Directions
Difficulty: T (tourist)
In the heart of Balbido among houses adorned with paintings recalling the ancient rural life; after a wide curve, it turns left onto a narrow lane that soon leads to the village square. Climb up to the right along the main street and, following the SAT 462 sign on the left, on an asphalt road, you reach the last houses of the village. Enter the countryside and ascend crossing a steep slope up to “Le Cross”. On our right a small shrine with an image of the Madonna, on the left a meadow with one of the five crosses in the center, the other four can be found in the nearby woods. The crosses were erected in 1656 to keep away witches who were believed to come out of Val Marcia to bring misfortune and evil eye.
Continue ascending through the woods, you reach and pass two farmhouses and after admiring the panorama of the valley and the villages below, descend steeply into the village of Rango, one of the Most Beautiful Villages of Italy. You pass through a square adorned by a large quadrangular fountain in tonalite, surrounded by rustic houses and very characteristic small corners with archways and narrow alleys.
Leaving the village, go up to the right along the dirt road and enter the countryside scattered with farmhouses. After crossing the meadows, you enter the woods and then continue, still on a dirt road, at the border between the woods and the provincial road, and in a short time reach the destination: Durone. In front of you a wide basin of green meadow surrounded by woods, in the background a splendid view of Carè Alto and above, on the left, the steep slope of Cima Sèra, the road to Malga Stabio and a bar-restaurant for a possible stop. The return is downhill and initially retraces the same route taken during the ascent, then stays on the provincial road from which it is possible to reach the spring called “Acqua Santa”. Here in 1565, Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, passing through on his journey to Trento, drank and blessed the water.
Shortly after the spring, near a picnic area on the right, take the dirt road that leads back into the woods, after about a hundred meters, turn left to descend to the hamlet of Cavaione through a narrow dirt road between woods and meadows. At a crossroads between fields, bordered by slabs and dry stone walls, turn right onto the road that shortly enters a spruce forest. Continue descending until you intersect the provincial road, which soon leads to the upper part of the hamlet of Cavaione near the pizzeria “Il Castelliere”. At the hairpin turn, descend the asphalt lane bordered by granite slabs. Arriving at the fountain, continue right to return to Rango, the starting point of the walk.
