During our most recently trip to Italy, in between Florence and Cinque Terre, we spent a few days in the mountains. We did two amazing hikes (in one day, I’d recommend spacing them out a bit better!), the details of which you can find below.

Monte Forato

There are two ways up this mountain, the N6 path which an easier journey starting in Fornovolasco and the 12 path starting from Cardoso. Though I’m not an experienced hiker and only had basic running shoes, Cardoso was a 10 minute drive away and Fornovolasco over an hour, so our choice was made – we did the 12 route.

The start of the trail is slightly difficult to find (photos for reference below). Once in town you go over a bridge, the road goes left, and you follow a water intake road up to a quarry. There’s a small waterfall right at the start of the trail – we just left our car here and it was fine.

start of trail, view from road

start of trail

The first 30 minutes or so we were walking through a heavily wooded area. There were tons of bugs and no view and I was a bit worried it wasn’t going to be a great hike. That changes quickly and it ended up being so fun. There were a few bits that were challenging – really steep segments where shoes with good grip would have helped and you basically have to hoist yourself up using nearby trees and roots. The last bit to the top (and then getting back down) was really steep, but otherwise it’s not technically difficult.

About halfway up there’s a nice view point, we stopped and had a snack before continuing on. Though we didn’t see anyone on the hike itself, there were about 6 other people at the top. It took us about two hours to get up and an hour to get down. This hike was amazing and challenging and a good workout (for me anyway).

this is a lovely photo until you notice me at the bottom, dragging myself up the mouth of the cliff!

If you’re taking route 12 like we did, we used this guide, and for route 6 this looks helpful as well.

Candalla

From there we drove over to Candalla. We immediately hopped into the waterfall at the mouth of the trail to cool off, and then started walking. There are a bunch of different trails to take, we walked for about two hours, hopping in and out of different waterfalls, and looped back into Candalla right around sunset.

This was such a nice and relaxing end to the day, and a stunning location. Note, Osteria Candalla is right at the start of this hike and very well reviewed. It would have been wonderful to end the day with dinner there, however it is definitely necessary to book in advance.