Travelling the Valtellina

As we were saying... Chiavenna and the Touring Club have a history of mutual collaboration in the name of the Bandiera Arancione or Orange Flag, a guarantee of quality for tourism and hospitality. This joint effort has sown seeds that are now taking root. And one of them has sprouted in recent weeks. It's called the Touring Eco Program, a project focused on environmental sustainability. The TCI has supported Chiavenna in improving its tourism offering, providing it with "sustainability charters" that aim to guide choices and actions to pursue the development of tourism while limiting its environmental impact.

Looking to the future and to its development, Chiavenna jealously guards its essence as an Alpine treasure. Churches, palaces and villas, museums, monuments and squares, fountains, painted façades and soapstone gateways tell the story of an ancient, noble and powerful town.

The legacy of its past can also be explained by geography. Chiavenna lies at the junction of two roads used for centuries to transport great riches. One of these is the road through the Splügen Pass, from which the Landsknechte once descended. Nowadays, its trails are travelled in summer by hikers walking the Via Spluga (65 km between Chiavenna and Thusis, to be covered in 7 days). The other is the road that enters the lower Bregaglia Valley, rising towards the Maloja Pass, the Engadin and St Moritz.

Chiavenna is also a food and wine destination whose symbol is Brisàola, a type of air-dried, salted beef. Eating it here is a unique experience – you can do so in the "crotti" (caves) where it is aged, carved between boulders perched against the mountain. A current of cold air called the Sorèl keeps the temperature at a constant 8 degrees. 

Before you leave, give yourself time to visit Palazzo Vertemate Franchi, one of the most beautiful Renaissance villas in Italy, which survived the gigantic 1618 landslide that swept away almost all of Piuro (then a very rich village) and its one thousand inhabitants. On the road, before heading for Morbegno, take a detour to the Acquafraggia waterfall. One of the most beautiful in Italy with its climactic double drop, it towers over an idyllic landscape of woods and green meadows, just as it did when Leonardo da Vinci used to come here. Up above the waterfall at an altitude of 932 metres lies the isolated Savogno. Only accessible on foot, it preserves the charm of a semi-deserted village with the natural architecture of its stone houses.

From Chiavenna, we take State Road 37, which runs alongside Lake Mezzola for a stretch. If you like, make a brief stop at Novate Mezzola with its beautiful Baroque parish church, embellished with an organ dating from 1686. 

Less than an hour's drive away is Morbegno , another of the valley's major centres. Situated at the end of the Gerola Valley, Morbegno has ancient commercial and manufacturing traditions that developed further in 1592 when the Via Priula opened. Known as the "Salt Road", it led towards Bergamo and the Venetian territories via the San Marco Pass. The town's strategic location helped it amass a degree of wealth that can still be glimpsed today in its historic centre, with majestic buildings that house vast halls and boast façades decorated with wrought iron balconies. The main square, Piazza S. Giovanni, is dominated by the imposing façade of the Collegiate Church of St John the Baptist, rebuilt in a Baroque style in 1680. Inside, the church houses frescoes and paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries. 

Next door is Palazzo Malacrida, rebuilt in 1758-62 by Pietro Solari, which boasts a beautiful Italian garden, stuccoes and frescoes in its halls. After crossing a late 19th-century stone bridge, we find Palazzo Gualteroni, which houses the Museum of Natural History.

In addition to its architectural treasures, the centre of Morbegno is also home to numerous wine cellars, a marker of its tradition of high-quality winemaking. As we get closer and closer to Sondrio, a landscape of "heroic" vineyards stretches out before us, clinging to the slopes of the Rhaetian Alps thanks to thousands of kilometres of dry stone walls that form the base for terraces where the vines are planted. A feat of engineering as old as the practice of growing vines itself. The Bitto stream passes through the centre of the town shortly before it meets and flows into the Adda. And Bitto is also the name of a cheese that's very popular in the valley and beyond, produced in the Alpine pastures of the adjoining Gerola Valley. 

