Ligurian Alps in the context of Mountain range

The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (/ˈæpənaɪn/ AP-ə-nyne; Italian: Appennini [appenˈniːni]) are a mountain range consisting of parallel smaller chains extending c. 1,200 km (750 mi) the length of peninsular Italy. In the northwest they join the Ligurian Alps at Altare. In the southwest they end at Reggio di Calabria, the coastal city at the tip of the peninsula. Since 2000 the Environment Ministry of Italy, following the recommendations of the Apennines Park of Europe Project, has defined the Apennines System to include the mountains of north Sicily, a total distance of 1,500 kilometres (930 mi). The system forms an arc enclosing the east of the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian seas.

The Apennines conserve some intact ecosystems that have survived human intervention. In these are some of the best-preserved forests and montane grasslands in Europe, now protected by national parks and, within them, a high diversity of flora and fauna. These mountains are one of the last refuges of the big European predators such as the Italian wolf and the Marsican brown bear, now extinct in the rest of Central Europe.

The Tanaro (Italian pronunciation: [ˈtaːnaro]; Piedmontese: Tane [ˈtɑne]; Ligurian: Tànau [ˈtana(ɹ)u]; Latin: Tanarus) is a 276-kilometre (171 mi) long river in northwestern Italy. The river begins in the Ligurian Alps, near the border with France, and is the most significant right-side tributary to the Po in terms of length, size of drainage basin (partly Alpine, partly Apennine), and discharge.

Colle di Cadibona - 436 m (1,430 ft) - is a mountain pass between Savona and Altare in the Ligurian Alps, delineating the boundary with the Apennine Mountains.It is also known as Bocchetta di Altare. On the south-eastern side of the Alps Godovič Pass (Slovenia) conventionally represents the opposite end of the Alpine range.

The Statielli, Statiellātes, or Statiellenses were members of a small Ligurian tribe that inhabited an area south of the river Padus (today the Po). Their chief town was Aquae Statiellae (Acqui Terme), on the road from Vada Sabatia, near Savona to Dertona (Tortona) and Placentia.The Statielli settled in the territory bordered to the west and north by the course of the Tanaro river, to the east by the Orba, and to the south by the Alpine-Apennine Ligurian watershed, an area now included between the current provinces of Alessandria, Savona, Asti and Cuneo.

During the early Iron Age, the area today corresponding to southern Piedmont appears to have been inhabited by a different ethnic group without a clear ethnic diversification. It is only from the fourth century BC that the Statielli population is recognizable. The ethnonym contains the typical Ligurian suffix -ello-. The origin of the name can be traced back to the Indo-European root for "to stay", and therefore means "the natives, those who occupy a territory", evidently in contrast with other neighboring groups to which a movement is attributed.