Valicai Terms of Use
Version 1.0, effective from 21 October 2026. Last updated: 21 October 2026. If the Italian and English versions differ, the Italian version prevails.
First of all: the mountains
Read this part even if you skip the rest.
- Trail status in Valicai is indicative and dated information. It sums up what we know from public sources and user reports, with the date of the latest news. It is not a permit, not a guarantee, and it never says a trail is safe.
- A green trail means "no issues reported as of" a given date. Conditions change within hours: landslides, fallen trees, snow, ice, floods, thunderstorms.
- You remain responsible for your hike. Assess your fitness, equipment, weather, timing and the route difficulty before you leave and while you walk. If in doubt, turn back.
- On site, signs, official orders and instructions from the authorities prevail, even when the app says otherwise.
- In an emergency, call 112. Valicai does not replace rescue services.
1. Who provides the service
Valicai is provided by Thomas Casali, private individual ("we"). Contact: privacy@valicai.app.
2. Acceptance and test version
By using the app or the website valicai.app you accept these terms and acknowledge the privacy policy (valicai.app/en/privacy). On first launch we ask you to accept them explicitly.
During the closed test, and as long as the app is labelled "beta", Valicai is a test version: some features may be missing, change or stop, and status data covers only a few pilot areas. The service is free. If we introduce paid features in the future, they will be governed by separate conditions that you will have to accept before buying.
3. Minimum age
You must be at least 18 years old to use Valicai and create an account. If we find that an account belongs to a minor, we delete it.
4. What Valicai does
Valicai shows Italian hiking trails on a map, with route pages (difficulty on the CAI scale, ascent, times, elevation profile), traffic-light status with source and date, navigation with junction alerts, the AR view at junctions or the indicative direction, community reports, an assistant based on artificial intelligence, and some safety features (112 button, expected return).
5. Trail status: how to read it
| Colour | What it means | What it does not mean |
|---|---|---|
| Green | no issues reported as of the date shown, and at least one recent source confirms it | that the trail is safe or in good condition today |
| Yellow | there is information that calls for attention (for example weather, snow, an unconfirmed report, a partial closure) | that the trail is closed, or that being careful is enough |
| Red | a source reports a closure, a ban or a hazard on the route or on part of it | that the rest of the area is passable |
| Grey | we have no recent information | that the trail is passable |
For every status we show the reasons, the source and the date. Some information is extracted automatically from public documents with the help of an artificial intelligence system: we label it as such, and it may contain errors. Sources may be incomplete, late or wrong, and some authorities do not publish closures at all.
Difficulty, times and ascent come from the sources listed in §12 and are estimates for an average hiker in good conditions. EE and EEA routes require experience and, for EEA, specific equipment.
6. Navigation, AR, location and battery
- The phone's GPS can be off by tens of metres, especially in woods, narrow valleys and near rock faces.
- AR arrows and the "indicative direction" at junctions are an aid: always compare them with the signs and the map. Where we say so, the direction is only indicative.
- Junction and off-route alerts may be late or not arrive at all, for example if the operating system closes the app, the battery is low or the GPS signal is weak.
- Navigation uses battery. Start with a charged phone and, for long hikes, a spare battery. Carry a paper map and know how to find your way without a phone.
- Offline maps cover the downloaded areas and are as current as the download date.
7. Account
You are responsible for your account credentials and for what happens with your account. If you think someone is using it without permission, write to us. You can delete your account at any time from the app (Account, then "Delete account") or from the page https://valicai.app/account/delete.
8. User content
8.1 What you can publish
You can publish reports on trail conditions (text, photos, location, date) and confirm or dispute other users' reports. Publish only what you saw yourself, with the right date.
The following content is not allowed:
- false or misleading content, including made-up reports or reports meant to get a trail closed or opened;
- offensive, threatening, discriminatory, violent or sexually explicit content;
- content showing recognisable people without their consent, number plates, or private homes in close-up;
- personal data of others (names, phone numbers, addresses);
- advertising, spam, links to commercial services;
- content that infringes copyright or other third-party rights;
- illegal content, or content that encourages dangerous or prohibited behaviour (for example entering closed areas).
8.2 Licence on your content
Your content stays yours. By publishing it you grant us a free, non-exclusive, worldwide licence, for as long as we keep it, to show it in the app and on the website, adapt it to the format (for example resize a photo), use it to compute trail status and store it as described in the privacy policy.
Factual information derived from a report (type of issue, location, date, outcome of confirmations) becomes part of the trail status database, which we distribute under the Open Database License (ODbL), as required by the map sources we use (§12). The text and photos of the report are not part of that distribution.
8.3 Moderation, Report and Block
- Every report goes through an automatic filter. Reports the filter holds back are reviewed by a moderator before publication.
