Lago di Fimon

This morning, as I was rubbing my eyes and thinking about coffee, Ananas messaged the Spritz Club bubbling about how it was such a nice day and we should go for a hike. Now I don’t know about you, but in my life, 9AM is way too early to be thinking about exercise. But I had to admit, Ananas had a point. The sun was shining, the air was crisp, and it was high-time to enjoy some nice weather.

Within an hour we were packed in the car along with Mela’s dog Shuks and my dog Hazelnut. Lake Fimon isn’t far from Vicenza. It’s in the town of Arcugnano, as we learned from a sign that we passed on the path. It was about a 20 minute drive south from post, and soooo pretty.

The lake has lots of feathery wildlife. There were plenty of ducks and swans, and Ananas even spotted a pair of snowy egrets. The lake is very narrow and a gravel walking path goes all the way around. The path on the east side of the lake runs along a road, so we were a little nervous about our dogs being free. Luckily, they behaved themselves and stayed out of the road, though there weren’t many cars on it anyway. At the top of the lake the path veers away from the road and we were in the clear. The pups had a blast (Shukson especially, since he’s a swimmer).

The path was lovely. It’s flat and well-maintained, and since the lake is so small it only took us about an hour to make the entire circle at a leisurely stroll. Most of the path goes through farmland, so we had lake on one side and corn fields on the other. There was a small picnic area at the top of the lake, so we’re planning to come back with a packed lunch next time.

I’d highly recommend it to anyone who wants to go for a pretty walk, and especially for dog owners. It was a great walk for Hazel and Shuks, but watch out for the swans! Shuks got a little closer than they wanted and they hissed at him for a while before waddling into the water. Luckily, Shuks isn’t a dummy and he didn’t try to force his friendship upon them.

If you want to go to Lake Fimon, all you have to do is Google it. The directions are pretty straightforward and there are plenty of parking areas once you get there. One thing we thought, though, is that it probably wouldn’t be nearly as nice in the summer because the southern end of the lake is kind of swampy. We imagined it would be pretty muggy and that there would be a lot of bugs. But on a nice day in November, it was perfect.