Walking time: 4 hours
Difficulty level: E (Excursionist)
Trail: trekking or mountain bike
Remarks: path initially not marked; be careful when crossing the creek.
Departure: Turano (m 680 altitude)
Arrival: Turano (m 680 altitude)
Difference in altitude: m 303
Not to miss: Ancient Crafts – Dairy Museum in Persone, Valvestino – Don Pietro Porta Botanical Museum in Moerna, Valvestino (for information tel. +39.0365.745060 – +39.0365.745007 Info@VisitValvestino.it)
The cartography is an extract from the map 4LANd n. 111 “Parco Alto Garda Bresciano”
You may turn up to the «Cùel dell’Orco» in about half-hour walking from Turano hamlet (m 680), where you may find a grocery/bar (+39.0365.74063) and park your car. Leaving Turano hamlet and reaching the hairpin turn at the Turano – Armo crossroads (where there is a picnic furnished space), you walk on a paved road for the first meters. Then you take the dirty track on the left and you go up the Personcino creek valley. You cross the rivulet and continue on the dirty track buried in woods; after approximately m 350 on the left you find the old mill. You follow the signage leading to Persone hamlet (on the right there is the trail going up to Armo – collapsed bridge, marker nr. 74). Going on straight ahead, on your right you find the “Cùel dell’Orco”, nearby a furnished space.
The “cùei” are caverns, used as safe spaces and shelters where to stay, to lean on, to take food and to sleep when away from home for many days.
This happened for the running of typical mountain activities, like haymaking, wood chopping, charcoal production and pasture.
A little further, you cross the ancient small stone bridge from where the climb to Persone hamlet starts, taking about one hour and enjoying the charming spectacle the nature offers.
In Persone (m 898) there is an inn/tavern/bar (+39.0365.745008) and through path nr. 79 starting from the Saint Ann votive shrine, in about Km 3.5 your reach the charming Moerna hamlet (alternatively reachable covering Km 2 on a paved road). Initially it’s a steep track then it becomes easier, till you turn up to the well-known watering holes called “pozze di Persone”, where explicatory boards tell about the local flora and fauna. Then you keep on with an enjoyable trail, crossing the place “le Fratte” and turning up to a large clearing with a delightful pool with frogs and tadpoles; from this area you quickly reach Moerna hamlet (m 983), then you arrive to San Rocco place, where a nice chalet hosting a tavern/bar (+39.334.2525276) is located, together with a 7½ acres park, fully equipped for sport and camping activities: an exceptional panoramic viewpoint not to miss, with an explanatory board in vicinity of the reception facility, allowing to recognize the surrounding peaks.
Then you reach the Province Road at the Botanical Museum “Don Pietro Porta” and there you take the dirty track called “Via delle Castagne” (chestnut way), leading downhill in approximately a forty minute walk back to the lovely Turano hamlet (m 680).
1. The “Cuèl dell’Orco” or “Cuèl del Diàol”. Nowadays we provide logical explanations to the nature’s work, whilst in the past the fear of the unknown prevailed on scientific evidences. Mysteries and magic were the most recurring elements, with many extravagant characters and witches in the popular imagination, playing prominent roles in scaring stories told to children in the long winter evenings in the cattle sheds, in front of the fireplace during the “filò”.
2. The path start: the dirty track on the left at the hairpin turn at the Turano – Armo crossroad.
3. The old mill close to Persone hamlet.
4. Trail sign to Persone.
5. The ancient small stone bridge crossing the Personcino creek.
6. Along the trail leading from Moerna to Turano hamlet.
7. Historical wall sign in Turano at the start of the old mule track to Moerna hamlet.
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