- Every piece of content and every user has Report and Block controls. When you block a user, you no longer see their content.
- We review content reports within 24 hours. Moderators may be volunteers we have authorised.
- We may remove or hide content, or suspend an account, if it breaches these terms or the law. We tell you which content, which rule and why, unless the law prevents us, and you can challenge the decision by replying to our message or writing to privacy@valicai.app. Where possible, the decision is reviewed by a different person from the one who took it.
- If an account repeatedly publishes manifestly illegal or false content, we may suspend it for a reasonable period, after a warning.
- Anyone, even without an account, can report illegal content to us at abuse@valicai.app with the link or a description of the content and the reason.
Point of contact for authorities and users under Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act): abuse@valicai.app, in Italian or English.
9. AI assistant
- The assistant is an artificial intelligence system, not a person. The app says so.
- It answers using Valicai's data and can be wrong, even when it sounds confident. Always check status, source and date on the route page.
- It does not give you the go-ahead to leave and does not replace your judgement or rescue services. For an emergency, call 112.
- Use is subject to limits (number of conversations and messages per month) and may be suspended, for example when the service spending cap is reached.
- Do not use it for content prohibited by §8.1 or to try to get around its rules. Do not write sensitive personal data that the question does not need.
10. Expected return and safety features
- The 112 button starts the call from your phone: you make the call, and you need network coverage. Links to emergency apps open third-party services.
- Expected return sends an alert to you and an email to the contact you chose if you do not confirm your return in time. It does not alert 112 or mountain rescue. The email may be late, end up in spam or not arrive; the last position sent may be hours old if the phone had no network.
- Before entering someone as your contact, tell them and make sure they agree. In any case, tell someone where you are going and when you will be back.
11. Limitation of liability
We take care in collecting and presenting information, but Valicai is a support tool. To the extent permitted by law:
- we do not guarantee that information on trails, status, weather, difficulty, times, maps, navigation and AR is complete, up to date or error-free;
- we are not liable for damage resulting from choices you made by relying on the app rather than on your own judgement, the signs, official orders and the conditions you find on site;
- we are not liable for content published by other users, or for third-party services the app links to;
- we are not liable for service interruptions, data loss on the phone, or malfunctions caused by the device, the operating system or the network.
This does not limit our liability for wilful misconduct or gross negligence, for personal injury caused by our fault, or in any other case where the law does not allow liability to be excluded or limited, including your rights as a consumer.
12. Map data and licences
Valicai uses open third-party data, which remains subject to its licences:
- OpenStreetMap: © OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0, openstreetmap.org/copyright.
- Club Alpino Italiano, INFOMONT (through the OSM2CAI platform): CAI trail data, under ODbL. Attribution "Club Alpino Italiano – INFOMONT", infomont.cai.it.
- TINITALY (elevations and profiles): Tarquini S., Isola I., Favalli M., Battistini A., Dotta G. (2023). TINITALY, a digital elevation model of Italy with a 10 meters cell size (Version 1.1). Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). https://doi.org/10.13127/tinitaly/1.1. Licence CC BY 4.0.
- Protomaps (base map): data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL; Protomaps styles and software under their licences (BSD-3 for the code, CC0 for the map design).
- Mapterhorn (terrain and hillshade): attributions as listed at mapterhorn.com/attribution.
- Open-Meteo (weather): weather data by Open-Meteo.com, licence CC BY 4.0.
The trail status database we build by combining these sources is a derivative database under the ODbL. We provide it on request under the same licence; write to privacy@valicai.app.
Licences of the open source software included in the app are listed in the app under Account, then "Licences".
13. Valicai's intellectual property
Valicai's name, logo, app design and software belong to us or our licensors. You may not copy, decompile or use them for competing services, except where the law allows it. You may not bulk-extract the app's data with automated tools: for ODbL derived data, §12 applies.
14. Fair use
You may not use Valicai for illegal activities, to disrupt the service (for example with massive automated requests or unauthorised access attempts), to collect other users' data or to impersonate someone else.
15. Suspension and termination
You can stop using Valicai and delete your account whenever you want. We may suspend or close an account that seriously or repeatedly breaches these terms, with a reasoned notice where possible. We may change or discontinue the service, or part of it; if we discontinue the whole service, we will notify you at least 30 days in advance, except for causes beyond our control, and give you a way to export your tracks.
16. Changes to the terms
We may update these terms, for example for new features or changes in the law. If the changes are significant we tell you in the app at least 15 days in advance; if you do not accept them, you can delete your account before they apply.
17. Governing law and disputes
These terms are governed by Italian law. If you are a consumer, the mandatory protections of the law of the EU country where you live still apply, and disputes go before the court of the place where you reside. Before going to court, write to us: we will try to solve the problem directly.
18. Contact
Thomas Casali. Email: privacy@valicai.app.