Tramonto autunnale sul Rifugio Rosalba, il caratteristico rifugio rosa appollaiato sulla dorsale Ovest della Grignetta punteggiata da torrette carsiche.

An autumn sunset over the Rifugio Rosalba, the distinctive pink mountain hut perched on the west ridge of the Grignetta, which is dotted with karst pinnacles.

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10 hikes

The 10 most beautiful hikes in Lombardy

Our 10 favourite hikes in Lombardy, around Lake Como, Valchiavenna and the Bernina group.

Are you in Milan or elsewhere in Lombardy and looking for some especially beautiful hikes? We have picked 10 of our favourite hikes from all over Lombardy. Most of them are around Lake Como (the grassy balcony between Monte Grona and the Bregagno has an unrivalled view of the lake, while San Primo wins for its view “between the two arms” of the lake and pairs well with lunch at the well-known Rifugio Martina or an afternoon visit to Bellagio).

The famous Resegone, the mountain of Manzoni, could not be left out: it is an easy hike, but we recommend the harder and more exposed route along the East Ridges.

In Valchiavenna we chose the short walk to Daloo and Lagunc, on a fine mule track, also ideal in spring and autumn, with Lagunc and its small lake a lovely hamlet; the Rifugio Bertacchi on Lago d'Emet, which in the warm afternoon light reflects the sun's rays and becomes a small corner of paradise; and then the famous Sentiero del Tracciolino.

In Valtellina, we head to Valmalenco to visit the fine Rifugio Bignami at the Fellaria, which has become Insta-famous in recent years as “the Iceland of Lombardy”, now in its last years or months before the glacier leaves the lake for good, and to the well-known Rifugio Gianetti in Val Masino, home of granite (El Capitan who?).

A small detour, and a very remote one: Lago Vago, near Livigno, a lake with Caribbean-coloured water.

Good to know about upland Lombardy

Many of these hikes pass alpine pastures that are still grazed in summer, and in Valtellina the milk from those pastures carries a protected name: Bitto DOP, a mountain cheese with a separate category reserved for the high pastures named in its rules, and Valtellina Casera DOP, both overseen by the same consortium, founded in 1995. Some producers in the Gerola and Albaredo valleys refused the changes to the Bitto rules and kept to the older ones, including compulsory goat's milk and animals fed only on pasture grass. That cheese, born as Bitto Storico, is now sold as Storico Ribelle, is aged at Gerola Alta and is a Slow Food presidium; if you find a wheel of it at a mountain hut, it is worth the detour.

Rifugio Gianetti, in Val Masino, is also a stage of the Sentiero Roma, the multi-day traverse that runs high along the head of the valley as far as the Valmalenco, and in summer many of the guests are walkers passing through with packs considerably larger than ours. The Sentiero del Tracciolino owes its almost level line to hydroelectric power: it was opened in the 1930s as a service track, with a narrow-gauge railway, to link the dams of Val dei Ratti and Val Codera. Precisely because it is cut into the rock face, some sections have been closed in recent years for rockfall risk and then partly reopened, so it is wise to check the orders of the Comune di Novate Mezzola before you go.