In reply to rompompom:
Arco rustic and less luxurious? I haven't been to Lecco, but Arco is not an undiscovered backwater with delicious agriturismos hidden away down farm lanes. It's more of a major tourist trap with more climbing / outdoor shops (most of them more like fashion shops with a few token quickdraws in the window) than Ambleside That said... I still love it. Trip to Redpoint for some new gear, extra big cappucino on the main square, in the evenings pizza and campari spritz...
The few single pitch sport crags I have visited there (Nago etc.) I found pretty polished up to my grade (about 6a). The multi-pitch is a different matter, however, and that is what I like there now.
The multi-pitch style there used to be anti-bolt. The best classic lines (found in the Diego Filippi guides from publishes Versante Sud) have peg belays and a lot of peg runners, but you still need a rack, albeit not a Pembroke-sized one. However...
... more recently a German climber called Heinz Grill has bolted a lot of new multi-pitch routes. When I say more recently, I mean like in the past couple of decades. He lives there... and to judge from the number of routes he has opened, he must have a lot of spare time The big classic lines had already been taken, so my feeling is that a lot of his are on crags which you could call second tier... but they have still sometimes got some super climbing. The guidebook Arco Plaisir is written by a friend of his and at least three quarters of the routes in it seem to be Heinz Grill routes.
His style (at least on the few routes of his which I have done) is two bolts on the belays, in-situ threads where ever possible, bolts on the harder bits if no threads possible, and nothing at all if there are either good natural possibilities or on easier ground. I would take a set of wires and a few medium cams (e.g. yellow, red, and maybe a couple smaller) for a Heinz Grill route, even though most of the time you just clip the bolts and threads.
