Corno Grande
The highest peak.
Bouke ten Cate — CC BY 4.0 · Giorgio Galeotti — CC BY 4.0 · Fiat 500e — CC BY 4.0 · Elio Pallard — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Aquilo — CC BY-SA 4.0
Campo Imperatore, the Emperor's Field, is a vast mountain grassland on a plateau above the Gran Sasso massif, the largest plateau in the Apennines, in Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park near L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy, about 21 km northeast of the city in a straight line. It is nicknamed Little Tibet. The plateau is 27 km long, averages 8 km wide and covers about 80 square kilometres, at altitudes of 1,500 to 1,900 metres. It was shaped by tectonic forces, alluvium and glaciers. It lies beside the highest peak of the Apennines, Corno Grande, and Europe's southernmost glacier. More than twenty films have been shot here, and one of Italy's oldest ski resorts sits on its western edge. Wide golden and green plains, almost treeless, stretch to the horizon, ringed by sharp rocky peaks, above all the grey-violet bulk of Corno Grande. Horses graze the plateau, and small ponds are scattered across it. Visitors drive up on mountain roads from L'Aquila. Hikers come in summer, and skiers in winter to the resort at its western end. The weather up high changes quickly, so bring warm clothes even in summer.
The highest peak.
Little Tibet.
Grazing.
Gran Sasso National Park, near L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy
By car on mountain roads from L'Aquila.
Changeable even in summer.