From Varzi to the sea

A treasure of rural tradition

In a postcard landscape of the Oltrepò Pavese, there are Zavattarello and its castle, linked to the powerful Dal Verme family.

Monteviasco è una frazione del comune di Curiglia, sulla linea di confine con la Svizzera. Si tratta di un alpeggio completamente isolato, non è raggiunto da nessuna linea di comunicazione stradale ma esiste un sentiero, costituito un tempo da 1442 gradini oggi ridotti in numero a causa della ristrutturazione dello stesso, oppure è raggiungibile tramite la funiviacostruita nel 1989. Il suo isolamento ha fornito le condizioni perché il borgo rimanesse intatto, come se il tempo si fosse fermato.   NEI DINTORNI: Pianifica la tua experience e il tuo soggiorno sul territorio varesino.  Copertina Provincia di Varese

Borgoratto Mormorolo, a hilly municipality in the Valle Coppa of Oltrepò Pavese, reflects in its name two ancient and distinct settlement realities: the village, located in the current area of the municipality, and Mormorola, a name that from the 13th century refers to the pieve, the successor of the much older agricultural estate of Memoriola in Bobbio. The ancient pieve, corresponding to the current parish church of Saints Cornelius and Cyprian, stands isolated above the village, along the road that leads to the hamlet of Inveriaghi and then to Costa Cavalieri and Valverde, in the municipal territory of Fortunago. Regarding the origin of the toponym, Borgoratto could refer to its steep terrain (ratto = steep) or, more likely, derive from burgulus, which would refer to small settlements or villages. Currently, the municipality of Borgoratto Mormorolo includes the hamlets of Inveriaghi, Femminico, Zebedo, Braglia, Ca’ Bernocchi, Ca’ Facchini, Gabbione, Boiolo, and Illibardi, inhabited places whose origins date back at least in part to the late antiquity and early medieval periods. SIGHTS Church of Saints Cornelius and Cyprian The Parish Church of Borgoratto Mormorolo corresponds to the medieval pieve of Mormorola, on which the agricultural estate of the Lombard monastery of San Colombano in Bobbio was developed. Over the centuries, the building has undergone reconstructions and expansions that have altered its original features, although it still retains some elements that indicate its Romanesque origin. Completely restored in the 20th century, it features a portal rebuilt in Romanesque style and has preserved the capitals that belonged to the 12th-century construction. On the side of the bell tower facing north, there is a small white marble head from a Roman statue. The church has a single nave, and inside, visitors can admire frescoes from 1920 by the painter Rodolfo Gambini of Alessandria. A 17th-century wooden statue is preserved there, and on the southern wall of the modern parish, some small fragments of the ancient Romanesque church can be seen embedded in the wall. IN THE SURROUNDINGS…Not far from Borgoratto, on the heights of the Strana Valley, a portion of a region covered with junipers called Costa Pelata, a naturalistic trail rich in butterflies can be explored.

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Suspended between the mountains and the lake, Tremosine sul Garda tells of rural life and secular isolation broken by the road of the gorge.

An oasis of art and culture in the Po Valley near the Po: this is San Benedetto Po with a thousand year old monastery and the countryside.