Muzzerone: White Limestone Dropping Into the Sea Above Porto Venere, Single Pitches and Short Bolted Multi-Pitch | Italy Climbing Crags

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Muzzerone is a headland at the eastern end of Liguria, above Porto Venere, with a long line of white and grey limestone walls on its west side that fall straight into the sea. It lies inside the Porto Venere Regional Natural Park (Parco Naturale Regionale di Porto Venere), whose climbing page opens with: "Il Muzzerone e le sue falesie sono diventati uno dei luoghi più amati e frequentati da migliaia di arrampicatori provenienti da tutta Europa" — Muzzerone and its cliffs have become one of the best-loved and busiest spots for thousands of climbers from all over Europe.

This post covers what to decide before going: whether it suits you, which months, how to get up there, which sectors you can actually climb right now, and what to watch for when parking. For a bigger sport-climbing area in the same region, see Finale Ligure.

What kind of crag is it

Rock. The local climbing school, Scuola di Arrampicata Muzzerone, calls it "un solido e ottimo calcare, in prevalenza bianco e grigio" — solid, excellent limestone, mostly white and grey. Most climbing is on vertical or slightly overhanging walls with small edges and water pockets (gocce d'acqua), "a volte dolorose" — sometimes painful. Planetmountain describes the climbing as "molto tecnica ed elegante", with footwork the key skill. There is steep ground too: Polveriera is stamina climbing on tufas (canne), and Specchio di Atlantide needs finger strength; Planetmountain says the exposure below it "non ha nulla da invidiare a quello del Verdon" — nothing to envy the Verdon for.

History. The park website says the Navy special forces (incursori della Marina Militare) used these cliffs for training in the 1970s and bolted Parete Centrale first. Local climbers started adding routes in the late 1970s, and in the early 1990s "le due falesie più belle del Muzzerone" — the two finest walls on Muzzerone — were found and developed.

Size. The sites count very differently (checked 2026-10-18):

Multi-pitch. theCrag says multi-pitch routes go "up to 270m long. However most of the multi-pitch routes are 2 or 3 pitches long". For longer routes Planetmountain points to Parete Striata, "in un ambiente veramente selvaggio" — in a truly wild setting. theCrag lists Pilastro del Bunker at 160 m.

Who it suits. Grades run from 4 to 8b. The Versante Sud guidebook blurb says "The grades are never extreme", with multi-pitch routes "with bolts placed nearby and with short approach walks". Quickdraws and a 70 m rope (the length Planetmountain gives) cover most routes; if you want two- or three-pitch bolted routes over the sea, there is more choice here than at a plain roadside crag. Parete Centrale is so easy to reach that Mountain Project and Planetmountain both say the easier routes are polished.

When to go

Aspect drives the season. Planetmountain says every wall faces west and is "ottimamente riparate dai gelidi venti settentrionali" — well sheltered from cold north winds; theCrag and Mountain Project say most face south-west. Mountain Project warns that summer is "blazing hot". Planetmountain's summer advice is to skip the hottest hours and use morning shade and the cooler afternoon Mistral. Planetmountain's Atlantide Bassa page also recommends that sector for winter, while in summer it "heats up like an oven".

Getting there

Public transport

The local bus company, ATC Esercizio, says "ATC serves Portovenere with lines P and line 11". The park's Track N.1 page says Piazza Bastreri in Porto Venere can be reached "by car or bus line 11 or P, or with the ferry from La Spezia or Lerici".

From Piazza Bastreri take the steps behind the castle up to the Cava Canese junction. Right leads via the hamlet of Mortea to the Rifugio Muzzerone hut; straight on climbs steeply to the Fortezza Muzzerone fort, from where, the park page says, "you can admire a fantastic view over the climbing area". Planetmountain and theCrag both give about 30 minutes from Porto Venere on path 1 or 1a. I did not find a first-hand timetable for frequencies or last buses; check the ATC website before you go.

