There are places where nature dominates unchallenged and where man has respected the environment, integrating with it. Venturing into the heart of the Bitto Valleys, above Morbegno, one has the feeling of passing through intact magical landscapes.

Following the road to the San Marco Pass, past the village of Albaredo, home to the educational-environmental center of the Orobie Valtellinesi Park, you cross the Via Priula. The ancient trade route, opened by the Republic of Venice in the late 16th century, connected Morbegno to Bergamo. Here is the small church of Madonna delle Grazie, from which the Albaredo Bitto Valley Ecomuseum starts. The route, winding through significant naturalistic and cultural points (with particular attention to the traditional production of the renowned Bitto cheese), leads to the Avèzz de Üusénda. This is the imposing Silver Fir (Abies alba) of the Vesenda locality, in the municipal territory of Bema. Marked with special signs, it can be reached in an hour and a half walk from the small church.

Once you reach it, at an altitude of about 1350 meters, you realize that you are in an impressive forest of centuries-old firs. The most famous specimen, now very old and in precarious phytosanitary condition, appears as an extraordinary monument to the grandeur of nature. With a height of more than 30 meters and a trunk with a circumference of more than 6 meters (diameter 2 meters), it leaves one speechless. About fifty meters upstream one notices another fir tree with equally incredible dimensions, while in the space between them are six luxuriant specimens with circumferences between 3.50 and 4 meters. Their ensemble makes the place enchanted: it is exciting to stop and be enveloped in a truly unique atmosphere.

Green monument freely visitable.

(Ph: Luca Pernechele)