Dog-friendly hiking near Lake Como, Italy: Pigra to Monte di Tremezzo

Cows in the hills. Not something we see everyday on our hikes in Georgia.

During our recent trip to Italy we took a couple of nice dog-friendly hikes. The scenery was amazing... with mountain peaks rising above crystal clear lakes, also not something we see on our Georgia hikes!

Take a look!

Rocco enjoys the view high above Lake Como

We stayed in the charming town of Menaggio on Lake Como. And on this day we set out by car to travel to the peaks above Pigra and get in some hiking, too.

Here, you can get an idea of where we were. Pigra and the areas of Tremezzo, Lenno and Alpe Colonno are all pretty close to the arrow that says "you are here".  We were about halfway between Lake Como and Lake Lugano, but in all of our photos you'll see Lake Como.



We started out a little further down the mountain ranges with a nice hike to the Rifugio Caseificio, where we thought we'd be able to hike in for lunch.



We hiked for a few miles down this path...

But when we got the Rifugio they had already sold out of all their food! 

It kind of looks like a big family picnic, doesn't it? What's cool is that dogs are welcome and you actually hike into this location. We took a short look around and headed back down the path to find another place for lunch.

On the way out, we saw this little fellow napping beside the building!

On the hike out, Rocco found a few logs for balancing.

We hopped in the car and headed further up the mountain ranges where we found another Rifugio. This time we were in luck -- dog-friendly, of course, and the food and views were fabulous!

The Rifugio Boffalora was on the way to Monte Tremezzo, the dominant peak in the range of mountains that frame the western side of Lake Como with an elevation of 5,600 feet.

The views in around Rifugio Boffalora were fabulous and you can see there were a few dogs dining there that day!

After lunch we took a walk around the surrounding village, near Monte di Lenno,  and the views were breathtaking!

This is where we spotted the cows grazing! Rocco thinks they're pretty funny!

Next, we headed further up the mountain toward Tremezzo. More amazing views!

View from Monte Tremezzo

After a long day of fresh mountain air and superb views, it was time to head back to Menaggio, along Lake Como.

Dining anywhere is a treat in Italy since you can take your dog most anywhere, even inside restaurants. We mostly ate outside since the weather was so nice, and at this Menaggio restaurant they even pulled up a chair for Rocco!

You won't find that in Georgia, either! The perfect ending to the perfect day!

We'll post more great adventures from Italy in coming weeks, but first we have an exciting special announcement for you!

You won't want to miss next week at FitDog Friday where along with our co-hosts SlimDoggy and My GBGV Life we'll announce a terrific month-long fitness event with lots of great challenges and tips to get your pups (and you!) in shape for the upcoming holiday season. Get ready for cardio, strength training and conditioning -- we'll have a new challenge each week in October. AND, you won't want to miss the chance to win some fabulous prize packs from our terrific Fall Fitness Challenge sponsor. All the details will be announced next Friday... so get ready to have some fall fitness fun!

The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and My GBGV Life to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!). Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the hop.