs of Suviana, Brasimone and Santa Maria form part of a landscape shaped by hydroelectric infrastructure as well as by protected natural and recreational areas.^[29]

The Bargi hydroelectric power station, located near Lake Suviana, is part of the hydroelectric system connecting the Suviana and Brasimone basins. The wider system is also historically linked with the Basin of Pavana, another artificial reservoir in the Limentra valley.

Near Lake Brasimone, in the municipality of Camugnano, the ENEA Brasimone Research Centre is one of Italy's main research centres for advanced energy technologies. Its activities include innovative energy systems, green technologies and environmental monitoring, nuclear-safety research, materials and ionising-radiation technologies, radioprotection, prototyping of systems and components for energy applications, liquid-metal technologies and innovative materials.^[32]

The valleys south of Bologna have long provided routes between the Po Valley and central Italy. Archaeological sites in the area document Etruscan and Etrusco-Celtic settlement before the Roman period.

One of the main ancient sites is Kainua, the Etruscan city at Marzabotto. The Italian Ministry of Culture describes the remains of Kainua, which occupied the Pian di Misano and the hill of Misanello from the late sixth to the mid-fourth century BC, as a rare case among Etruscan urban settlements because the abandonment of the city preserved its original urban plan, including streets, houses, craft areas and sacred buildings.^[33]

In the Idice valley, the archaeological area of Monte Bibele preserves the remains of an Etrusco-Celtic settlement in the municipality of Monterenzio. According to the Appennino Bolognese portal, the village was built in the second half of the fourth century BC and abandoned in the early decades of the second century BC. The site includes settlement remains, a necropolis on nearby Monte Tamburino and sacred areas.^[34]

During the Middle Ages, the Bolognese Apennines formed a border and transit area between the Po Valley and central Italy. The Apennine slope was associated with frontier zones between Lombard, Byzantine, Tuscan and Emilian spheres of influence, while later mountain society was structured around castles, parish churches, monasteries, villages and local lordships. From the early medieval period to the communal age, many mountain communities were gradually drawn into the political and administrative orbit of Bologna.^[35][36]

During the Second World War, the Bolognese Apennines lay near the northern sector of the Gothic Line. The area around Monte Sole was the site of one of the most serious massacres of civilians in Italy during the war. The Monte Sole Historical Park was later created to preserve places connected with the massacre, the destruction of local communities and the activities of the Stella Rossa partisan brigade.^[30] Other parts of the Bolognese Apennines were involved in the fighting on the Gothic Line during the final phase of the Italian campaign.

Monte Belvedere, on the Apennine border area between the provinces of Bologna and Modena, formed part of the German defensive system overlooking the Reno valley and the Strada Statale 64 Porrettana.^[37] In February 1945, during Operation Encore, troops of the United States 10th Mountain Division attacked the Riva Ridge and Monte Belvedere sector, supported by the Brazilian forces whose objective was Monte Castello.^[37]

The Bolognese Apennines are also described in demographic and regional-development terms, in addition to their geographical and cultural definitions. A 2019 report by the Metropolitan City of Bologna identified an Apennine area made up of 23 hilly and mountain municipalities. In 2017 this area had 153,737 inhabitants, corresponding to about 15.2% of the metropolitan population, and covered 1,678.86 square kilometres, about 45% of the territory of the Metropolitan City of Bologna.^[38] The same report describes long-term demographic change in the mountain area, including phases of depopulation, the spread of second homes and later public policies aimed at rebalancing services and encouraging residential and productive settlement.^[38]

A narrower STAMI perimeter, made up of 15 mountain municipalities and covering 1,022.4 square kilometres, had 69,175 inhabitants in 2022. The same strategy recorded a 2% population decline between 2012 and 2022 and a population density of 70.5 inhabitants per square kilometre, well below both the Emilia-Romagna regional average and the metropolitan Bologna average.^[39] More recent regional and metropolitan planning documents have framed the area as a mountain and inner territory closely connected with Bologna.

The STAMI strategy for the Bolognese Apennines describes its objective as making the area more attractive for living, working, sustainable tourism and leisure. Its projects include the regeneration of small villages, recreational and sports infrastructure, hiking routes, energy efficiency, social inclusion and digital transition.^[5]

Several sites in the Bolognese Apennines are connected with architecture, archaeology, science, local history and the visual arts.

