Val Formazza and Cascade of the Toce in e-bike

A horse-drawn ring between the high and the low Formazza valley, will be an opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the suggestive discourses that welcomed the walsers when they arrived from the nearby Canton Valais (CH) in search of new pastures. A leap in the past, exploring one of the most suggestive waterfalls of Europe chastened into one of the least known valleys of Italy.

Attention : The path is only partly walkable with the bike trailer for children. In the stretch between the locations "Ponte" and "Under Frua" it is necessary to use the carrable road if you want to opt out of this solution. Even for all those who are not familiar with the MTB, it is ill-advised to move from the cycling between the two traits above, because the ramping up of the ramps and the close back could create difficulties. 

What to see, Formazza-the Fracks

All rich in history and charm, take the time to explore the typical walser dwellings immersed in the greenery of the meadows and rich in colors in each season.

Antillone [ Puneiga ], fraction no longer inhabited, is a destination of walks to reach the nearby Alpeans of Vova and Salecchio.

Brendo [ In Dä Brendu ], "in the woods downed with the fire", is a tiny agglomeration of houses collected around the Chiesetta of the Madonna del Carmine. From here, the Valley shrinks and is steeped in steep. In the vicinity lies the Central Giacinto Motta that exploits the hydroelectric basins of Morasco, Vannino, Sruer, Toggia and Kastel for the production of Energy Electricity.

Canza [ Früduwald ] and Grovella [ Gurfalu ], "woods of the waterfall" and "area of the boulders". They are two fractions between them close to where numerous ancient dwellings in larice built by the Walsers are counted. In Canza L' abate was partially destroyed by an avalanche in 1951 that caused numerous casualties. 

Church [ in der mattu ], "located between the meadows", is the seat of the Formazza Parish. The fraction is made up of a small agglomeration of houses that gathers around the Saints Bernardo and Carlo's Parrochial. In the fraction is also the ancient Walser Cemetery with the wooden crosses, equal for each deceased.

Fondovalle [ Schtafulwald ], "court for the cattle surrounded by the woods", or "forest of the enclosure," is the first village adagiarised on the afflicted plain on the "Casse" cliff.  Originally the village was wooden but it was destroyed by an immense avalanche in 1863 and rebuilt in masonry.

Foppiano [ Undrum Stalda ], is the first of the Valley and is inhabited all year round. Within the fraction there is the Oratorio dedicated to St. John and typical wooden constructions.

Frua [ Uf Der Frütt ], location famous for winter tourism and for the Cascade del Toce.

Ponte [ Zumschtäg ], is the heart of the Valley and home to City Hall. The name of the Fration refers to the presence of the only bridge on the River Toce. In Fraction there is also a school for the children of the elementary school where the old Walser dialect is still learned. At the end of the country, towards the Brendo fraction, lies the oldest formaze house, the Casa Forte, ancient home of the amhand, the head of the walser colony. Here, too, there is a dedicated Oratorio in Santa Caterina. Inaugurated on November 25, 1661, the church was expanded in 1884. The last renovation dates back to 1986-1987.

San Michele [ Tuffald ], "deep woods," the woods close to the fraction were devastated by a large fire in 1765. The landscaper is home to an Fund Sci Centre, with a 12 km runway ring that runs all the flat part of the Valley, from Ponte to Fondovalle. At the location are also two religious buildings : Church of St. Michael and St. Lucia built in 1663.

Under Frua [ Unter Der Frütt ], "under the Cascade" of the Toce. There is a cloth and two large structures predominantly used by the Salesians for summer gatherings and various gatherings.

Valdo (Wald), "woods", ancient home of the Municipality of Formazza now moved to Ponte. In The Fraction is present the chairlift of the Sagersboden that leads to the top of the Pista of the Campions so defined for its beauty and typology.

Focus, the Walsers

The Walsers (contraction of the German Walliser, i.e., vallese, inhabitant of canton Valais) are a population of Germanic origin that inhabits the alpine regions around the Mount Rosa Massive. Whose language is defined as Titsch, Töitschu or Titzschu, terms related to German Deutsch.

