Starting from Alpe del Vicerè, a lovely spot at 900 metres and a Sunday destination for many families from Brianza, it is possible to walk a fine loop through the woods of these mountains and along the handsome ridge of Monte Boletto and Monte Bolettone. Their names make it clear at once that they belong to the same ridge, and that Bolettone (1317 metres), proud of the augmentative ending in its name, reaches a little higher than its younger brother, Boletto (1236 metres).
The route starts from the eastern edge of Alpe del Vicerè; following the signs for Boletto and Baita Patrizi, we join a lovely path, very wide and gently descending. In about 30 minutes we reach the clearing that is home to Baita Patrizi (or Rifugio Brigata Patrizi, m986, 30 minutes).
We continue, now uphill, keeping an eye on the turn-offs, which are in any case always well signposted; the vegetation gradually thins, giving us first a bright birch wood, then wide sunny meadows that let our gaze stretch out over the Po Valley behind us. Accompanied by the grassy flanks of Bolettone on the right and Boletto on the left, we reach Bocchetta di Molina (m1116, 30 minutes), where at last we can look out over Lake Como.
We turn left and climb the grassy ridge, edged on the right by the woods that cover its northern side. In some thirty minutes of pleasant walking we reach the broad summit dome of Monte Boletto (m1236, 30 minutes). From here the view opens over much of the Como branch of the lake and over the Po Valley.
Now the big brother awaits, Monte Bolettone, a pleasant and panoramic climb: all we have to do is walk the whole grassy ridge in the opposite direction, first downhill to Bocchetta di Molina, then on a sustained climb to the summit cross of Bolettone (m1317, 1 hour).
To descend from Bolettone you can take the dirt road that serves the mountain hut. It drops in a couple of hairpins down the mountain's panoramic grassy slopes, then we plunge into the woods, emerging only near Alpe del Vicerè (m903, 45 minutes), where we pick up the car again.