At Grizzana Morandi, the Rocchetta Mattei is a nineteenth-century castle-like residence built by Count Cesare Mattei on the ruins of a medieval fortification. The official Rocchetta Mattei site describes the building as a complex modified by Mattei and his heirs, with architectural references ranging from neo-medieval and neo-Renaissance forms to Moorish and Liberty elements.^[40]

Also in Grizzana Morandi, Montovolo is both a mountain and a long-standing religious and scenic site of the middle Reno valley. The Appennino Bolognese portal describes it as a relief with a characteristic rounded shape, whose summit area includes the sanctuary and crypt, the oratory dedicated to Santa Caterina and a panoramic cliff overlooking the Reno valley.^[41] Bologna Welcome identifies the sanctuary of Santa Maria della Consolazione as the first sanctuary of the Archdiocese of Bologna and dates it to the twelfth century.^[42]

Also in Grizzana Morandi, the landscape around Campiaro is associated with the painter Giorgio Morandi, who spent long periods there and repeatedly depicted the rural buildings and hills of the area. Casa Morandi, a small white house built in 1959 and later donated to the municipality by the artist's sister Maria Teresa, preserves domestic furnishings, personal objects and the studio used by Morandi during his stays in the Apennines.^[43] The nearby Fienili del Campiaro have hosted the Giorgio Morandi Documentation Centre since 2000; the centre includes the Museo degli Allievi di Giorgio Morandi, exhibition spaces and documentation connected with the artist and his pupils.^[43]

In the Reno valley, the church and parish centre of Santa Maria Assunta at Riola were designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, with Elissa Aalto and the Aalto Studio. The Alvar Aalto Foundation states that Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro asked Aalto in 1965 to design a church for Riola, about forty kilometres south of Bologna, and that the plans were developed between 1966 and 1980.^[44] The Italian Ministry of Culture census lists the church among Italian architectures from 1945 to the present and identifies Alvar Aalto as its principal author.^[45] Bologna Welcome describes it as Aalto's only work in Italy and as one of the significant examples of contemporary sacred art.^[46]

In the upper Reno valley, Porretta Terme is associated with the Porretta thermal springs, a historic system of sulphurous and salso-bromo-iodic waters. Emilia Romagna Tourism describes Porretta Terme as a spa destination whose thermal waters were already famous in Roman times, while Bologna Welcome describes the Terme di Porretta as located in the heart of the Bologna Apennines and connected with mineral-rich waters flowing from fourteen springs.^[47][48]

At Pontecchio Marconi, in the municipality of Sasso Marconi, Villa Griffone is associated with Guglielmo Marconi's early experiments in wireless telegraphy. The Engineering and Technology History Wiki, documenting the IEEE Milestone plaques, identifies Villa Griffone as Marconi's family home and the site from which he transmitted wireless signals in 1895 toward the Celestini hill. The villa now hosts the Guglielmo Marconi Foundation and the Marconi Museum.^[49]

Loiano, on the Futa road, hosts the Loiano Astronomical Park of the Astronomical Observatory of Bologna. The station includes the historic Zeiss telescope, inaugurated in 1936 with a 60 cm primary mirror, and the G. D. Cassini telescope, inaugurated in 1976, whose primary mirror measures 152 cm. INAF describes the Cassini telescope as the second largest telescope in Italy by size and as a research instrument.^[50][51]

In Pianaccio, in the municipality of Lizzano in Belvedere, the Enzo Biagi Documentation Centre is dedicated to the journalist and writer Enzo Biagi, who was born in the village. The centre preserves and displays materials connected with Biagi's life and career, including objects, documents, photographs and audiovisual material, and is also associated with visitor-centre functions for the Corno alle Scale area and local mountain culture.^[52][53]

Other local sites include the medieval village of La Scola near Grizzana Morandi, the Madonna di Boccadirio sanctuary near Castiglione dei Pepoli, the rock-cut settlement of Livergnano, the gypsum caves of Spipola and Farneto, and the abbey and badland landscape of Monteveglio.

