We love the walk from Renaio over to Lago Santo, crossing from Toscana into Modena using the high mountain passes. This walk is especially rewarding as Lago Santo is a lovely lake set high in the Mountains, in many respects quite remote, even though there is a nice Bar tucked away behind the trees and even better, our local Comune has its own refuge by the lake which we as residents can use as a overnight stay.
Last year we did stay at the refuge one night, ate great food around an open fire and drank the local wine, however the hike that really sticks in the memory was the undertaken at night from the Toscana side over to Modena and then back again!
We planned this walk with the benefit of a full moon and left Renaio at 6.00 pm a group of 10 people, cheating slightly because we took the jeep and another 4x4 up the mountain as far as the Foreststrada would allow. Having parked the cars, we set off through the Beech forest, a fairly stiff initial walk, passing just below Mt Giovo (2000m), the views looking out over the Garfagnana Valley were quite spectacular in the setting sun! The walk to Lago Santo is not that challenging in the summer, anyone can do it with a good pair of boots, in the winter its quite a different matter, thankfully this was midsummer and the air was warm and fragrant!
After about a further hour of walking we descended from the open peaks and down into another Beech forest and very soon, we saw the lake water glinting through the trees.
A further 10 minutes and we were sitting in the little bar, ordering local trout, wild boar and a fabulous dolce of Myrtille and Gelato, the whole menu either caught from the lake, or harvested from the immediate mountain, nothing having traveled more than a couple of kilometes to get to our plates! After spending a good couple of hours enjoying this fine meal, we noticed that it was completely dark outside - not surprising as it was around 11.30 pm!
Exiting the bar, we were a reluctant group of hikers at that moment - full of great food and with the second part of our hike in front of us - but it had to be done!
Walking out of the lake area, it soon became clear that we were better off not using the torch's, in fact the moon provided sufficient light to walk effectively. We walked back out of the Lake area and reached a remote spot where many years ago the Germans had set up a second world war Machine Gun post. We sat down at 1pm and ate a little extra snack of local cheese and red wine, taking in the mountain air and listening to the sounds of the mountain, it was magical and we gradually fell quiet and took in the moment. Looking at the old stone ruins of the sentry post, I could imagine the Soldiers, sitting high on the mountain, away from any roads, any friends and subject to attack from the local partisans, the whole spot is just full of ghost's from the past, all at last a Peace - wonderful!
Marching on wards we peaked the mountain once more, but this time we could see the lights of the whole Italian Riviera set out below us, what a great sight, stood together and tried to get a few decent photo's, but it was just so hard to capture the moment - perhaps its better to keep the memory instead!
We arrived back at the car at around 2.30 and by 3pm we were all back at Sensone, many us were so excited that we sat outside on our decking and watched the sun come up in a blaze of orange - another pristine moment and a special night that will stay with us forever.
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