Today we took our little Smart car rental up to the Valle Leventina, which is the route to the San Gottardo Tunnel. It is a valley that we've been through so many times, but either on the autostrada (highway) or the train. This time we took the local road - which I highly recommend! So many more beautiful things to see on the local road, which only has maybe one or two small tunnels - which means a lot of great views for the ride!
Here we stopped in the town of Giornico, where there are two old stone bridges which lead to an island area in the river.
Here is Santa Maria del Castello, a church and castle ruins from the 12th century. The best view of this castle/church are from the A2 highway - with unfortunately no way to pull over and take a picture. But the view from the highway has the castle sitting up in the middle of the valley.
View south down the valley and one of the stone bridges - probably from the middle ages.
As we drove further into the valley to Faido, we started up the mountain to the town of Osco. This view looks back down on the Gola del Monte Piottino, which is a narrow gorge on this very important route through the Alps. Above the gorge you can see some high meadows.
Now we are up by Osco, looking south down the valley
Another view looking south from Osco. It just amazes me how people live way up here!
We found a restaurant open in town, with only local workers having their lunch. It's sometimes strange walking into these small places, and they may not always have enough food for unannounced guests! But grandma cooked us up some veal, tagliatelle and a salad!
After lunch we asked the woman about the road that continues to other towns high up along the mountainside. It was a bit of a white knuckle drive coming up, and I was afraid of continuing (even though the bus goes there!) Maybe because I was coming down with a cold and didn't feel well - my bravery was lacking. So anyway, she tells us that the road could be a little scary getting over the river, but then anyway, she had NEVER been on that road in her life! OMG, you mean you've lived here all your life and never been down that road?
That was enough for us to decide to go down the way we came!
When we came out of the restaurant, someone had put this horse in this little triangle of land, and he was doing a good job of trimming the grass. He's bigger than our smart car!
Here you can see the route I was talking about - you see those pastures high up that make a line across the left side of the valley? It would have meant meandering high along the side of the valley and then zig-zagging down. Maybe another day, or I'll take the bus next time.
A zoomed in view of those same towns and pastures along the left side.
Typical red Swiss bench along the way. In this picture you can see the Autostrada weaving in and out of the mountain. It's so high in some areas - it's really a site to see!
Here we are in the Gola del Monte Piottino. They are restoring the original path used by horses, mules, and then wagons etc to get through this gorge. When the route was made they charged tolls to get through to pay for the work. The original path was made in the 16th century and then made for the wagons in the 19th century, and then trains in the 20th.
Rick on the route through the gorge
Another view of the Gola del Monte Piottino
Flowering meadows as we approach the San Gottardo pass. You can see it on the mountain in the background - the angled road going up. It is still closed as there is too much snow at the top. The only route is the tunnel.
The town below and to the right is Airolo, where the south end of the San Gottardo tunnel begins. We drove up the south side of the mountain to the town of Nantes, where I knew my girlfriend Marina and her husband had recently bought a cascina - an old, stone farmhouse, also called a rustico. They are currently renovating it. We thought we'd take a hike to try to find it....
From Nantes, looking north
Spring waterfalls!
This is very old snow. They had lots of snow in Ticino this year - over 10 feet - packed!
Still heading out on the outskirts of Nantes in search of Marina's cascina. This little mound with a door was probably used to store cheese and keep it cool. Notice the white and purple spring flowers!
No, not Marina's house - one of the neighbors. We spot her house in the distance. See the grey roof?
Here is the stone cascina they are renovating. Marina had told me that with all the snow, they were afraid it would damage the new roof. And of course the snow was up to the roof too! There is a ski lift nearby, and after a big snowfall their friends went up and skied down to the house to remove snow from the roof - it was the only way to reach it. (her husband had torn his achilles tendon and couldn't ski down himself.)
They really found an idyllic location! This little wooden bridge is going over a babbling brook/waterfall. The San Gottardo pass is in the distance.
Notice the trees bent over. The forest was really a mess after the weight of all that snow all winter! We saw so many broken trees.
On the path back to Nantes
Here you can see the damage to the trees. All the tops are broken off and litter the ground.
The meadow on our way back to the center of Nantes (which is really only a handful of buildings.)
Then, all of a sudden Rick spots something shiny in the meadow. It looked like a chain. I told him to go pick it up.
Now, ever since we lived in Switzerland 10 years ago, we have experienced time and time again the most amazing coincidences. Rick sees that it's a dog collar with the name Jack on it. Then he asks me, what's the name of Marina's new dog? OMG! Her dog is Jack! There are phone numbers on the reverse of the name tag, and sure enough, it's Marina's phone number! Well, I hope they didn't lose the dog!
Now, ok, we were walking between their cascina and the town so it's not totally amazing, but still! The chain looked like it was just bought from the store - perfectly clean. So I thought they must have just been to the house and lost it.
I texted Marina - they lost the collar in the snow the last time they were up there - in March! But it happened to be her friends from Chicago to find it.
This really made my day! (considering I was feeling icky with a cold). And they do have their dog Jack. :-)
On our way back we passed through Faido again. One of my favorite sights when passing on the autostrada or in the train is a brief view of this magnificent waterfall - with FAIDO in big letters and an old stone bridge on top. I've always wanted to visit it. So even though I wasn't feeling well, I pushed on - just couldn't miss it!
A closeup of the bottom of the falls. Faido has a wonderful park in the falls area, with many hiking paths. We took the path up to the stone bridge, which took us about 30 minutes.
We make it to the stone bridge - which is behind the bushes in the middle left of the picture. The stone walls in front are the remains of the first power plant. This waterfall generated electricity for the town - the first in Ticino to have it, in 1889.
It's been a long day and I'm tired! Sitting on the stone bridge which was built in the middle ages. All that is left is our hike back down and our ride home. We take the autostrada from Faido and make it home in about 45 minutes.
