Think cobbled mule paths, foresty wooded trails, steeeeep climbs, breathtaking lake views and the promise of a well-deserved gelato, and you’ve got running around the delightful hills surrounding Lake Como.
Hannis and I have just spent a dreamy week zooming around Lake Como in Northern Italy in @Nelliethesprinter. (If you aren’t yet acquainted with Nellie then have a look at the about us page or visit her instagram account; she’s a babe). One of our goals for the week was to do a bit of trail running. You don’t want to feel guilty about all that pizza and vino, right? Boy were we in for a treat.
Around Lake Como are the most spectacular, green, luscious mountains littered with well signposted trails. We were on a limited time frame so picked one run from Como and one from Varenna. Today I’ll talk about our Como-Brunate-Boletto adventure…
I’m going to go into a bit of route detail here but there is just a GPX route and map below if you’re like me and the reams of gushy text don’t do it for you… It’s a great route! Good views, water-filling points earlier on, a couple of mountain huts along the way and a stonking 360 view from Monte Boletto!
Quick stats: 12.5 miles (20km) , 4000ft (1200m) elevation gain, Roughly 5 hours with stops for views/photos
Link to route we partly followed: goo.gl/26t1xV (we are planning on uploading a proper route when strava get round to fixing some bugs on their route building site!)
Como sits at the bottom of the left leg of the lake and is probably the most well known town in the area. There was a wealth of information about hikes from Brunate which are accessed by using the funicular from Como to get up to the starting point. Unfortunately, we are a little more masochistic than that and found a gruelling path to get up to Brunate instead, which I’d thoroughly recommend. The trail run we did is an out-and-back short route along the Dorsale del Triangolo Lariano, which is a set of hiking trails criss-crossing the ridge all the way from Como to Bellagio.
We set off from our van parking spot right on the Lake edge and had a lovely, flat warm up along the lake front without too much tourist dodging. After a short skip through town we started the ascent which is largely made up of flagstone steps climbing through partly-shaded, partly-exposed hillside dotted with teetering villas and the occasional, ever-better panoramic view to remind you why you’re grinding. All of a sudden, when you’ve nearly lost hope, you pop out in Brunate, but don’t be fooled there are a few more steps yet up to the funicular station and the first water point. I was pleasantly surprised how easy we found it to refresh our water supplies (and how needed it was!) along the way. Carry on up through the pretty little cobbled village, across the church piazza and onwards towards the Lighthouse at San Maurizio, which is well signposted. We raced up the steps to the lighthouse when we got there, but I’m not sure I’d be foolish enough to do that again! If you’re really thirsty there’s another little water tap in the main square and this is possibly the last point to refill before you get back to here again. There are a few hut cafes along the way but they may be closed should you be out of season. We did this in late May and the huts weren’t yet open for business.
Out of San Maurizio you need to start following signs that mark the route up to Monte Boletto. Take a breather on a couple of flatter sections (or if you’re a nutter, like Hannis, run back and forth waiting for your slightly slower partner in crime). The route up is quiet but there’s enough to keep you distracted and interested; my particular highlight was a free-roaming pony with a big jangly bell around his neck trying to snaffle food from the Baita Boletto Fabrizio mountain hut. What a guy.
The last little run up is worth a push. Topping out to the panorama on top of Monte Boletto is just breathtaking and made the hard climb totally worthwhile. We stopped to really drink in the view. And to feel totally smug…
On the way back down you can access a grassy trail that runs parallel to the road you came up on which was far more pleasant on the knees and had a few surprising undulations. You can choose to add little bits onto the route if you’re feeling fresh, the trails are super well signposted and often there will be red dots or lines on rocks and trees to guide you.
We, however, chose to retrace our steps back to Brunate and treat ourselves to a funicular ride down to save our knees from the steep descent and because creamy, cold GELATO was calling from the bottom. The funicular didn’t have particularly great views and was stuffed full of tourists (we didn’t smell so great by this point, sorry people) so if you’ve got anything left in the tank you could hike or run down.
All in all a cracking trail and well-recommended afternoon out.
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Fern x o x