Autumn in the Bolognese Apennines - Alto Reno Terme

Updated on 28 January 2026 From Discover Alto Reno Terme

The autumn equinox has just marked the end of summer and the beginning of the most eagerly awaited season in our mountains. With this short guide, we want to suggest some of the most interesting places to discover during the red leaf season! From some of the small villages in the Upper Reno valleys to the beautiful woods surrounding our Bolognese Apennines.

Upper Reno Valley - villages of Granaglione

The Reno Valley offers some of the most evocative places in the Bologna area. Just a stone's throw from the border with neighboring Tuscany, there are stone villages of extraordinary beauty, such as Poggio dei Boschi, Casa Forlai, Il Nibbio, Casa Roversi, Casa Calistri, and Casa Strelli, to name but a few. The surrounding woods are splendid examples of Apennine forests, characterized by enchanting chestnut groves and imposing beech woods that color the landscape in autumn with shades that literally set the surrounding mountain landscape ablaze. If you look closely, you may find curious engravings on the lintels and stones of some houses. In many of them, we find ancient family symbols, as well as religious drawings and the dates of the buildings' foundation, carved into the walls. In others, we can find symbols attributable to the Comacine masters, who left numerous traces of their work on many houses in the Randaragna Valley between the 15th and 17th centuries.

Monte Cavallo

This peak rises to over 1,000 meters above sea level and is located above the Randaragna stream, between the Reno Valley and the small Barricello stream. Its slopes, completely wooded, are covered with beech coppices and conifer plantations.

Just below the summit is the Monte Cavallo refuge, run by staff who offer catering and accommodation services. From 1923, it was a Forestry and Reforestation Consortium that lasted until the 1960s/1970s, when the work consisted of reducing soil erosion, producing timber, and reforesting the slopes.

The refuge was also the headquarters of the ‘Matteotti Montagna’ partisan brigade during the Second World War, which contributed decisively to the liberation of the Bolognese mountains from Nazi-Fascist rule.

Pass Tre Croci

A short distance from the Monte Cavallo refuge, Pass Tre Croci is undoubtedly one of the most evocative corners of the area due to its open panorama that offers sweeping views from nearby Monte Cavallo to the peaks of Monte Cocomero and Orsigna.

The mountain pass is the meeting point of beautiful forest roads that climb up from the lower villages of Castelluccio, Poggio, and Casa Forlai. The three crosses are a reminder of an unfortunate night in the 18th century when three women from Case Trogoni set out to walk to Porretta Terme via the Castelluccio road. When they reached Monte Cavallo, they were surprised by an unseasonal snowstorm in June. They froze to death in the fury of the storm and their memory was commemorated with these three crosses, which after centuries still defy the elements.

Monte di Granaglione and Valle del Randaragna

Above the village of Granaglione, the highest peak that gives the town its name dominates the landscape from above. From its summit, you can admire a wonderful landscape of mountains that roll like a sea of waves towards the Tuscan border. Located at the bottom of the Reno Valley, it takes its name from the stream of the same name that flows from the mountains into the main river at the bottom of the valley.

The Randaragna valley is one of the least known and most evocative areas of the territory. Its woods are an open-air story of Apennine mountain culture: from chestnut groves to coppice woods of beech and oak, pushing us higher and higher as we climb, up to the reforestation of fir and pine.