Time needed: 3-4h
Length: 8km
Elevation gain/loss: 300m
Difficulty: 🟡🟡 (easy/moderate)
Price: 120€ (for a group of 1 to 8 people; + boat tickets, ~9€ each person)
This hike is a short, but attractive part of a much longer excursion route, fitted out in 1989 and called ‘Wayfarer’s Path’. It runs from Bellano to Varenna along a thin mule track that winds along the side of the mountain, among chestnut woods and mild cultivated slopes.
In a few hours time, it collects the best characters of the lake: majestic landscapes, botanical and geological peculiarities, rustic houses, olive groves and so on. Not least, there are the very works of the route, that is the pavement, the steps, the bridges and the dry stone walls.
Among the sites we’ll see during our hike, there are:
- Bellano Ravine: a natural deep gorge, formed over 15 million years by the waters of the Pioverna stream.
- Vezio Castle: dating back to the XII century, it is set in a splendid position over Varenna and it was one of the most important signaling points.
- Gittana, Regolo, and other little hamlets of Perledo municipality.
- Varenna and its black marble querries: used above all in the Renaissance period for the creation of ornamental elements of churches and other religious-themed buildings in Lombardy.
