Hikes to mountain huts in Lombardy

A selection of hikes to the most beautiful mountain huts in Lombardy.

Lombardy is home to some of the most iconic mountain huts in Italy. From the famous Rifugio Gianetti in Val Masino, a wild outpost among the granite of the Badile, to the Rifugio Azzoni on the Resegone, a balcony overlooking the Lombard plain, these places are not simple stops but destinations full of history, effort and stories.

The huts of Lombardy were born between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Basic buildings, often in local stone, commissioned by the CAI or by groups of climbers who walked up carrying the materials on their backs. Today many of those huts have been extended and made more welcoming, but they keep their original spirit: to offer shelter, food and drink, and orientation to those who venture up high.

Over time, the mountain hut has become a symbol of convivial mountains: a slice of cake, a radler, a starry night with friends. A place where your phone sometimes has no signal, and all the better for it.

On this page you will find a selection of hikes to the most beautiful mountain huts in Lombardy, for those looking for incredible landscapes and a refuge, in every sense of the word.

At the table and in the dormitory

In the mountain huts of Valtellina and Valchiavenna, the kitchen tells the story of the valley. Pizzoccheri have been protected since 2016 as Pizzoccheri della Valtellina PGI, with rules that fix the ratio of buckwheat to wheat flour and call for Valtellina Casera PDO cheese; Bresaola della Valtellina PGI may be produced only in the province of Sondrio, and polenta taragna, made from maize and buckwheat with butter and cheese, is the mountain dish par excellence. Recipes and menus vary from hut to hut, but a slice of Bitto or Casera at the end of the meal is never out of place.

If you stay the night, the rules are the same at every CAI hut. A sleeping bag liner is compulsory, booking is recommended and the warden may ask for a deposit which by regulation cannot exceed the price of the bed, while members of the CAI and of reciprocal clubs get a guaranteed minimum discount of 20% on half board, rising to 30% for under-25s. Prices depend on the hut's category and on the section that runs it, so check them on the hut's website before you set off, together with its opening dates.