Getting at the top of a more or less snowy mountain after a long trek and feeling at home.
It happens when you go trekking in winter and find an open mountain hut, where you can have an energising treat.
At Garda Trentino the winter season are never too cold – the Mediterranean climate makes temperature mild so to go hiking or trekking in the wood is great, we promise.
The winter trekking is also a way to enjoy the natural sensation of peace and wellness. The autumn has painted the woods of amber or has left them completely naked. When you wood in a wood, you feel how little you are before Mother Nature.
All true, but acknowledge it: very often, to go trekking means to have an abundant lunch in a mountain hut.
Throughout the winter season, the mountain huts at Garda Trentino are open to welcome you with a smile and with wholesome mountain delicacies!
Wanna know them? (Don’t forget to check online or to call them if the mountain hut you choose is actually open or not).
The mountain huts open from October to March in the weekends
Rifugio Malga S.Giovanni: to reach this mountain hut, follow the road from Varignano di Arco to Padaro (11km).
You can drive there too, but it is much better to have canederli and friends after a long walk. Try their speciality: polenta of Molino Pellegrino with rabbit cooked in the oven. Yummy! It is open every day, from the beginning of April to the beginning of November; during the other periods, it is open from Fridays to Sundays (please make your reservation if you want to visit it on Sundays).
Rifugio Marchetti: The mountain hut is open every day from 30th September, then in the sunny weekends until 4th November. It is open from 8th December at the weekends and at Christmastime every day, but depending on the weather conditions. There are two paths to Rifugio Marchetti: from Passo Santa Barbara at Monte Velo, take the path no. 608b then no. 608 up to the mountain hut (a two-hour walk); or from Malga Campo di Drena, take the SAT paths no. 623 and 617, through the top of Monte Stivo. Please check the weather forecast before opting for this latter course. Once there, order the Pastiva, pasta cooked with sausages, red radicchio of Val di Gresta and red wine sauce.
Malga Zanga: Always open. It lies on a panoramic terrace at Monte Velo, 11 km from Arco. A typical malga in a hilly area. There, you can taste vegetarian dishes and soups prepared with their vegetables, potato pies with melted cheese and porcini mushrooms polenta and gulash. To conclude your lunch, drink an elder grappa, their speciality. What a lunch, until the end!
Rifugio S.Pietro: Always open. From Monte Calino, the view over Lake Garda is breath-taking. Walk from Tenno through Borgo di Canale on the path no. 406 or from Lake Tenno on the no. 406A which is also part of Garda Trek. Otherwise, drive to the car parking and walk to the mountain hut for about 20 minutes. Besides the panorama, their menu is amazing too!
Rifugio Damiano Chiesa at Monte Altissimo: Open from 15th October to May every sunny weekend, and every day from 26th December to 6th January. To get at Rifugio Chiesa, you can leave from the parking Prati di Nago and take the SAT path no. 650. At first, you will reach Rifugio Campei then, through Val del Parol, by following the SAT path no. 624 the mountain hut (a 3-hour walk). Otherwise, leave your car at Rifugio Graziani at 1620 mt. at Bocca del Creer (road from Brentonico to S. Valentino), on the path no. 633. Their most delicious dish is “Piatto unico dell’Altissimo” (canederli with melted butter and sage, polenta and gulash and local cheese of Baldo).
Rifugio Pernici: Open from mid-October in the sunny weekends, at Christmastime and at the weekends of January and February. You can reach it from Malga Grassi, about 2.2 km but you will take 1.30 hour because the path no. 402 is quite hilly. Their speciality is the potato polenta. Have you ever tasted it?
The woods of Garda Trentino are the best representation of the suggestive winter atmospheres.
A winter walk there is like a journey to a different and lighter dimension.
A real fairy tale that will go on around a table in a mountain hut. We suggest to always check if the place you want to have lunch at is actually open or not, to always bring your winter mountain trekking equipment with you and not to forget the most important thing: respect nature and its inhabitants.
Enjoy your winter trekking on the mountains of Lake Garda Trentino!
