Low tour of the 12 fountains, from Piuzzo

Introduction

Below are a few notes on the route created by the CAI section of Novi Ligure. In these notes, the very long "12 fountains" tour (8h!) has been divided into two distinct rings, with a more human distance of about 4h30m (theoretical) each (about 5h at the end); this makes the route accessible to a greater number of hikers without reserving it only for the most trained... Here I highlight the first part. Although the route is sufficiently signposted overall, it is quite convoluted, with many forks (some of which are not very obvious and with few signs) and great care must be taken (the most obvious route is often not the right one) and we had to turn back a couple of times... A partial disappointment was that many of the springs have dried up... a pleasant surprise, however, was finding small newts in the pools...

Description

From the square of Piuzzo 940m, climb a flight of steps to the left of the square and following the marker [221], go right. You arrive, passing a wooden cross, at the first fountain of Poetto 955m (tritons present). The track continues for about a kilometre on the level, then suddenly and inconspicuously (be careful!) veers to the left towards the mountain in a northerly direction up a steep slope into the forest. It then flattens out and then proceeds in a twisted manner (there is a dirt track nearby that should not be followed) and after about two hundred metres you reach the second Coppai or Coppaie fountain 1085 m (dry but with tritons). We continue on and then in a not very obvious way (at one point we have to lose 50 metres of altitude to the left) until we find the very fresh and abundant Gure fountain (Funtana da Gure) 1165 m... a real relief given the oppressive heat, despite the altitude...
On reaching the Costa delle Braglie, the forest turns into a beautiful and cool beech forest. After a final ascent, we run along the ridge until we reach the Madonnina del Pascolo (1419 m). Here, being the highest point of our short tour, we took our lunch break in front of a sloping meadow full of flowers of many colours... Having finished our break, we descended through meadows, keeping to the right and carefully following the signs we arrived at the fork in the road, which to the right leads to the Bocca di Creno and to the left to the Pascolo fountain. From the crossroads, a track can be glimpsed that descends into the woods (further to the left) and perhaps leads to the Malga di Costa Rivazza... instead, we continue on towards the fountain and a large beech tree can be seen... just before the fountain, a tree is felled on the way, but it is easily overcome...
Right from the fountain you can see an obvious path going downhill (to the left of where you came from), but we continue past the spring on a wide track, no longer marked with CAI symbols, which then immediately tends to narrow... to the left you can see the brook that has carved out the terrain over time in a very clear way, but we tend to keep slightly to the right and in less than 5 minutes we come out onto a level dirt track. We go left, passing two slightly rising streams, then cross a meadow (constructed cairn) and re-enter the forest, a few minutes and we are at a new fork (constructed cairn).
You have found the dirt road that goes up the ridge and you turn left downhill... at a new crossroads you keep to the left downhill (constructed cairn) you pass near the intake of the Piuzzo aqueduct and come out onto a wide meadow bordering the Rivazza mountain hut and the Burdèile fountain 1287 m, where you find the n. 220 which should take us back to Piuzzo
There we take the dirt track which we then leave shortly afterwards to the right in a steep descent... we pass the Funtana du Lavagé 1113 m and enter another dirt track... but this too is then abandoned to see the last fountain (Funtana du Trunko) ... although we eventually missed the junction and turning back we immediately bent into the woods uphill, without seeing the last spring, on a barely visible track which then slowly widens out and finally leads back to Piuzzo.

Different links on the topic http://www.cralgalliera.altervista.org/altre09.htm

Direct links

Updated fact sheet on the original idea of splitting the long tour of the 12 Fountains into two loops
http://www.cralgalliera.altervista.org/12fontaneresoconto.pdf

cutout map
http://www.cralgalliera.altervista.org/fontanadelpascolo.pdf

photo part 1
http://www.cralgalliera.altervista.org/12fontane.pdf