LAKE BONDO

Its name comes from the Celtic bunda, meaning a hollow. Bondo valley was formed by the river of the same name which occupied the same bed as the river Brasa. Some 100,000 years ago, during the last glacial period of Alpine glaciation, the valley which today is filled by Lake Garda was overrun by a glacier, which advanced into side valleys, too, such as the Bondo-Brasa valley. About 15,000 years ago the temperature began to rise and the glaciers started retreating, leaving behind them the debris they carried which formed moraines. One of these moraines, La Pertica, blocked Bondo valley like a natural dam and the river which descended from the spurs of Corno della Marogna and Mt Nota created a lake. The lake slowly filled with debris and became a plain. Today, the river drains into the sands and re-emerges lower down in the sources of the Fucine and Brasa Valley. However, whenever there are particularly heavy rainstorms, subsurface impermeable clay strata retain the water and Lake Bondo forms once again. This happened frequently in the past, when rainwater poured copiously down the sides of the valley due to the scarce vegetation. It occurs very rarely nowadays. The Vesio-Passo Nota-Tremalzo road goes through the valley. Today, the plain is in part farmed and in part occupied by a farm and a gravel pit. Next to the farm is a road-side shrine devoted to the Crucifixion. In the valley, a house called Ca dei Dogi reminds us of the times when relatives of the Captain of the Republic of Venice came to stay here. The Captain was stationed in Salò and was the highest political and military authority on Lake Garda when the area was under Venetian rule. Bondo Valley was made a nature reserve in 1980.Original Italian text from Tremosine: breve guida by Gabriele Scalmana