"Campo Imperatore could be Tibet. It resembles the Phari-Dzong plain, on the road between India and Lhasa". This is how naturalist Fosco Maraini used to describe the wide upland when he visited it in the late 1930s. Going upwards from Assergi towards the Fossa di Paganica pass, from the medieval village of Castel del Monte to the Capo la Serra pass, or from Farindola to Vado di Sole, the horizon actually extends, spaces become wider, dimensions turn immense when looking at Campo Imperatore, the high plain which was named after the Emperor Frederick II.
The upland lies at an altitude ranging between 1,500 m and 1,900 m, it is more than 20 km long and 3 to 7 km wide. The slope gently climbs alternating alluvial plains of lake origin with moraines originated by old glaciers, rock glaciers, snow moraines, cirques, debris-covered areas and pebble-covered river beds, rough rock slopes, steep faces. The summits delimiting and surrounding the "little Tibet" are among the highest and most fascinating ones in the Apennines: the Scindarella and Mount Portella, with their amazing cirques, the Corno Grande overlooking the landscape with its four high summits, Mount Aquila, the dolomite mountains Brancastello, Torri di Casanova, and Mount Prena with its rough areas rich in canyons, and the steep grassy southern slope of Mount Camicia.