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The Grand Italian Trail (Italian: Sentiero Italia) is a 6166-kilometer-long hiking trail that crosses the entire nation of Italy.
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Overview
The path, which is divided into 368 legs, begins in Trieste and then crosses the entire Alpine Arc, the entire Apennine mountain chain, Sicily and Sardinia before ending at Santa Teresa Gallura in Sardinia. The trail uses long sections of pre-existing trails including the Grand Alpine Trail (GTA: Grande Traversata delle Alpi), the Ligurian Mountain Trail (AVML: Alta Via dei Monti Liguri), and the Tuscan Grand Apennine Trail (GEA: Grande Escursione Appenninica).
History
The original idea for this trail originated in 1983 within a group of ambitious hikers. With the help of the Italian Alpine Club, the trail became a reality in 1995 in the first ever CamminaItalia ("Walk Italy"), an event in which a group of trekkers departed from a Sardinian coastal village and covered the entire trail in eight months. The accomplishment was repeated in 1999; this time with the collaboration of the Italian National Alpine Association.
Since this time, the evolution of this project has slowed. While the trail blaze was chosen for the trail - a marking of red-white-red with "SI" written underneath in black - many legs of the trail remain un-marked and are only a part of the GIT on the map.
