Howtogetthere

BY PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION	BY CAR
You can reach Lecco by bus (from Milan or Como) or by train (Milano-Lecco- Sondrio line, Monza-Lecco via Besana line, Como-Lecco line, or Brescia-Bergamo-Lecco line). In any case, you will get to the FS railway station; from there walk down Cavour street, cross Garibaldi square, and you will find yourselves in Mazzini square, at the bus stop. Wait for bus number 5 (it carries the sign, "Funivia Piani d'Erna") and, once on board, ask the driver to call you when it's time to get off. The stop you want is the one just before the Malnago village stop.	If you are driving to Lecco on Superstrada 36 from upper Lake Como or Valtellina, get off at "Lecco Centro". While emerging from the underground tunnel, you will spot the Bennet Supermarket signs on your right. As soon as you are out, turn on your right toward the supermarket on a short road up that gets you to a roundabout--once there, turn right again (you will still be seeing the Bennet Supermarket and the Meridiana Center on your right) and then straight on for less than 300 meters till you find another roundabout. Drive around it aiming for the road slanting up on your left. Check the road name on the plate--it must be "Corso Promessi Sposi". Follow that road till you find the traffic lights and then straight on again past the traffic lights. Check the signs--they must say you are heading for "Funivia dei Piani d'Erna".	If you are driving to Lecco on Superstrada 36 from south (Milan, Como, Brianza), get off at the second exit after the bridge on the Adda river (the first exit says "Bergamo, aeroporti, dogana": don't take it, stay on the Superstrada and you will find the exit you want three-four hundred meters on). As soon as you are out, you will find a roundabout--turn around it aiming to go straight on, toward a high-rise building with strange sail-like things moving on its top (the Meridiana Center). When you are almost there, the road turns right and you will find another roundabout--leave it on your left (dont't go around it) take the road up in front of you, being careful to avoid the two streets on your right. Check the road name on the plate--it must be "Corso Promessi Sposi". Follow that road till you find the traffic lights and then straight on again past the traffic lights. Check the signs--they must say you are heading for "Funivia dei Piani d'Erna".

At the last bend before the Malnago village (shown in this picture here on the right) you will probably find some parked cars and will see signs ponting to Ponte Tenaglia and to Cavagiozzo (a hut belonging to the local chapter of the Alpine Forces Veterans). You can park your car at this bend. Take the path shown by the signs (in orange in the map below) and follow the red arrows you will find painted on stones and trees along the path. The path runs mostly even, with very few and mild ups and downs.

strada.jpg (14016 bytes)

After 5-10 minutes' walk you will find the Alpine Forces Veterans' hut (marked with their green A.N.A. initials and the word "Acquate"). Seventy-eighty steps past the hut you must turn on your right, following light-blue spots painted on the ground, on stones, and on trees. At first the path runs on the edge of a meadow, then it turns left into a wood. Go on following the light-blue marks--just be careful not to take the fairly larger path you will find at some point going down to your right; also, be careful on your way back to follow the light-blue marks or the red arrows painted on the rocks and choose again the narrow path going up straight in front of you, not the larger path going down on your left). Soon you'll start hearing the sound of water flowing in a stream hidden by the trees, low on your right. Another two or three minutes' walk will bring you to a small iron bridge crossing the stream. If you look up from there, you'll see the white hut on the other side of the bridge, ten or fifteen meters up among the trees. After you cross the bridge, you can take a steep path partly carved in the stone or a more leisurely, wider and somewhat longer path, but either way in less than a minute you are there.

As you can see from the map above, there is another way to reach Ponte Tenaglia, starting from Germanedo, a village that is now part of the Lecco township. This village is where the new Lecco General Hospital is located, so you may ask for directions to the "Nuovo Ospedale" if you have any difficulties finding the place. If you are at the Lecco railway station, walk down Cavour street, cross Garibaldi square toward the Garibaldi statue in front of the theater, and turn left into Mazzini Square. Look for the bus stop. The bus you want is bus number 8. Get off at the last stop, and you are at Germanedo. Turn back towards the roundabout a few meters before the bust stop and turn left into Lombardia street, the cross the bridgde on your right and turn to your left. Check the name of the street--it must be "Via Airoldi e Muzzi". Follow the street up to another bridge that crosses the Bione stream on your left, and keep walking up (the street must now have a new name--"Via Rovinata") till you get to another (and last) bridge that crosses the stream on your right. Take the path up slightly on you left, made of large steps and flanked by a series of fifteen small, open chapels; this path ends at a nice little church ("Chiesetta della Madonna della Rovinata"), from which you can enjoy the sight of Lecco on its lake down below surrounded by its mountains. On the left side of the church there is a small fountain with very good mountain water that you can drink, and just beside the fountain you can see the beginning on a new path that gets around the church and up again toward Ponte Tenaglia. In less than one minute you will be passing by a mountain hut on your right, belonging to the Alpine Forces Veterans (A.N.A.) from Belledo (another village, close to Germanedo). Then you will see a few houses on your left, till you reach the Marietta Fountain, which lends its name to the place. It is a rather unconspicuous spring you will find after the last house (the house is on your left, the spring is on your right). The water is worth drinking, particularly if you like tasting fresh mountain water. Another little effort, and you will get to a Y junction: if you take the branch going down, you will find yourself at the Ponte Tenaglia (Tongs Bridge), if you take the branch that goes up, in a few meters you will be at Ms. Franca Monti's agricultural tourism lodge.