Cima Vezzena (or Pizzo di Levico)

Leave your car in the large car park next to the Vezzena Hotel & Restaurant ( 1417 m ) and take the tarmac road northwards, skirting the west side of the hotel (following the signs to the Al Verle Restaurant).

After about 200 m , at a crossroads after a small restaurant, turn right and walk along a short stretch of an uphill tarmac road.

The road climbs up to the ruins of Forte Cima Verle, which still bears the scars and traces of the destruction wreaked by the enemy artillery.

Leave the fort to the right and, after a long gentle descent, you reach the base of the south-facing slope of Pizzo di Levico (or Cima Vezzena), which rises up before you.

After reaching the wood at Busa Verle, beneath the south slopes of the peak, take SAT trail No. 205 (signposted, at 1467 m ) which climbs along the slope and serves as a short cut.

Continue along the road that enters the wood and eventually leads, on a much gentler incline, to the right bend from where, straight ahead, the military road climbing up to Pizzo di Levico begins (signposted, 1595 m ).

Disregard the smaller crossroads as you ascend along the tarmac road.

Leave the tarmac road for a mule track, which is never excessively steep and which climbs along the south slopes of Cima Vezzena through the Varagno wood.

Various bends help the ascent and, the higher you climb, the sparser the vegetation becomes, as a result of which there is no shade during the hottest hours of the day.

At 1810 m the mule track joins SAT trail No. 205, from Busa Verle.

The peak can be reached via a further less beaten trail towards north-east.

On the top of Pizzo di Levico ( 1908 m ) there’s a large cross, indicating the summit, planted on the roof of Forte Spitz Verle. Pay attention to the many holes and crevices that open up inside and around the fort.

Trace your steps back to the departure point.