Resegone Mountain – the symbol of Lecco!

Resegone is the mountain that towers over the city of Lecco. It is so named because it resembles a saw (in local dialect called résega) as it has eleven summits of similar height. The highest of these summits, Punta Cermenati, reaches 1,875 m above sea level. Italian author Alessandro Manzoni made Resegone the backdrop for some of the scenes in his novel The Betrothed (in Italian Promessi sposi).

The mountain is popular with both hikers and climbers with many maintained paths and Via ferratas and many opportunities for rock climbing on the south and west walls of the northern summits. The views from the top peaks are really amazing! You can also have a delicious meal at the rifugio Azzoni or rifugio Stoppani (on the way between Lecco and Piani d’Erna) with amazing panoramas! Below you can see several options of how to go up:

1. Rifugio Azzoni from Lecco

This path is the longest and can be exhausting if you are not trained well, but it starts from Lecco, so you can easily reach the starting point by public transport without going with cable car.

How to reach the starting point:

By car: Go to the parking of the Funivia Piani d’Erna, Via Prealpi, 34, 23900 Lecco. The parking costs 3€. It is huge parking, though in high season weekends it gets full quite fast, so we suggest going there early.
By public transport from Lecco: take bus #5 from the train station of Lecco to Funivia.

The first half of the way starts immediately behind the parking of the cable car and passes through the forest. You have to go a bit downhill till a concrete road and then start going up following path number 1. On halfway, you will reach Rifugio Stoppani.

After the path exits the forest, it follows an easy, almost flat part between a meadow and rocks. On the last part of the way, you will have to climb some rocks. It is not very complicated or risky, but it is highly recommended to have good shoes.

[sgpx gpx=”/wp-content/uploads/gpx/Resegone dal parcheggio della funivia.gpx”]

Recently there were also reopened historical Ferratas Gamma1, Gamma2 that lead to the top from Lecco side. We haven’t checked them out yet, but as soon we do, you will find them here 😉

2. Rifugio Azzoni from Piani d’Erna

This path is much shorter than the previous one because you cover the initial part of the way by a cable car and reach the previously described path halfway.

By car: Go to the parking of the Funivia Piani d’Erna, Via Prealpi, 34, 23900 Lecco. The parking costs 3€. It is huge parking, though in high season weekends it gets full quite fast, so we suggest going there early.
By public transport from Lecco: take bus #5 from the train station of Lecco to Funivia.

Take the cable car schedule is different in different seasons. You can check the current one here https://www.pianidibobbio.com/en/price-a-time/piani-d-erna. A return ticket will cost from 7 to 11.50euro. Here is valid the “Io viaggio ovunque in Lombardia” pass. You can check more info about it in this post or on their website. 

Once you arrive at Piani D’Erna, you will be in a very nice area with easily reachable restaurants with fantastic views, and multiple paths of various difficulty. From here you can do a very simple hike “Percorso della natura” (it. Path of nature), or reach Pizzo d’Erna (10min walk), or go to Morterone village.

To reconnect to the main path going to the Rifugio Azzoni, you will need to go a bit downhill through a forest. Check the following map.

[sgpx gpx=”/wp-content/uploads/gpx/resegone da piani d’erna.gpx”]

3. Rifugio Azzoni from Morterone

Morterone is a tiny village at the foot of Resegone, but from the opposite side of it in respect to Lecco. It is officially the smallest municipality in Italy, with only 34 inhabitants! In spite small population, it has its own open-air museum, and it is really worth visiting. However, you can reach it only by car following a very narrow super panoramic road.

The path from Morterone is the easiest to reach Resegone (though you still need to go up about 700m). It will take approximately 1.5 – 2 hours. The first half goes through a forest. Then it exits into an open rocky area. Though this path is much easier than the one that goes up from Lecco, it is recommended to have good shoes since it is full of small rocks that tend to slide down.

 

[sgpx gpx=”/wp-content/uploads/gpx/resegone da morterone.gpx”]

You can download the gpx files and upload them to some gpx viewing app on your phone, better an offline one (we use maps3d, but there are many others). This way, you can be sure to stay on the path even if you lose your internet connection.

Some tips before you go:

Take some water, the path is exhausting. In the middle of the path from Lecco or cable car, you can refill your bottle.

A large part of the path is exposed to the sun. Take a hat

The path is rocky. Good hiking shoes are highly recommended

It can be fresh on the top, even in summer. Take warm clothes