Vallemaggia and Centovalli - Lake Maggiore & Lake Orta Travel Guide
Ticino is regarded as the sunny side of Switzerland, and especially Locarno and Ascona, the two lowest-lying towns in Switzerland (around 200 m). But the almost subtropical vegetation around Lake Maggiore also needs plenty of rain, and the "Genoa lows" that drop their rain on the southern edge of the Alps often bring torrential downpours. As soon as the sun comes out again, however, life outdoors springs back into action in pleasant temperatures that only rarely fall below freezing, even in winter.
One of the main attractions of Locarno is its surroundings. A cable car climbs to Cimetta at 1,671 m, an ideal hiking area in summer and a ski area close to town in winter.
The Maggia Valley and its side valleys are also superb hiking country, with many old villages that were emptied by emigration and the drift from the land and have now often been revived by city dwellers from the north and by artists who work here. In the upper Vallemaggia there are granite quarries, and in a side valley at 1,500 m even a German-speaking Walser village, Bosco Gurin, where a medieval form of Alemannic is still spoken today.
Cevio (415 m, 600 inhabitants) was the main town of the Maggia Valley from the early 15th century, first the seat of the Milanese Visconti and later of the Swiss Confederation's bailiffs. Frescoed manor houses, the bailiff's house, the parish church of S. Assunta e S. Giovanni and, a little outside the village, the pilgrimage church of Madonna del Ponte (1615) still bear witness to this era.
Also in the Vallemaggia, which above Cevio is also called the Val Lavizzara, Peccia is home to a sculpture school where the white marble quarried there is worked.
And in the next village, Mogno, stands the grey-and-white striped church of San Giovanni Battista, built to plans by the famous Ticino architect Mario Botta: the white is marble from Peccia and the grey is granite from the lower Vallemaggia.
Fusio lies picturesquely at the top end of the Val Lavizzara, just before the Lago del Sambuco reservoir.
The Centovalli (Hundred Valleys) is a particularly attractive valley. The drive by car leads up through the gorges of the "hundred valleys" with fabulous views of the valleys and the surrounding mountain ranges. The road runs mostly along the sunny north side of the valley, linking the old inhabited villages (Tegna, Verscio, Intragna and others) on the mountainside, while the little hamlets on the shady south slope are now often abandoned and uninhabited.
Beyond the Swiss-Italian border the Italian Valle Vigezzo begins. The road through the Centovalli and the Valle Vigezzo to Domodossola links the two most important Swiss Alpine routes, those over the Gotthard Pass and the Simplon Pass. The road through the Centovalli is, however, closed to buses and lorries because of the overhanging rocks in places.
The Centovalli Railway is a special attraction for railway enthusiasts. This binational narrow-gauge line, quite unique in Europe, runs from Locarno (196 m) to Domodossola (270 m), climbing through the Centovalli to over 800 m on a breathtaking route over high bridges and through many tunnels, crossing the Italian Valle Vigezzo and descending to Domodossola.
A round trip is an interesting option: from Locarno on the Centovalli Railway to Domodossola, on the Italian state railway to Stresa, and back across Lake Maggiore by boat to Locarno. The trip can be started at any point along the way and interrupted as often as you like.
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