Lake Maggiore: up the Laveno bidonvia, walk down from Sasso del Ferro

Not every walk starts with a climb. This one starts with a cable car — and not a normal one. The plan was simple enough: ride up to Sasso del Ferro, then walk the whole way back down to the lake, gravity doing the work on the way home. But first we had to get there, and getting there was half the story.

Getting to Lake Maggiore

We’d had a few days in Como — somewhere we keep coming back to — and fancied widening our horizons to one of the other Italian lakes. Maggiore took our fancy. So we packed the bags and headed for Como station, bound for Laveno Mombello Lago, right on Maggiore’s foreshore: three trains and two changes away.

If you’ve ever caught a train at Como, you’ll know the platforms get switched at the last minute. Often. This time was no different. Hauling a heavy case up and down the station steps and legging it between platforms is hard going — but we only had to do it twice, made the first train, and the rest of the changes behaved themselves. The other stations were no trouble at all.

Laveno Mombello wasn’t quite the end of it either. From there it was a couple of ferries across the water to Pallanza, where our apartment was — home for the Maggiore leg, and, as it turned out, the starting point for the walk.

Over to Laveno for the walk

The day of the walk we were in no rush: a leisurely breakfast first, then down to the jetty. Laveno sits across the lake from Pallanza, so the day proper began back on the boats — Pallanza round to the main terminal at Intra, then the car-and-passenger ferry straight across to Laveno. Two boats before we’d set foot on the hill, which felt about right for a lake holiday.

Worth knowing: the ferries run to a seasonal timetable, and it’s easy to lose track of the time up top. I took a photo of the timetable board so we had the times in our pocket. Recommend you do the same.

Up in the bidonvia

The cable car out of Laveno is a bidonvia — and the word fits. These aren’t smart enclosed gondolas. They’re little two-person buckets, hanging off the wire in the open air, and the nearest thing I can compare them to is an old-fashioned metal dustbin sailing up the mountain. They’ve been running since 1963 and look it, in the best way.

My partner was not keen. You don’t dangle — you stand inside the bucket — but if you get one of the open-topped ones, with no roof over you, you feel properly exposed next to your run-of-the-mill enclosed cable car. The ground drops away beneath you and the lake spreads out wider and wider the higher you go, about fifteen minutes of it. If heights aren’t your thing, this is a test. If they are, it’s brilliant.

An empty bucket swinging in at the station — we went up early, before the queues, so the buckets were running empty.

The top — Sasso del Ferro

The buckets drop you at Poggio Sant’Elsa, up around 1,000 metres, just below the Sasso del Ferro summit at 1,062m. The views are the whole point: Maggiore laid out below you, the far shore, and the Alps stacked up behind on a clear day.

It’s a proper spot to mooch about. There’s a paragliding launch up here — a ramp built out over the drop — and we watched a few of them step off into nothing and float out over the lake. There’s also an old abandoned ski lift, rusting quietly, which tells you the place has had a few lives.

We stopped at the café by the top station for a drink and got chatting to the staff. Everything they sell — every crate, every barrel, every bag of rolls — comes up and goes down on the cable car. There’s no road. It made us look at the buckets a bit differently: not just a ride for tourists, but the actual supply line for the place.

Walking down

Then the walk, which is all downhill — about 800 metres of descent over six-odd kilometres, so easy on the lungs but it asks a bit of your knees. Poles help.

Looking back down the line from the buckets — the whole way down to the lake laid out below.

The path winds down off the top and works its way through the back of Laveno, in and out of woodland, the lake dropping back towards you. Eventually it spills out near the town, and a last stretch down through the streets brings you back to the waterfront.

Getting home

From the Laveno waterfront it’s the ferry back across to Intra, then round to Pallanza — the same three-boat shuffle in reverse. This is where that photo of the timetable comes in handy: get the timings wrong and you’re waiting a while, or working out a long way round by road. We made our boat. Just.

Practical notes

The cable car and the ferries are both in the Before you go box above, with links. Both are seasonal — check times before you set off, and plan the day around the last ferry back.

The walk itself is short and entirely downhill, so it’s an easy day on paper. The catch is the descent: steep in places, hard on the knees, and you’ll want decent footwear and ideally poles. The GPX above is our track from the top down.

Heads up on the bidonvia: the open buckets are genuinely not for everyone. If anyone in your group is uneasy with heights, have the conversation before you’ve bought the tickets.

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Part of our Italian Lakes walks — five days around Lake Como and Lake Maggiore.