Porretta Terme hosts the Porretta Soul Festival, an annual soul and rhythm and blues festival. The official festival website describes the event as having begun in 1988, after the foundation of the Sweet Soul Music association in 1987.^[54]

Traditional culture in the Bolognese Apennines includes chestnut cultivation, devotional routes and local dance traditions such as the balli staccati. Chestnut orchards have been interpreted in historical-ecology research as an ancient anthropogenic landscape and a vanishing socio-ecological habitat, whose conservation depends on active management, local growers and the transmission of practical knowledge.^[55]

In the upper Reno valley, the rural landscape known as "La Corona di Matilde. Alto Reno. Terra di Castagni" was added to Italy's National Register of Historic Rural Landscapes. The Rete Rurale Nazionale describes it as a landscape of about 2,500 hectares entirely within the municipality of Alto Reno Terme, where settlement and chestnut culture have developed for more than a millennium.^[56] The Italian Ministry of Agriculture announced in 2021 that La Corona di Matilde Alto Reno Terra di Castagni was among five new landscapes entered in the national register.^[57]

The local dance tradition has an early scholarly record in Gaspare Ungarelli's 1894 study Le vecchie danze italiane ancora in uso nella provincia Bolognese, which documented dance forms then still practised in the province of Bologna.^[58]

Local products associated with the area include the zuccherino montanaro bolognese, a glazed anise-flavoured biscuit whose production area includes several mountain and foothill municipalities of the Bolognese Apennines.^[59] In the eastern Santerno valley, within the wider Imola Apennine area, chestnut cultivation is also associated with the Marrone di Castel del Rio, a product with Protected Geographical Indication status.^[60]

Outdoor recreation in the Bolognese Apennines includes hiking, cycling, winter sports, nature tourism, spa tourism and visits to cultural sites. The protected areas, historical routes and mountain villages are linked both to local recreation from Bologna and to longer itineraries between Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany.

The Corno alle Scale area is the main winter-sports centre of the Bolognese Apennines. Emilia-Romagna Tourism describes the ski resort as offering 36 kilometres of slopes served by five chairlifts, one ski lift and one carpet lift, with routes of different difficulty and a terrain park for snowboarding at Le Malghe.^[61] The area is also associated with Italian alpine skier Alberto Tomba, and slopes in the resort are named after him.^[1] Bologna Welcome also describes accessible winter-sports facilities at Corno alle Scale, including adapted ski equipment for people with physical and cognitive disabilities.^[62]

In the warmer seasons, the same mountain and hill areas are used for hiking, mountain biking and nature observation, with routes reaching places such as Lake Scaffaiolo, the Dardagna waterfalls, Monte Sole, Montovolo, the Contrafforte Pliocenico and the Suviana and Brasimone lakes.

The Bolognese Apennines are crossed by several roads, railways and walking routes between Bologna and Tuscany. The Reno valley is followed by the Strada Statale 64 Porrettana and by the Porrettana railway. The Savena and Futa sector is crossed by the Strada Statale 65 della Futa, while the central Apennine crossing between Bologna and Florence is served by the A1 motorway and the Variante di Valico.

The Porrettana railway was one of the major nineteenth-century engineering works across the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. Designed by Jean Louis Protche and officially inaugurated on 2 November 1864, it connected Bologna and Pistoia through Porretta Terme and crossed the Apennine ridge with 47 tunnels and 35 bridges and viaducts.^[63]

A later railway crossing was the Bologna–Florence Direttissima, inaugurated on 22 April 1934. Rete Ferroviaria Italiana describes it as the first fast railway link between northern and southern Italy and notes that it included the 18.5-kilometre Grande Galleria dell'Appennino, at the time the longest double-track railway tunnel in the world.^[64] The later Bologna–Florence high-speed railway created a further trans-Apennine rail crossing, largely developed in tunnel.

The Appennino Bolognese tourism portal lists, among its main walking routes, the Via degli Dei, the Via della Lana e della Seta, the Via Mater Dei and the Piccola Cassia.^[65] The Via degli Dei is a long-distance walking route from Piazza Maggiore in Bologna to Piazza della Signoria in Florence. The official route website describes it as a roughly 130-kilometre itinerary crossing the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines and linking the two cities through historical paths, ridges and mountain villages.^[66]

The Via della Lana e della Seta is a hiking route between Bologna and Prato. Its official website describes it as a 130-kilometre itinerary between Emilia and Tuscany, connected with water, industrial archaeology and the historical textile economies of the two cities.^[67] The Via Mater Dei is a devotional route dedicated to Marian sanctuaries of the Bolognese Apennines. The official website describes it as a 157-kilometre route in seven stages from Bologna to the Apennine sanctuaries, extending to Firenzuola in Tuscany.^[68]

