CAI Path- Hiking

PATH CAI 801
Lonato del Garda - San Giorgio (Rocca di Manerba Archaeological Nature Park)

24 km - Time required: 8 h and 40 min - Altitude difference: 283 m

This itinerary develops along the spurs and the ridges of the morainic hills, originating about 20.000-10.000 years ago from the ancient Ice Age, which surround the Garda Lake at the South-West, through an extraordinary series of landscapes witnessing the historical, architectural and cultural human presence.
It goes through strongly urbanized areas with some long stretches of hilly wooded and meadowy districts besides agricultural areas characterized by typical fields of vineyards and olive groves.


The route can be divided into three stages.

For a map of each stage and the GPX route --> CAI DESENZANO



PATH CAI 801 A
Lonato - Desenzano

8.7 km - Time required: 2 h 30 min - Height difference: 184 m

The itinerary joins the path 801 with the Garda Lake passing through Barcuzzi hamlet (Lonato) to descend to Maguzzano abbey to Desenzano and to the lake shore of Desenzanino beach.

For the map and the GPX route --> CAI DESENZANO


PATH CAI 801 B
Lonato - Padenghe

5, 7 km - Time required: 2 h - Altitude difference 257 m

The itinerary joins the path 801 to the Garda Lake through Padenghe. Starting from Drugolo, South-East direction, follow the cart-road leading to the exercise track La Pampa. Continue to the East and once arrived in the wood, turn left, walk through an ancient restored village, leave the Calvino farm-house on the left and go down along Via Ronchi and Via Calvino, following the cycling track Brescia-Salò to arrive at the Romanic little church of Saint Emiliano (XI-XIIth century).
From here you climb through an enjoyable path up to the medieaval castle in Padenghe.  At this point, the path descends to the town of Padenghe, first along a short and characteristic path rich in terraces and slopes, then along Via Focardi, Via Roma, Via Beretta you reach the town hall.  Shortly the path leads to the lake shore 


For the map and the GPX route --> CAI DESENZANO



PATH CAI 803
Lonato - Esenta

8.7 km - Time required: 2 h 40 min.

The route, starting from the centre of the town of Lonato del Garda (Madonnina car park) crosses the railway line and heads for the Polada wetlands. From there it continues to the hamlet of San Cipriano, rich in ditches and characteristic wash-houses. It then passes south of the A4 Milan-Venice motorway up the wooded hill known as the Spia d'Italia (Spy of Italy), a strategic lookout point during the battle of San Martino and Solferino. It was here that Vittorio Emanuele II and Napoleon III met the day before the battle to view the terrain that would become the scene of bloody battles (24 June 1859).
You then reach the hamlet of San Tomaso and continue southwards along Mount Nuvolo, then take the dirt road through the valley to the centre of the village of Esenta, in the small square in front of the church.

Continuing southwards, we join the CAI path network of Castiglione delle Stiviere and following the ridge of the morainic hills of the upper Mantua area we reach Solferino in another 3 hours' walk.

For the map --> CAI DESENZANO



PATH CAI 805
Esenta - Madonna della Scoperta

13.5 km - Time required: 4 hours

The path starts at the war memorial in the hamlet of Esenta and, continuing along Via S.Marco and Via Vallone, continues along the dirt road that leads towards Brodena on a route that is shared with path 803. Leaving the latter, at the point where you enter the reserve of the Azienda Agri-Turismo-Venatoria "Il Laghetto", leave via Vallone and take a dirt road that leads to the Slossaroli farmstead, then continue past the Tiro a Volo Concaverde shooting sport facility to the tarmac road that joins Esenta with the King multiplex. Follow the tarmac road for a short distance and then take the dirt road again, alongside the SP567 dual carriageway to theRoman kilns museum (Fornace dei Gorghi).
We then continue through the fields, passing by the large field of biological products, passing south of Mount Navicella (133 metres above sea level) and then take Via Montefalcone to the right until we cross Via Astore, the chapel of the dead of Astore, and then arrive at the border with the province of Mantua at a second chapel, "Il santuario i Morti del Bronzino".

From here an alternative route (805A) leads to the nearby kiosk equipped with a recharging station for electric bikes, and then following the MN5 cycle path you can reach Solferino.
 
Continuing in the direction of Madonna della Scoperta, the road descends slightly into the valley of the Redone torrent and then climbs up to the Passo dei Corvi. Leaving the La Quiete park on the left, take a path on the right that crosses wooded hills and depressions until you reach the border with the municipality of Solferino, where the path crosses a series of old ruined farmsteads (Cascina Diorino) and then crosses the tarmac road that leads to Solferino.
Leaving the "La Civetta" restaurant and farmhouse, you continue and soon reach the village of Madonna della Scoperta.

For the map --> CAI DESENZANO
 
 
 
PATH LAGHETTO POLECRA
Esenta - San Polo - Esenta
 
7, 7 km - Time required: 3 h - Height difference: 215 m
 
From the sports field parking of Esenta (125 m asl) you continue along Via San Marco to the north until you cross and follow Via Vallone. The road, paved until now, becomes a dirt road and you have to follow it for more than a kilometer when, out of the woods and passing a farm on the right at a junction with a large tree, you have to turn left.
The road rises with a large bend surrounding a private park when, just before the villa, you turn left into a wooded area. After about 200 meters, you come to a crossroads, take the right by climbing a narrow path that becomes more and more scenic and that runs along the ridge of the monte Nuvolo, isolated hill in the middle of the plain.
After passing some hunting lodges, you will come across a large lawn with in the center the Polecra pond (215 m asl), with adjoining a small rural construction. Here the view extends from Lake Garda to the Apennines, from Mount Baldo to the city of Brescia and its highest mountains and it is very charming to wait for the sunset with the sun going down over the distant mountains of Piedmont, when visibility permits.
After a break, continue downhill along the path, now wider, holding the right at a bar and then between cultivated fields, reaches the asphalt road of Via San Tommaso, in the homonymous location, where there is also a parking lot. Here we turn left walking on the paved road, and reached a hill with a crossroads, keeping still the left path down along the dirt road Via dei Ronchi to the hamlet of San Polo. At the first houses you turn left again in the South direction and continue for about a kilometer, ignoring the many crossroads that you meet.
The environment is characterized first by the cultivated fields and then by the shade of the forest until, at a clear crossroads, turn left and continue the path to reach the villa encountered on the way before and retracing the route back to the starting point. 
 
Warning: do not go during the hunting  season, generally from mid-September  to mid-December, for the presence of many regular hunting lodges.
 
 
PATH OF FAITH AND SOLIDARITY

The Path of Faith and Solidarity is designed to get to know the places of birth and life of St. Luigi Gonzaga of Castiglione delle Stiviere, Blessed Paola Montaldi of Volta Mantovana and St. Angela Merici of Desenzano del Garda. The route allows visitors to discover the beauty of the landscape and nature of the moraine region, an area of great importance for history and artistic and cultural settlements. Here the idea of the Red Cross was born in virtue of an admirable competition of popular piety imbued with religiousness and the highest civil feeling, impersonated by the presence in the area, in 1859, of its founder Henry Dunant.

Lonato del Garda affected by the route in the locality of Castel Venzago.

For the map--> www.collinemoreniche.it