Established in the Valley of the Goms, during the centuries XII and XIII, Walser settlers from the high Valais settled in different locations of the Alpine arch in Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria and France. The history of the Walser people in the south of the alps begins in the middle of the thirteenth century, for progressive migrations, developing over time the allocated settlements that we know today.

Their peculiarity was that of having given birth to a model of colonizing high quotas occupying and transforming abandoned alpeses. The Val Formazza represented the entrance door of the Walsers, from here they transitioned and colonized the Alpine arch on the Italian side, whose first stable settlements stood beyond the 1,800 mt.s.l.m. Their peculiarity was that they gave birth to a model of colonizing the high stakes by occupying and transforming abandoned alpeses, valleys and spoiled mountains with permanent settlements.

Focus, Sbrinz Route

All years in late August, for more information www.sbrinz-route.ch

Historical resuming in costume of the journey that unites Bern to Domodossola, a walk in multiple stages during which the journey is relocated to the teaching of tradition. A great way of communication that already 600 years ago, through the Gries Pass, at 2479 m of the quota between the Val Formazza and the Upper Valais, constituted the most direct route between the Lombard Plain and central Switzerland. From Milan to Bern, from the Mediterranean to the plains of Central Europe, they transitioned men, goods, ideas. It was a commercial street, a caravaniera traveled from long rows of mule loads of goods. From the north they went down cattle, skins and cheeses (the "sbrinz" of the Oberland Bernese), but also luxury products such as the precious crystals worked by the monks of Engelberg destined for Italian courts. From the south, the cloths and lust lumps and the wine of Ossola, exported to the court of France.

Focus, the Orrids of Uriezzo

A small canyon located in the municipality of Premia. In the course of the last glaciation (finished about 12,000 years ago) in the present Valle Antigorio and Formazza was the Ghisteel del Toce that with the passage of time and with the help of the torrents at its base eroded the rock by going to form this particular natural spectacle. The tortuous cunics and the throats that it is possible to admire today were formed once the glacier has disappeared. The draining of the various glacial streams has left room for a real canyon that you can visit on foot today. The phenomenon of erosion has created a very rare natural landscape in the Alps. The water force has made up a series of large subcircular cavities separated by narrow and tortuous cunicles whose walls are covered with grooves, volutes and niches.

Focus, Piero Portaluppi-Architect

was one of the most important architects and urbanists of the first half of the ' 900 Italian. Although he has operated predominantly in northern Italy, and in particular for the high bourgeoisie meneghine, he has a real revolution in the way of thinking about the architecture of public and private spaces. Over the course of his career he has carried out projects in a number of areas : not only palaces and residential villas, but also hydroelectric power stations-in which he applied architectural styles more related to historical construction than to industrial-funerary newsrooms, exhibition pavilions, hotels and much more.

Focus, the Formaggi of the Val d' Ossola

Among the cheeses of the Val d' Ossola a place of honor certainly occupies the Bettelmatt, the "cheese of the Gods," produced in seven alpeses of the Antigory valleys and Formazza at an altitude of between 1800 and 2400 meters. The Bettelmatt is produced in the summer, and it is a cheese that nods the great tradition of breed breeding of brown breed. Obtained from the milk of one milking, worked raw and whole, therefore with two daily work, it is a true triumph of perfumes, aromas and unmistakable flavours from the aromatics pastures of the Alps Lepontine.
The maturation of the Bettelmatt can vary from a few months to more years, but only after at least 90 days of seasoning the aromas and perfumes reach the height of the intensity. Of yellow gold or clowns, thick and bronze with maturation, intense, prolonged and deep, aromatic, never trivial flavour.

Other characteristic cheese is Ossolan : a semi-fat or fatty cheese from the delicate, herbaceous, more intense and prolonged flavour in the course of the affinity, used as a dish as a stant and also in the preparation of the traditional potato gnocchi, chestnut flour and pumpkin, or in the poles conce, or still with rye bread to form the traditional oxolan merenda.