Mount Serralta di San Vito (m 1023)

Serralta di San Vito, a name with distant roots.

First of all, the most indicative part of the name, from the Latin serra, saw, usually referring to a mountainous relief with a precisely serrated profile. In the case of a relief with a soft profile such as this, however, the name would more appropriately be said to refer to forestry activities and specifically to the water-powered sawmills that operated there.

A full horizon view

Otherwise, the toponym refers to the fact that the mountain sits at the apex of the northernmost of the mountainous subgroups that form the Serre and that the town of reference was San Vito allo Ionio. Net of antennas, the summit offers a view that rewards climbing from the Fosso di Lupo pass in Girifalco territory.

Splendid beech forests from summit to summit

From the north, it is a crescendo of undulations- "a labyrinth of hilly croups," writes a local author-that rise of the isthmus of Catanzaro, a bottleneck where Ionian and Tyrrhenian seas are separated only by 35 kilometers. Toward the south, on the other hand, the ridge that continues to Mount Cucco (959 m) accompanied by beautiful beech forests starts. With the help of the map there you will recognize the succession of these intermediate rises: mount Acid/Acero (m 956), mount Perrone (m 921), mount Pizzinni (m 918) and mount Sant'Agnese (m 903). From this section of the main ridge, a short branch off towards the southwest culminates in Mt. Coppari (m 951).