Bird’s eye view over Il Passo del Lupo and the famous “Le Due Sorelle”

The Due Sorelle (two sisters / nuns) bay is rightly one of the most beautiful bays in the Adriatic Sea and takes its name from the 2 rock pinnacles that protrude from the sea on the edge of the bay and are shaped like two praying nuns. The bay can only be reached by sea. Located in the middle of the Monte Conero Nature Park, injured and recovered sea turtles are released into the wild several times a year. There are neither restaurants nor hotels, but only day tourists who come from the surrounding places in excursion boats or canoes and leave the beach in the evening.

And then there are those who try to reach the bay via land via the Passo del Lupo, the wolf path, although there is an urgent warning against it. Some make it, others have to be rescued from predicament and mortal danger in costly rescue operations. I urge you only to visit Due Sorelle Bay by boat or canoe, which is lovely anyway and the passages are not really expensive.

But what is very worthwhile and less dangerous is to hike on Monte Conero to the lookout point where the Passo del Lupo begins. Elke, my German fellow blogger and her husband did it last October: “We start our short, almost 10 km long hike at the former Camaldolensian convent, the Badia di San Pietro. Here you can easily park your car in the parking lot in front of the Hotel Monte Conero.

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The pleasantly shady forest path (hiking trail 301, direction Fonte d’Olio) initially leads past the Hotel Monte Conero.

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After a short time the first beautiful and wide view of the blue Adriatic is offered, some more will follow in the course of the process. After about a kilometer, we turn left onto hiking trail 302 towards Passo del Lupo. After about 500 meters the path splits. We choose the path on the left, which is marked with a no hiking sign.

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We continue anyway, because the path is still well developed and initially only leads to the viewpoint above the actual Passo del Lupo, which we reach after another kilometer along the steep coast of Monte Conero.

Once arrived, there are breathtaking views of the famous Due Sorelle bay. Spectacular! The place is far from being overcrowded in October, but there are still some people who of course all want to take their photo with a view. Just like me 🙂

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We are now on our way back, because we do not want to and are not allowed to go down the “Passo del Lupo” itself.

We initially walk back 1-1.5 kilometers until we come back to the junction with hiking trail 301, but this time we keep in the direction of Sirolo. The path is wide and flat and leads us along a magnificent olive grove.

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After a while we come to the paved road Via Monte Conero. We keep to the right and walk past the Belvedere bar and the B&B La Ginestra. Shortly after that there is a parking lot on the right-hand side. From there we take hiking trail 301 again and head towards Pian di Raggetti.

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A little further on, a picnic area with an archaeological vantage point invites you to linger. Here you can see different ages in the rock formation. In particular, the transition from the Cretaceous to the Tertiary, i.e. the time when the large dinosaurs began to extinct on a massive scale around 66 million years ago, and the fauna and flora as we know them gradually developed. The board explains everything in English and Italian.

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We continue on hiking trail 305 towards Pian di Raggetti. We have already been here on one of our last hikes: it is a beautiful viewpoint of the sea and the Appennine Mountains and a wild meadow biotope at the same time, named after the last farming family, the Raggetti, who cultivated the meadow in the last century.

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We leave the plateau again on our hiking trail 301 towards Ex Convento Camaldolensi, the starting point of our excursion.

I think that on this moderate hike with 10 kilometers and around 400 meters of altitude, you get a lot to see, above all of course the great viewpoint of the Due Sorelle Bay. It goes through quiet, shady forest sections, but also a piece along the steep coast of Monte Conero.

Here you can view and download the track.

The municipality of Sirolo is considering making the Passo del Lupo accessible and opening it up. Since the realization is quite complex, it will probably take a few more years …