Monte Palanzone along the Dorsale

At 1436 metres the Palanzone is the second summit of the Triangolo Lariano after Monte San Primo, looking over Lake Como to the west and the plain to the south.

On the top stands a pyramid-shaped chapel, built in 1900 by the Circolo Alessandro Volta of the oratory of San Filippo in Como and restored in 1981 and 2002 by the Alpini of Palanzo. One of the routes up is the Dorsale del Triangolo Lariano, which starts from Brunate. Beyond the Boletto and the Bolettone, from the Bocchetta di Lemna you carry on north with the view of the valleys of Caslino d'Erba, the Resegone and the Palanzone; you climb the crest to the Pizzo dell'Asino, at 1272 metres, or skirt its eastern side through the woods, and after two small valleys you reach the Bocchetta di Palanzo, at 1210 metres, between the Val di Cairo and the Valle Piot, where many paths meet. At the next junction the crest variant climbs to the summit and goes down the far side along the ridge to the Bocchetta di Caglio. The Dorsale instead curves along the west face to the Rifugio Riella, looking over the lake, Faggeto Lario and the surrounding mountains. A hundred metres past the hut there is a fountain, and soon after the gated entrance of the Grotta Guglielmo, one of some seventy caves in this karst country. Then the Dorsale passes the Cippo Marelli, the Bocchetta di Nesso and the meadows of Preaola, at the same height round the Palanzone, above the Pian di Nesso and the San Primo group.

1. 01The Dorsale runs almost entirely on tracks, forest roads and easy paths with no difficulties, waymarked with red-white-red flags and the number 1. From Brunate it takes three hours ten to the Bocchetta di Lemna, three hours fifty to the Bocchetta di Palanzo and four hours to the Rifugio Riella; from the junction beyond the Bocchetta di Palanzo the crest route climbs to the summit in three quarters of an hour and reaches the Bocchetta di Caglio in an hour and ten minutes.
2. 02The first stretch, as far as the Bocchetta di Lemna, is the same as for Monte Boletto and the Bolettone.
3. 03To come down, from the Bocchetta di Palanzo a dirt road leads to Palanzo, a hamlet of Faggeto Lario, where there is a bus stop for Como: five and a half hours from Brunate. From the same saddle a path drops in an hour and a half to Caslino d'Erba, to the station on the Asso–Erba–Milan railway.
4. 04The Rifugio Riella, at between 1275 and 1285 metres, is a staffed hut owned by the CAI's Como section; ask whether it is open before setting off. The Palanzone can also be climbed from the Alpe del Viceré, above Albavilla, from the Pian del Tivano and from Caslino d'Erba.

WhereFaggeto Lario · Brunate