Rifugio Cà d'Arera: the short goal above Plassa

The hut belongs to the S.A.B.A., Società Alpinistica Bergamo Alta: this is what the sign above the entrance transcribed by Diska, the Eco di Bergamo listing, Prima Bergamo and Luca Gherardi's report say, while one online directory, escursionismo.it, writes Bergamo Bassa. CAI Bergamo, in the photos of trail 221, labels it as the private SABA hut. The sources agree on 24 beds; Diska describes the opening as reserved for members, escursionismo.it gives an opening period from mid-July to mid-September and facilities such as heating, hot water and electric light.

On the altitude the sources differ by a few tens of metres: 1,540 metres for Prima Bergamo, 1,560 for Diska and the Eco di Bergamo listing, 1,600 for escursionismo.it. We have not found an up-to-date official contact: the rifugiosaba.it domain, given as a contact by a 2005 page by Piero Gritti, does not respond on 1 October 2026.

By car you go up to Zambla Alta and, according to Diska, at kilometre 42 of provincial road 27 you turn left into via Plassa; after about 4 kilometres, at the fork before the large Plassa residence, you keep right uphill and, when the road is open, carry on along the asphalt to the Alpe Arera car park, where the asphalt ends, at around 1,590 metres. From the car park a path to the right of the entrance goes down past two ponds, only one of them fenced, leaves the road's guard-rail on the right, passes a small chapel with an inverted-V roof and reaches the hut in five minutes, for about 40 metres of descent. The car park has a municipal parking meter: 4 euros according to the Rifugi di Lombardia portal.

The road from Plassa to 1,600 metres is open only in the fine season and with precise rules: in 2026 the reopening ordinance from 22 April sets a 30 km/h limit, bans vehicles over 3.5 tonnes and those towing a trailer with other vehicles, and bans parking along the road outside the marked spaces. In winter it is closed to all vehicles, in 2025-26 from 18 November. On foot from Plassa, from the car park near the Camping Arera, you climb in about an hour for 350-360 metres of ascent, following the trail 221 waymarks that cut the hairpins of the road.

From the car park the walk is very short and gently downhill, so even a small child gets there without effort; the way back is uphill, but only for a few minutes. The two ponds along the path, only one of them fenced, are the place to keep an eye on the youngest. At the hut, being private, there are no guaranteed services: water, snacks and a jacket should be brought from home.

Children who walk well can carry on to the Capanna 2000: Diska counts about 45 minutes from the Cà d'Arera, and the Rifugi di Lombardia portal, from the Alpe Arera car park, less than an hour on trail 221 or a wider, gentler loop on the vehicle track. The Capanna 2000 has 80 seats and serves lunch, but for 2026-27 its opening must be checked because of the renovation works.

From the Cà d'Arera Diska gives the Capanna 2000 at 45 minutes, the Santamaria in Leten hut at 2 hours 20 and the summit of the Pizzo Arera at 3 hours, the latter on EE terrain. CAI trail 237 to the Cima di Grem also starts from the hut: 5.6 kilometres, about 450 metres of ascent, 1 hour 50 up and 1 hour 20 back, grade E.

Trail 237 leaves trail 221 on the left and follows a dirt road to a hairpin at 1,809 metres, traverses to the Baita Zuccone, continues across the south side of the Arera to the junction with trail 238 coming up from the Colle di Zambla, touches the Baita Camplano at 1,831 metres and reaches the Bocchetta di Grem, at 1,976 metres, and then the summit, at 2,049. For the Sentiero dei Fiori you climb to the Capanna 2000 and take trail 222 towards the Passo Branchino.

The hut stands where the intermediate station of the Alpe Arera lifts used to be, according to escursionismo.it; at 1,600 metres, where the car park is today, the first chairlift arrived and the old upper lifts started, as L'Eco di Bergamo and CAI Bergamo recall. In 2012, when the municipality removed the last pylons, the then mayor floated the idea of turning that station into a hut and building a summer chairlift towards the Capanna 2000, a project that does not appear to have been carried out. On the way up, in 2018 Prima Bergamo could still see the frames of the old chairlift.

Along the road from Plassa, at a hairpin around 1,350 metres, the signs of the Orobie park point to Giuliano Mauri's Cattedrale Vegetale, designed in 2008-09: Diska recalls that the storm of 28 October 2018 destroyed almost all of it.