Selva di Progno
Selva di Progno is a mountain municipality in the eastern Lessinia area, in the province of Verona, stretched along the Val d'Illa...
Updated 12 July 2026
The story
The story of Selva di Progno
Giazza and the last Cimbri of Verona
The hamlet of Giazza is the cultural heart of Selva di Progno and one of the most singular places in all of Lessinia. From the late 13th century, German-speaking settlers who worked in logging and charcoal production settled here, giving rise to the Veronese Cimbrian community. Even today, Giazza is the only municipality in the area where Cimbrian, a language with clear ties to Old German, is still spoken regularly, though mostly by older generations. The Ethnographic Museum of the Cimbri, run by the Curatorium Cimbricum Veronense and housed in the Centre for Cimbrian Culture on Via dei Boschi, tells the history, language and daily life of this linguistic minority through objects, documents and reconstructions, offering visitors a piece of history found nowhere else in the province of Verona.
Val d'Illasi and the landscapes of eastern Lessinia
The municipal territory extends along the upper Val d'Illasi, in a landscape typical of eastern Lessinia made up of beech woods, high-altitude pastures and rock faces sloping down from the mountains into the valley floor. It is a less frequented area than central Lessinia, with a network of trails connecting Selva di Progno and Giazza to mountain refuges and malghe, suited to hikers seeking quiet rather than large crowds. The Illasi stream, which gives the valley its name, flows between the two main settlements, while the higher parts of the municipality reach toward the Lessinia foothills, opening up views that stretch from the Verona plain to the Vicenza prealps on clearer days.
Malghe, alpine pastures and mountain life
Livestock and dairy farming traditions are still a living part of Selva di Progno's economy, with several malghe remaining active during the summer season for grazing and the production of mountain cheeses. This model of rural economy, handed down over generations, coexists with still-modest hiking tourism, which allows visitors to tour the malghe, buy local dairy products and see up close a trade that has largely faded in many other alpine areas. Local cuisine, simple and tied to forest and pasture products, offers cheeses, mountain cured meats and dishes based on mushrooms and chestnuts in the autumn months, one more reason to stop in these valleys.
A borderland municipality, but no less worthwhile
Selva di Progno borders the province of Vicenza to the east, in a position off the main tourist routes of Lessinia, such as the Fiorentini plateau or the Bosco Chiesanuova area. This geographical marginality, while limiting tourist flows, has helped preserve local traditions intact, starting precisely with the Cimbrian language of Giazza. The municipality lends itself well to slow, conscious tourism, capable of appreciating a territory that does not rely on major attractions but on a rare cultural identity, that of the Veronese Cimbri, combined with genuine, lightly built-up mountain landscapes compared to other, better-known parts of Lessinia.
Trails and hikes in eastern Lessinia
The hiking network starting from Selva di Progno and Giazza connects the valley floor to the foothills of eastern Lessinia, with marked trails passing through beech woods, high-altitude clearings and some of the still-active malghe. These routes are suited mainly to hikers with a minimum level of fitness, more than to family strolls, and offer a mountain environment still little tamed by mass tourism. In winter, when conditions allow, some stretches also lend themselves to simple snowshoe outings, while in autumn the foliage of the beech woods provides one of the most striking landscapes in all of Verona's Lessinia.
Experiences not to miss
- Visit the Ethnographic Museum of the Cimbri in Giazza
- Hear the still-living traces of the Cimbrian language in Giazza
- Walk the Val d'Illasi trails toward malghe and mountain refuges
- Taste mountain cheeses and local forest products
- Explore the beech woods and views of upper eastern Lessinia
To see
What to see in Selva di Progno
Routes · Trovido Route
