Hiked this from the base at Lake Lugano. Took 1hr 40min to get to the summit. I wanted to get there for Sunrise and I think I hit it quite lucky. I set of at 5:30am, with sunrise scheduled at 7am.

The first hour or so is urban roads and is reasonably well lit, but there are areas without a footpath, so definitely being a torch or something reflective to keep you safe on the road.

After the first hour, you lose the footpaths and the streetlights, but by this point there was just enough brightness in the sky for me to see my way.

The last part is definitely the hardest as it is woodland. It is easy to navigate following the white and red flags on the trees as seen in my picture, but it's a tough climb, especially when slippy from last night rain, and I had to get my hands dirty to help me up, but it was so worth it.

The views were incredible, and the cold March air soon began to cool me down. Definitely allow yourself more time to come down, and I was lucky enough to find a big stick that gave me some support to get down some of the steeper and slippery parts, I'd suggest to find a suitable one on your way up and leave it somewhere to help get down if you think you may need it. The funicular was not operating, so there was no easy way out of it.

It took me a full 2 hours to get down as the fatigue in my ankles and blisters were soon setting in so I took it easy. All in all, 22k steps and nothing too challenging, beautiful views the whole way back down. I highly recommend as a fan of walking and hiking, and if not take the funicular when it is in service to take in the view.