Always check the weather before your trip!
* GPX tracks are taken on recreational level and they are not tested.
The itinerary starts from Curiglia and follows the “way of the chestnut trees”: a dirt road that crosses the small village of Sarona until Alpone di Curiglia. The chestnut trees were an important source of sustenance for the inhabitants of the Alps, so much so that in Curiglia the ancient “grà” can be visited, a small building used by the community to dry out the chestnuts.
The trail leads to Alpone di Curiglia, an amazing village in the proximity of which the church Madonna della Guardia is built. The women of the village, in the first years of 1900, contributed to the building of the church by carrying, in their baskets, the heavy stones from the valley floor to the village. From this panoramic point of view an amazing sight opens on Val Veddasca and Lake Maggiore.
From Alpone a short detour can be taken, deep in a huge beechwood, leading to the “Masso delle Croci” (Stone of Crosses): a cup and ring marks stone that shows the passing of various ages. From the cup and ring marks and anthropomorphic crosses used by Leponzi for their astral rituals, to the Latin and Greek crosses tied to the Christianization period in the valley, established in the 1500 with Carlo Borromeo. The pastoral visit of Carlo Borromeo was so important that, by the entrance of Curiglia, a monument built in his honor can be visited.