Trail

Italiano

I have been walking in the mountains for a long time and I think I know what a trail is. I imagine that a path is narrow and walking trail, with dirt, earth and stones or pebbles. I wonder if it is maintained by man, is it flat or sloping, its degree of difficulty. I assumed it was in the mountains, but it could be in the hills, by the sea, in a city park, surrounded by meadows, woods or rocks.
I'm looking for a more precise definition and I find more than one:[^]

• Trail (or path or cattle track): road with a natural bottom formed by the passage of pedestrians and animals.
• Path that is formed naturally and gradually due to continuous and prolonged trampling by human or animal, in a free path of uncertainties and ambiguities, reported in the cadastral maps.
• A narrow way and barely drawn between meadows, woods, rocks, nature areas and anthropogenic landscapes, plains, hills or mountains.
• path, generically narrow that in rural places, mountain or similar was formed following the frequent passage of people and animals.
• A trail is usually a path, track or unpaved lane or road.[^]

Classification based on difficulty according to the Italian Alpine Club

In order to better define the different types of trail and suggest at the same time the degree of difficulty of the journey hiking, Central Commission of the Club Alpino Italiano has identified a classification of the routes:

• Tourist trail (path or itinerary) (T)
• Hiking trail (E)
• Trail for expert hikers or Alpine trail (EE)
• Trail for expert hikers with equipment (EEA), the classic via ferrata or equipped
• Path in a snowy environment (EAI), with the use of snowshoes

Particular paths of interest, the Historical path, which retraces ancient roads, and the Thematic path, an educational path for information purposes (naturalistic, glaciological, geological, historical, religious), are of difficulty level T or E.

References

1. "Definzione giuridica [Legal definition]". In Sentiero (in Italian) Wikipedia: L'enciclopedia libera. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
2. "Trail". Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
3. Sede centrale (20 November 2021). "Classificazione dei percorsi in base alla difficoltà in ambito escursionistico e cicloescursionistico [Classification of routes based on difficulty in the field of hiking and cycling]". [Word File]. (in Italian). Club Alpino Italiano. Retrieved 3 June 2022.