Sixty kilometers of shoreline, woods, and mountain villages – a trail that blends nature and memory, inviting you to rediscover your roots among narrow alleys and shimmering waters.

There’s a path along the eastern branch of Lake Como that seems to play with the water like a stone skipping across its surface: it touches the shore, then climbs through chestnut woods and terraced hills, brushes against ancient villages, and returns once again to the lake. This is the Sentiero del Viandante – the Wayfarer’s Path – a trail of about 60 kilometers connecting Abbadia Lariana to Colico, passing through some of the most picturesque towns along the Lecco coast: Lierna, Varenna, Bellano, and Dervio.

Today, it’s one of the most beloved hikes in Northern Italy. But for centuries, it was simply part of everyday life – a route for shepherds, merchants, and villagers; a practical connection between isolated hamlets before it became a “historic” path. Old maps refer to it by many names: Via Ducale, Via Regia, and later even Napoleona, after the improvements made during Napoleon’s time.

A Landscape of Stories

Its beauty lies not only in the scenery – although the views are stunning. There are sweeping panoramas of the lake, mountains plunging into water, and stone villages perched like birds’ nests along the cliffs. But more than that, it’s a landscape shaped by generations of hands. Dry-stone walls, terraced fields, mule tracks – everything speaks of the people who lived and labored here.

Today, hikers can walk the trail in stages, thanks to the Lecco–Colico railway that intersects the path at several points. You can take your time, breaking it into eight official sections, or cover it in four or five days if you’re more experienced.

Every town along the way holds a quiet surprise: flower-filled gardens overlooking the lake, noble villas from a bygone era, narrow lanes and old harbors where traces of lake trades still linger. In spring, the mountains bloom with color; in autumn, the woods blaze with warm, nostalgic tones. Even winter has its charm, when November’s slanting light washes the landscape in watercolor hues.

Listening to the Landscape

For those searching for a connection to their origins, the Viandante offers a subtle kind of welcome. It doesn’t shout its stories – it whispers them. They live in the place names, in the dialects, in the small rural churches, and in the memories of elderly locals sitting in the shade outside their homes. It’s a place where, rather than seeking your roots, you learn to listen to them.

Among the events worth noting is “Festa del Lago e della Montagna” (Festival of the Lake and the Mountain), held in Lecco on the last Sunday of June – a tribute to the double soul of this land, suspended between water and peaks. There’s also the “Trail del Viandante”, a thrilling race for athletes, who run the path in its most dynamic, challenging form.

The Sentiero del Viandante doesn’t need grand monuments or blockbuster festivals. It is the monument – one to be walked, slowly, step by step. And maybe that’s the true secret of its charm.