The Lessinia Plateau Loop

Verona draws huge crowds all year round, yet you need only climb a few dozen kilometres north to find yourself on a plateau where the loudest sound is the wind in the beech trees. Lessinia stays hidden because those who come to Verona think of the Arena, of Juliet, of Lake Garda: the idea of a gentle mountain of pastures and stone hamlets doesn't feature in the area's tourist imagination. That is why the people you meet here are mostly hikers from Verona and local families.

A good starting base is Bosco Chiesanuova, the main town of the plateau, reachable by car from Verona along the Valpantena. From here you enter the Lessinia Regional Nature Park, established precisely to protect this landscape of high hills and mid-mountain country. The classic loop takes in the places that give Lessinia its unique character, crossing environments that change over just a few hours of walking.

What to see

The symbol of the plateau is the Ponte di Veja, an imposing natural rock arch, the remnant of the collapse of an ancient cave, set in the woods. It is a striking and easily accessible spot, often cited as one of the largest natural bridges in Europe. Not to be missed either is the Valle delle Sfingi near Camposilvano, where erosion has shaped rock towers that resemble carved figures, and the nearby Covolo di Camposilvano, a great karst chasm.

Climbing towards the upper part of the plateau you reach the area of Monte Tomba and the Parpari, with broad pastures dotted with mountain huts where in summer milk is still worked and Monte Veronese is produced, the historic cheese of these mountains. Towards the northern edge of the park opens the spectacular hollow of the Vajo dell'Anguilla and the walls looking towards the Carega. Those who want to push further can reach the Lessinia Botanical Garden, above San Giorgio, dedicated to high-altitude flora.

The Cimbrian legacy

Lessinia also preserves the legacy of the Cimbri, peoples of Germanic origin who settled these plateaus in the Middle Ages. You can read it in the names of the hamlets, in the old trades and in the small ethnographic museum of Giazza, the last still-living Cimbrian language island, where the tautsch dialect endures among a handful of speakers. Visiting it helps you understand why these scattered hamlets, made of stone houses and slab roofs, have such a different air from the rest of the Veneto.

Getting there

To get here a car is best: public transport goes up to Bosco Chiesanuova, but to connect the various points of the loop a car is far more practical. Once up on the plateau you move on foot along a network of waymarked trails and gravel roads between the huts; many stretches are also suitable for mountain biking. The distances between the villages are short, so you can build the itinerary to measure, alternating short walks to the better-known sites with longer hikes across the high pastures.

When to go

The best months are May and June, when the meadows explode with blooms and the huts come back to life, and October, when the beech woods blaze red and orange and the air is crisp. These are periods when Verona stays crowded but the plateau is almost deserted: in spring the hiking season has only just begun, in autumn the summer tourism is over and there is still no snow or the cross-country skiers who arrive in winter. Parking is easy to find, the huts are open and the trails are quiet.

A practical tip: bring layered clothing and something warm even on days that feel like summer down on the plain. At altitude the temperature drops fast and mists can rise suddenly from the vaji, the deep valleys carved into the plateau. Plan a stop at a hut to taste Monte Veronese and polenta: it is the best way to round off a day's walking and to support those who still keep these pastures alive.