Driving

27crags' access page has the most detail. Drive from La Spezia towards Porto Venere; about 600 m after entering Le Grazie, an uphill road goes off to the right with a brown "Palestra Rocciatori" sign, passing between two tooth-shaped rocks. Climb past a large quarry on your left, keep left at the first junction (1.5 km), then after another 1.6 km keep left again onto a slightly downhill road at the second junction. Planetmountain puts the mountain road at about 4 km, Falesia.it at about 5 km.

Parking

27crags lists two spots:

• Atlantide and Garimpo: the second hairpin, just before the small quarry.
• Central sectors and Cajenna: a hairpin 700 m past the quarry. 27crags says you could once drive on to other car parks, but "now you have to stop here".

27crags adds a warning: do not park on the narrow sections, because "Heavy vehicles and trucks accessing the high quarry pass through frequently". Use only the wide spots and hairpins and leave the trucks room to turn.

theCrag gives the approach as "Steep hike 10-20 min". 27crags says Atlantide, Garimpo and Pilastro del Forte are reached down fixed ropes.

Rules to know before you go

The Parete Centrale ban. The park's climbing page says that after a geological and geomechanical study found Parete Centrale unstable, the town of Porto Venere issued Ordinance no. 2616 of 6 August 2014: "si vieta l'accesso e l'attività di arrampicata presso la "parete centrale" del Muzzerone" — access to and climbing on Parete Centrale are prohibited. The ordinance says the study found "blocchi più o meno grandi di roccia instabili distribuiti su tutta l'area indagata" — unstable blocks of various sizes across the whole surveyed area — and that the town meant to carry out work as soon as possible so the area could be used at an acceptable risk. Sources disagree on where things stand now:

I found no notice from the town lifting the ban. At the crag, look for prohibition signs at the Parete Centrale entrance; if they are there, climb elsewhere.

Climb only marked routes. The walls sit inside the park's integral nature reserve RNI.1 "Falesie di Porto Venere – Muzzerone – Castellana". The ordinance cites article 5.4 of the park plan: climbing is allowed in this reserve "ma solo nelle vie già individuate e opportunamente segnalate" — but only on routes already identified and properly marked. Don't establish new lines or cut your own paths.

Bolt condition. theCrag says the 18 sectors "have recently been re-bolted", and Falesia.it lists spits, fixes and stainless-steel eyebolts. Climbook's Muzzerone (L'intaglio, Centrale) page carries a warning that the crag has not been maintained for years, that the fixed gear is no longer reliable and the crag should be avoided, adding that the dangerous state of fixed gear on the sea cliffs applies to the whole of the eastern Ligurian coast. The same page says its data is "Agg. Dicembre 2019 (dati febbraio 2008)" — updated December 2019, data from February 2008. Bolts by the sea corrode, so check the bolts and lower-offs yourself before climbing.

Where to stay. Rifugio Muzzerone is on trail no. 1; theCrag says it is a 20-minute walk to the main crags. Planetmountain says the hut takes "al momento max 12 persone" — currently 12 people at most — with showers and hot water.

Routes by level

YDS and V-grade conversions follow the Mountain Project international grade comparison chart and are approximate; "approx." marks grades the sources give without a/b/c (such as 4 or 5+). The original grade is the one that counts.

Of 27crags' 294 sport routes, grade 5 and 6a are the most common; theCrag's per-sector counts are Parete Centrale 96, Cajenna 32, Atlantide 28, Pilastro del Bunker 27, Parete delle Meraviglie 26, Poveriera 15, Specchio di Atlantide 14, Garimpo 12 and Polveriera 12. Routes marked "see ban" are on Parete Centrale, so check the ordinance status in the previous section first.

Beginner: up to 6a (YDS 5.10a and below)

Planetmountain calls Parete Centrale "il luogo ideale per i principianti e per le famiglie" (the ideal place for beginners and families), but that is the very wall that was closed in 2014. In the grade ranges collected by Toscoclimb, other easier sectors are Parete delle Meraviglie (3–7a), Poveriera (5b–6b+) and Pilastro di Mezzo (4c–6c).

