The path 436: from Montemarcello to Punta Corvo beach

Quietly nestled among the pines of Aleppo and the olive groves, on top of the easternmost promontory of the Gulf of Poets, the village of Montemarcello, a hamlet of Ameglia, has two souls: one as a river land, being close to the mouth of the Magra river and the other one as a land of sea, because from here all the paths descend towards the Ligurian Sea.
Thanks to its position, with a splendid view of the Gulf of Poets and its tranquility immersed in the Mediterranean scrub, Montemarcello has become the good retreat for artists and intellectuals: here you could meet famous people like Indro Montanelli (famous journalist) and Ornella Vanoni (famous singer).
The medieval village with its stone houses, the surrounding walls, the old oil mills has been fully included among the “Borghi più belli d’Italia” (the most beautiful villages in Italy), while in 1995 the area surrounding it has started to be protected thanks to the establishment of the Natural Park of Montemarcello-Magra with two distinct areas: the fluvial area of ​​Bocca di Magra and that of Mount Caprione, where the town rises.Among the numerous paths that depart from the village, certainly one of the most evocative is no. 536 that descends with hundreds of steps to the splendid beach of Punta Corvo, one of the very few of this stretch of coast, formed by a rough dark gray sand.

The path starts from the sea side of the town, detaching itself from the pedestrian path that leads to the splendid viewpoint of the place; initially it gently descends between land of olive trees and typical rustic local stone and after the junction with path no. 444 (that horizontally crossing the promontory leads to the enchanting seafaring village of Tellaro), reaches a forest of oaks and pines of Aleppo where it throws itself vertically on the underlying coast towards the splendid blue of the Ligurian Sea.

The considerable slope of the land in the last part that leads to the beach of Punta Corvo, is mitigated by the mastery of the maintainers of the path who, with great works of naturalistic engineering, using only wooden artifacts, have succeeded in securing this ancient path, without altering the beauty of these magical places.
Diving in the crystal clear waters of the beach admiring the archipelago of the three islands (Portovenere, Tino and Tinetto) that close the Gulf of Poets in front of Portovenere, will be the worthy reward of the hiker.
Punta Corvo can be reached, as well as with path no. 436, with a boat service that leaves from the nearby Bocca di Magra.