The Via Francesca della Sambuca is a historical and devotional route connecting Bologna and Pistoia along the Reno and Limentra valleys. Discover Alto Reno Terme describes the route as passing through San Luca, Casalecchio di Reno, Sasso Marconi, Marzabotto, Vergato and Riola before climbing toward the Limentra side and continuing to Sambuca Pistoiese and Pistoia.^[69] Visit Pistoia describes it as a 96.2-kilometre route from Bologna to Pistoia, historically connected with pilgrimage toward San Jacopo.^[70]

The Cammino Tesori del Reno is a ring route in the Reno valley. The Appennino Bolognese tourism portal describes it as a 94-kilometre loop starting from Vergato, walkable or rideable in six or three stages, and passing through places such as Grizzana Morandi, La Scola, the Rocchetta Mattei, Montovolo, the caves of Soprasasso and Labante, Castel d'Aiano, Rocca di Roffeno and Tolè.^[71]

The Piccola Cassia is a historical itinerary connected with routes between the central Po Valley and Tuscany. The Cammini Emilia-Romagna portal describes it as a route of about 170 kilometres crossing landscapes from the plain to the hills and the Apennine ridge, passing through the territory between Modena and Bologna and entering the Reno valley around Castel d'Aiano and Gaggio Montano.^[72]

The route associated with the Flaminia Militare is another historical itinerary of the Bolognese Apennines. Bologna Welcome describes the Flaminia Militare as a Roman road traditionally associated with 187 BC and later rediscovered in 1979, with remains visible along the Apennine ridges between the Bolognese and Tuscan sides.^[73] At a broader regional scale, the Alta Via dei Parchi crosses the Apennines between Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Marche. The Emilia-Romagna regional authority describes it as an itinerary of about 500 kilometres, divided into 27 stages, crossing two national parks, five regional parks and one interregional park.^[74]

Because the expression Bolognese Apennines has variable boundaries, lists of municipalities differ according to the source. The wider eXtraBO tourism perimeter lists the following municipalities: Alto Reno Terme, Borgo Tossignano, Camugnano, Casalecchio di Reno, Casalfiumanese, Castel d'Aiano, Castel del Rio, Castel di Casio, Castel San Pietro Terme, Castiglione dei Pepoli, Dozza, Fontanelice, Gaggio Montano, Grizzana Morandi, Lizzano in Belvedere, Loiano, Marzabotto, Monghidoro, Monte San Pietro, Monterenzio, Monzuno, Ozzano dell'Emilia, Pianoro, San Benedetto Val di Sambro, San Lazzaro di Savena, Sasso Marconi, Valsamoggia, Vergato and Zola Predosa.^[4]

The upper Reno and high mountain sector includes municipalities such as Alto Reno Terme, Lizzano in Belvedere, Gaggio Montano, Castel di Casio, Camugnano and Castiglione dei Pepoli. The middle Reno, Setta and Sambro valleys include Marzabotto, Grizzana Morandi, Vergato, Monzuno, San Benedetto Val di Sambro and Sasso Marconi. The Savena, Idice and Zena valleys include Loiano, Monghidoro, Monterenzio, Pianoro, Ozzano dell'Emilia and San Lazzaro di Savena. In wider tourist definitions, the western foothills and the Lavino and Samoggia valleys include Casalecchio di Reno, Monte San Pietro, Valsamoggia and Zola Predosa, while the eastern and south-eastern area includes municipalities such as Borgo Tossignano, Casalfiumanese, Castel del Rio, Castel San Pietro Terme, Dozza and Fontanelice.

• Apennine Mountains
• Tuscan-Emilian Apennines
• Metropolitan City of Bologna
• Corno alle Scale
• Suviana and Brasimone lakes regional park
• Lake Suviana
• Lake Brasimone
• Bargi hydroelectric power station
• Basin of Pavana
• Monte Sole
• Marzabotto massacre
• Mount Bibele
• Via degli Dei
• Riola, Emilia-Romagna
• Rocchetta Mattei
• Montovolo
• Porretta thermal springs
• Santa Maria Assunta, Riola di Vergato
• Guglielmo Marconi
• Operation Encore
• Giorgio Morandi
• Evaporitic Karst and Caves of Northern Apennines
• Enzo Biagi