Friday, March 23, 2018

Arco attractions

Riva nocą

Arco, Riva, Torbole

All of these towns are located at the northern coast of Garda lake in north part of Italy (about 160 km from Austria). Climbers are probably more associated with the town Arco, bicyclists may know Riva, sailors Riva and Torbole and other people that come just to see the lake, eat Italian food and feel the unique atmosphere.

The beach in Riva

Sailing

In Riva and Torbole are ports where you can park your yacht or you can rent one. Conditions for surfing are also very good on that lake.

A sailboat is entering the port in Riva

The Garda Lake, Riva

Windsurfing on the Garda Lake



Cycling

Beautiful and well prepared tracks await amateurs of two wheels. In tourist information are maps with bicycle routes. The routes are also very well marked. The choice is huge, from the easiest and shortest to the most demanding. It's not without a reason that one of the biggest bicycle festivals in Europe (organizer) takes place here. In 2017 there were over 45 thousand of participants. The routes were diversified from the simplest to the most extreme ones. In that year, there was new competition on e-bikes. Bikes that use electricity to increase the power of human muscles.

Scenery around Arco

Bicycle facilities are very well developed. Without any problem you can rent a bike from one of the rental company. MTB bike costs about 20 euro per day, e-bike with fully charged battery costs over 40 euro per day.

On the trail of Arco area

Climbing

Arco is a Mekka for climbers. The local limestone rocks may be demanding. You will not find an "easy digit" here. Personally, even 5c could surprise me here. In this area is a great number of rocks. In practice, every day you can climb on other rocks.

TOPO under the rocks, here under the Segrom rock

In Arco you can climb without topo. You can simply take a photo of the board in front of the rocks. Every rock area has such board with all routes there. The only thing you have to know is that you need to know where the rocks are. You can take free topo with the most important rocks from the tourist information office. Notice, there are differences between the free topo and the topo as a book.

Fans in Calvario rocks

Parkings in front of the rocks are usually too small. Hopefully, Italians don't like to get up too early, so there should be a free spots until 10 or even 12 o'clock.

Views from via ferrata

Ferrata Che Guevara

Multi-pitch climbing

For multi-ptich climbers separate book with topo has been published. The variety is big, from short and easy routes (about 100 meters) to long and difficult (even 450 meters). I think that even longer routes can be found here if you can see rock walls high to 1500 meters. A lot of that routes are close to the road SS45bis between Arco and Sarche.

Multi-pitch route: Placche Zebrate: Claudia (Super Claudia), 400 meters high

Via ferrata

For the fans of ferratas there is also a book guide. In the town you can rent slings and lanyards for 6 euro. If you negotiate well, you can take the equipment just before closing the shop and return it the next day with the cost of only one day. You only need to be quick enough to return it before they close. The longest working shop with the rental service in Arco is opened until 7:30 pm. If there is no customers they may close it sooner. The time is important as many ferratas is multi-hours, demanding climbing. Finishing it may take even 9 - 12 hours with the altitude of 1500 meters. You should take that into account.

Direction to ferrata "Che Guevara"

Hiking

The region is full of trails with beautiful views. Some of them are real mountain trails. In one day you may make a route starting at 200 m asl and finishing at 1700 m asl. The temperature difference between up and down may be significant. The trails are marked clearly. There are also mountain huts. For example, at the top of the ferrata Che Guevara, at the point where many trails are crossed is one of the mountain huts. It's not a luxury object, even the warm is not certain, but there are walls, roof and nice old people who work there. For 1,50 euro you can drink a full cup of hot wine. For a little more you can get a solid pottage or piece of cake. Everything in the menu is prepared there, so you can get only what they cooked this day. The old people are very old, so their memory may not work well. They can forget with the money in their hand that you paid for the food 5 minutes ago.

Hiking towards Garda Lake

The castle

Above the town Arco are ruins of the medieval castle from the 6th century. The castle is a convenient landmark, because below it is the city center. At the top is a perfect view in every direction. There are comfortable, well marked trails along the sidewalks to the castle. It should not take more than 15 minutes to get there from Main Square, despite the fact that it looks for much harder walk from the down than it really is. Nevertheless, the sidewalks are going up for all the time. Just before the castle there is a ticket office. One entry costs few euro. The last entry is in one hour before the closure.

The view from the castle in Arco

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