Mara, the young guide specializing in routes for teenagers
Mara, the young guide specializing in routes for teenagers
This, our fourth interview with a guide, finally leads us to have a chat with a girl: Mara.
Mara Battilana is a guide of the Compagnia dei Cammini, like Matteo Casula, Daniele Moschini and Andrea Laurenzano, the three guides in the previous interviews.
Originally from Castiglione dei Pepoli, a town in the center of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, practically equidistant from the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Adriatic, Mara has lived for years in the south-east of Sardinia.
Question: Mara, how long have you been a guide?
Mara: I have been an Environmental Hiking Guide since since 2015 and I am one of the new guides of the Compagnia dei Cammini having joined the group last year, in 2023.
Specialized in paths for children, those which in the Compagnia dei Cammini offer are called “Wild Fox”.
Question: among the many paths for which you have been and are a guide, which one holds a special place in your heart?
Mara: difficult to choose! I particularly love walking in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines.
Question: regarding the routes in this region, what are their “pearls”? What can’t those who want to tackle them independently miss, among all that there is to see and that an official and professional guide always shows?
Mara: “hidden pearls” along this path are the Apennine villages that resist history, lakes on streams where you can take regenerating baths, variety of landscapes.
Question: what to taste in the countries crossed by this path?
Mara: Emilian cuisine offers a wide range of delicacies, from tortelloni to crescentine, etc…
Question: recommended period to tackle these paths?
Mara: June.
Question: CAMCO is a partner of the Compagnia dei Cammini for clothing, what CAMCO product do you have, how do you like it?
Mara: I have two Brèva t-shirts, one in grey-lavender and one red (worn in the photographs, ed.). I used the t-shirt in summer and winter, used both at night, as a t-shirt for sleeping in the sleeping bag, and during the day.
A versatile t-shirt that satisfied me on trips with different temperatures, thanks also to its drying speed, its softness and its thermal properties.
Question: a curiosity that we promised to all our readers, as a gem of the interview: what do you always put in your backpack that no one – or almost no one – thinks about?
Mara: Water bottle with filter, to always have the possibility of replenishing water.
Question: To conclude, what will be the next paths on which you will be a guide?
Mara: Valleys and Peaks for Apennine Foxes, a journey for boys and girls aged 14 to 17, from 16 to 22 June
Mara: Valleys and Peaks for Apennine Foxes, a journey for boys and girls aged 14 to 17, from 16 to 22 June.
We thank Mara and remember that on the Compagnia dei Cammini website it is possible to consult the programming of all the paths that will see her as a guide in 2024.
We warmly invite you to consult the page dedicated to Mara within the Compagnia dei Cammini portal!
