Rock Climbing Areas of Northern Italy

The northern part of Italy is very mountainous and has numerous rock climbing and sports climbing areas. The more popular ones are described below:

The Dolomites.
The Dolomites are a group of limestone mountains in northeast Italy that provide big wall routes up to 800m long. There is an abundance of classic routes at all grades many of which can be reached with fairly short walks from the road. In terms of length of route relative to approach time this makes the Dolomites some of the best value rock climbing worldwide. There are also many single pitch sports routes crags in the area as well as the classic Via Ferrata routes.

Arco
Rock climbing in Arco, near Lake Garda, is slightly further south than the Dolomites, lower lying, and therefore has a milder climate. There are around 30 limestone crags within the area providing everything from single pitch sports routes to more traditional multi-pitch rock climbing up to 300m high. It is possible to climb for most of the year, though it can get hot in the summer, with spring and autumn the best times to visit.
Buy sports climbing and rock climbing guidebooks for Arco from our shop.

Lake Como and Lecco
The granite crags that rise out of Lake Como near Lecco offer a great range of rock climbing from single pitch sports routes to long multi-pitch routes up to 500m long that demand a mountaineering approach. In all there are 65 crags to choose from and 1000's of routes at all grades.
The guidebook called "Arrampicate Sportive E Moderne Fra Lecco E Como", which describes all the sports route and multi-pitch routes around Lecco and Como, is available to buy from our shop.
The tiny village of Cimaganda is situated to the north of Lake Como, close to the border with Switzerland, in the Alpine meadows. Here at Cimaganda there is a great bouldering area.

Around Genova and Finale Ligure
Finale Ligure has a reputation as "the" place to go rock climbing in Italy with over 2000 routes in the area. This is part due to the pleasant setting on the Mediterranean coast near France, easily accessible crags in beautiful locations where it is enjoyable to climb from the autumn right through to early summer. The rock climbing at Finale Ligure is mainly single pitch sports routes on good quality limestone, with some bolted multi-pitch routes up to 250m long.
The area around Genova offers many more rock climbing areas within the Luguria district of Italy. To the east of Genova there is the dramatic sea cliff climbing at Muzzerone. Here there are single pitch and multi-pitch routes across all grades from slabs to fierce overhangs. To the west of Finale and slightly inland there is a series of valleys that have become known as the OltreFinale crags. Together this combined area has 80 climbing sectors and hundreds of routes across a wide range of grades on solid limestone rock.

Andonno
This small village embedded in the Mediterranean Alps offers easy accessible sports climbing with over 200 routes at all grades. There is also another village called Vernante, which is close by, that has two further crags and 140 sport climbing routes. This area is close to the rock climbing at Finale Ligure.

Rock Climbing around Trieste
Napoleonica located just outside of Trieste, and Val Rosandra located close to the Slovenian border offer a good range of single pitch and multi-pitch sports routes at all grades. There is also some excellent rock climbing just across the border in Slovenia at Osp and within an hour's drive there is the excellent Istria region in northern Croatia. The combination of these three areas offers plenty of rock climbing, at all grades, for at least a couple of weeks. It is also possible to climb at many of the crags throughout the majority of the year.