Back on State Road 37, less than 30 kilometres and half an hour away is Sondrio, the centre of the valley and the capital of the Valtellina. Over history, many have fought to control this coveted border settlement, and the city today bears witness to this. The Austrians "bequeathed" the central Piazza Garibaldi, next to the course of the Mallero stream. As you stroll through, you'll encounter 19th-century palaces with elegant neoclassical façades, and then those from the 16th-century, Martinengo and Pretorio. The city's ecclesiastical heritage is the Collegiate Church of Santi Gervasio e Protasio, while arranging everything on the timeline is the job of the Valtellina Museum of History and Art, which reconstructs the history and identity of the area through to the present day. The latest and perhaps most appealing addition is CAST, a multimedia "storytelling museum" dedicated to Alpine culture housed in Masegra Castle.

If there's one characteristic the people of the Valtellina undisputedly have, it's tenacity: on the slopes of the Rhaetian Alps, which face south, they have battled with the rock for centuries to cultivate vineyards on terraces. Excellent red wine is the star on the Wine and Flavour Trail, which follows the course of the Adda, looping through production areas. This wine tastes great paired with certified local products, from Bresaola to Bitto and Casera cheeses, not forgetting the buckwheat used to make the traditional pizzoccheri pasta. And if a delicious local apple isn't enough at the end of your meal, the alternative is Braulio, a renowned herbal liqueur.

Now it's worth taking a detour to the small village of Tresivio. Up high among the vineyards of Tronchedo Hill, not far from Sondrio, we find a place of worship that draws visitors from across the Valtellina. This is the bright pedestal of the Sanctuary of Santa Casa Lauretana in Tresivio, which has an architectural history as long as it is troubled. Thanks to the completion of works and the willingness of Touring Club volunteers in aid of the Valtellina's cultural, historical and artistic heritage, the sanctuary is part of the Aperti per Voi (Open to You) initiative, promoted by the Touring Club to open up artistic sites that are difficult for the public to access. This offers an opportunity for residents and tourists alike to admire the beauty of one of the largest churches in the Valtellina.

To the east of Sondrio, State Road 38 leads to Bormio in just over an hour, skirting past Ponte in Valtellina and passing through Tirano, Grosio and Sóndalo, where it enters the high valley. Here, you can really feel the call of the mountains. Before you give in and experience the nature of white slopes and woods protected by the national park, there are two stops you can't miss. The first is Tirano. The town is known for the Basilica of the Sanctuary of the Madonna, where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in the early 16th-century. And that's not all: Tirano is also the end of the line for the long-standing Rhaetian railway, now known worldwide and recognised by UNESCO as the "Bernina Red Train", which connects the Valtellina with the Engadin (St Moritz) via the Bernina Pass, a rail journey through unforgettable Alpine landscapes.

Before you reach Bormio, our tip is not to miss Grosio, an ancient village at the gateway to the high Valtellina, on the outskirts of winegrowing territory. Downstream of the village is the Rock Engraving Park, which bears traces dating back to the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, likely associated with the Camuni people, such as the Rupe Magna, the largest engraved rock in the Alps. 

In Bormio, the scenery changes – a lot. Because we're now in one of the most important summer holiday and winter sports centres in the Alps, the hub of a ski resort and a base for excursions and ascents in the Ortles-Cevedale range. Adding to the offering for tourists, there's also the option of rejuvenating in the indoor thermal pool at Bormio Terme, fed by the Cinglaccia spring, which gushes water at over 30 degrees Celsius.

At the end of the journey, we arrive at the gates of Stelvio National Park. It is a corner of the Alps that has an enormous natural heritage. It unfolds in the shadow of the Ortles-Cevedale mountain range, surrounded by enchanting scenery and lush nature, including alders, birches, mountain pines, glacier buttercups and plenty of deer, chamois, ibex, marmots and birds of prey circling the skies. As mentioned, Bormio is one of its main gateways and offers the opportunity to plan excursions and multi-day trips in the visitor centre at the Torre Alberti facility.