Intermediate: 6a+ to 6c+ (YDS 5.10b–5.11c)

For multi-pitch, go to Parete Striata (5c–7a per Toscoclimb). RedClimber calls Kimera "una delle più ripetute" (one of the most repeated) on the wall, but adds "per divertirsi conviene padroneggiare bene il 6a" (to enjoy it, you want to be solid at 6a).

Gulliver says that after a rockfall wiped out the approach on the right side of Parete Striata, the Pro Rock guides rigged an abseil approach of 4 rappels (70 m rope; the first is exactly 35 m). The alternative is a traverse along steel cables and fixed ropes in poor condition. Tramontana has a short section of conglomerate, so wear a helmet.

Advanced: 7a to 7c+ (YDS 5.11d–5.13a)

Toscoclimb describes Garimpo (6c–8a+) as finger routes on an overhanging wall, and says Specchio di Atlantide (7a–8b) holds Muzzerone's hardest routes. Planetmountain says the right side of Atlantide Bassa is an overhanging red band, the left side sharp slabs.

Climbook's Atlantide page carries the same gear warning as its Centrale page, also based on 2008 data.

Expert: 8a and up (YDS 5.13b and up)

All on Specchio di Atlantide and Garimpo. Toscoclimb says almost all the hard lines on Specchio were bolted and first climbed by Roberto Vigiani in the late 1980s, and the hardest have all been rebolted.

Where to find more information

• Guidebooks: route grades and route counts in this article come mainly from online databases such as theCrag and Mountain Project; where they disagree, go with the guidebook.
  • Muzzerone (Davide Battistella, Versante Sud, 2017, separate Italian, English and German editions): sport routes and bolted multi-pitches; this edition adds the Punta Bianca DWS area, and it is also in the iClimbing app. The publisher has no newer edition as of the check date. The author is president of the local association Blu Verticale Muzzerone, and theCrag says the book covers "over 600 routes". The older Muzzerone e Levante Ligure has been replaced.
• 27crags / theTopo: the most detailed driving and sector approach notes; topos are paid.
• theCrag: route counts and heights by sector.
• Porto Venere Regional Natural Park: the ordinance PDF and trail information.
• Planetmountain: the full Parete Centrale route list and other crags within 50 km.

References

• Parco Naturale di Porto Venere: Palestra di Roccia (in Italian)
• Comune di Porto Venere: Ordinance no. 2616 of 6 August 2014 (PDF, in Italian)
• Parco Naturale di Porto Venere: Track N.1
• ATC Esercizio: ATC for Tourism
• Visit Portovenere: Arrampicata (in Italian)
• Planetmountain: Muzzerone Parete Centrale (in Italian)
• Planetmountain: Muzzerone Atlantide Bassa
• Up-Climbing: Avviati i lavori al Muzzerone (2014, in Italian)
• Scuola di Arrampicata Muzzerone: La Falesia del Muzzerone (in Italian)
• theCrag: Muzzerone
• 27crags: Muzzerone
• 27crags: Muzzerone Access
• UKC Logbook: Muzzerone
• Mountain Project: Muzzerone
• Falesia.it: Muzzerone (in Italian)
• Climbook: Muzzerone (L'intaglio, Centrale) (in Italian)
• Versante Sud: Muzzerone
• Toscoclimb: Muzzerone, Rock D.O.C.G.
• Climbook: Muzzerone (Atlantide) route list
• Bergführer Dolomiten: Vie lunghe in Liguria – Muzzerone
• RedClimber: Via Kimera
• RedClimber: Parete Striata, Via Angina Pectoris
• Pro Rock Outdoor: Muzzerone, Parete Striata, Tramontana
• Gulliver: Muzzerone, Parete Striata – Tramontana
• vielunghe.com: Parete Striata, Via Siddharta
• vielunghe.com: Parete Striata, Via Supernova
• Scuola Guido Della Torre: Monte Muzzerone, Parete Striata – via Supernova
• Versante Sud, Up-Climbing: No siesta 8b