Monte Maggiore is also the name of Punta Telégrafo (2194 m), and anyone who looks at the mountain from the south will understand why. As broad as an Alpine Buddha, he crouches there, towering over the vineyards of Bardolino and Caprino Veronese by two kilometers. What is still rugged and steep up at Malcèsine becomes more rounded here: Meadow slopes instead of rocks. And flowers. It's not for nothing that the friendly hut at the mountain station of the Costabella lifts is called “Fiori del Baldo”. And the slopes are littered with it in spring and early summer - a wonderfully colorful carpet. Especially because of the flowers, one climbs up the Maggiore in early summer; autumn is the right time to look into the distance. Then the air is clear, and when the northern foehn blows the haze out into the Po Valley, the view seems almost limitless. It always extends to the flat ridges of the Apennines, sometimes even to the evenly built pyramid that towers far behind Turin, the Monte Viso (3841 m). And that's about 300 kilometers away! The mountain also owes its name to the favorable location on the edge of the Alps: Telégrafo. The Napoleonic troops set up an observation post on the summit and kept in touch via optical signals - two centuries before the invention of the cell phone. That is used today - but quite peacefully: "Carissimi, sono sulla cima!"