trekking to san giacomo pass

WARNING: trekking is not like walking! If you can't overcome a passage, go back!
Some of the tracks presented here are set along mountain trails where some passages may require holding to ropes or climbing short ladders, and may have exposed passages without safety protections. These tracts can be a serious danger if faced without the right equipment, awareness and physical condition.
ITINERARIUM® has no responsibility regarding the tracks presented here, their dangerousness, accessibility, praticability and safety. Who decides to take these tracks does it at their own risk.

Toce waterfall - Riale plain - Toggia alp - Maria Luisa hut

Switzerland - Val Formazza

Download GPX track

Length:
21.5 Km

Our time:
7h00' walking
3h30' in MTB

Total climb:
770 mt

Min and max height:
1670 mt - 2320 mt

Type of track:
there and back

Surface:
dirt road

Panorama:
lakes - mountains

Cell network coverage:
partial

Traced in winter:
no

Traced by bike:
yes

The itinerary starts from Riale’s plain and climbs up along the dirt road built by Edison, and serving the dams of lake Toggia and lake Kastel. The road is today licensed to the town of Formazza (from 2019 to 2029) to develop the project “Monti & Laghi bike” (Mountains and lakes by bike) which will make it possible to cross the Alps by mountain bike, connecting to the Swiss net of bike paths.

The pass of San Giacomo geographically divides Italy from Switzerland, Val Formazza from Val Bedretto, but it was historically one of the main crossroads of cultural and commercial exchange, so much so that already in 1400 the first hospice was built for merchants (and smugglers!) who moved goods and cattles towards Switzerland.

This trail, suitable for MTBs, passes by a regular series of pillars that used to be the base of the amazing WAGRISTORATORE, a mountain hut designed by Architect Piero Portaluppi (who followed seven projects for hydroelectric power plants in Ossola, in addition to the famous restaurant by the Toce waterfall).

The Wagristoratore opened in 1930, managed by Società Anonima Alberghi della Formazza (Formazza’s anonymous society of hotels). It was made by two wagons, placed on the pillars, one used as a restaurant and the other as sleeping wagon. In the original project a kind of chalet was planned to join the two wagons, but it was never built. Unfortunately, today only the pillars are left. The Wagons were probably destroyed during the Second World War, the San Giacomo pass became an escape route towards Switzerland.