A route in search of petroglyphs, leading from Punta San Vigilio to Torri del Benaco up to Monte Luppia where you can admire the view over the Bay of Garda.

A simple but impressive path that offers an enchanting landscape and lush vegetation. Hikers and cyclists can find a unique mixture of wild nature, prehistoric engravings and breathtaking views of the lake and the surrounding mountains.

Despite the proximity to the main road, there is a wonderful Mediterranean vegetation around Punta San Vigilio. It consists mainly of downy oaks (Quercus pubescens),  European hop-hornbeam (Ostrya carpinifolia) and flowering ashes (Fraxinus ornus). The fauna is very rich, too and fascinating bird species such as scops owls (Otus scops), hoopoes (Upupa epops) and green woodpeckers (Picus viridis) can be admired as well as mammals like foxes (vulpes vulpes), beech martens (Martes foina) and badgers (Meles meles).

Along the path you find signs for the rock engravings and Monte Luppia. The trail goes up steeply in the midst of Mediterranean plants.

The petroglyphs are engraved on smooth rock walls which were used as canvades by the Stone Age peoples. The mountain originates from the last tectonic shifts in the Cenozoic Era whereas in the Quaternary, glacier phenomena have shaped the forms of the rocks, making them smooth and regular and ideal surfaces for inscriptions. The graffiti authors were not sedentary populations, but hunters and shepherds in transition. The engravings were made with the "hammering" method, hitting the rock with a harder stone such as serpentine or quartzite.

If you want to deepen your knowledge, you should visit the Hall of Engravings at the Museum of the Medieval Castle of Torri.

Proceeding the walk on Sentiero the Castei to the top of Monte Luppia, you can admire a panoramic view of the cliffs overlooking Lake Garda and on clear days, to the mountain chains of the Apennines and the Alps.