From Colico to Piantedo

After going beyond San Rocco and returning to the tarmac road, drop down to the narrow valley of the Inganna stream until you reach a crossroads.

The routes on the left head back to Colico (where you can follow the final section of the Sentiero dei Torrenti). However, continuing uphill, the Sentiero del Viandante offers a slight deviation, a loop of about 45 minutes, which climbs to the Fontanedo Tower. It is a good idea to do in a clockwise direction, along the small road. This road, after the weir over the stream, turns right and passes alongside the Robustello inn.

The climb is gradual, surrounded by fields containing the tower and some abandoned houses. It is a palace of solitude and beauty. Taking the path on the other side of the settlement, you will return along a slightly longer route to the original crossroads.

Now continue on the tarmac road towards the plain next to a wooded hump and then, crossing fields and vegetables plots, you will reach Chiaro.

Continue on bearing right along a dirt track sill at the foot of the mountain which leads to Chiarello and to the motorway which was previously left behind.

Now follow the paved road towards the plain next to the wooded hillock and then, through meadows and vegetable gardens, you reach Chiaro. Cross it by turning right, still at the foot of the mountain, on a narrow road that meets in Chiarello (elevation 260m), the freeway that we had forgotten for a while.

The path continues along tarmac over the motorway viaduct until it reaches the houses of Curcio.

Continue in the same direction (Via Strada Grande). At the crossroads with Via Biasett, turn right and go over the motorway which we can finally leave behind us. Straight after, turn to the right towards the Torretta, a rustic building with a medieval defensive barbican indicating its original use as a fortification close to the old border between the State of Milan and Valtellina.

Once again, the path approaches the slope under moist schist rock walls and a sparse wood growing out of a narrow terrace. The route quickly returns to cobbles. We are now walking along the oldest communication road with Valtellina, named ‘Scalotta’. It then climbs steeply up Dosso Croce, the final spur of Monte Legnone. Towards the valley, though the gaps in the trees, you can observe the landscape around the Trivio di Fuentes, characterised by commercial buildings, since the roadside area was too appealing to be left free from exploitation.

Then you climb up until you cross the border separating the provinces of Lecco and Sondrio, not marked by boundary stones of signs.

Shortly after, there is a junction: the left path goes down to the nearby sanctuary of Santa Maria della Grazia and Suffragio, in the area of Valpozzo, and then comes out onto the route at the bottom of the valley where you can find a bus stop for Colico. The Sentiero del Viandante, however, continues on the right into the Valtellina section towards Morbegno.