At the far end of the "always worthwhile for a trip" Centovalli (although at this time of year lots of shade because the valley is so deep) near the Italian border are several villages on the sunny hillside, villages we hadn't discovered yet, which lie along what was apparently the old market trail from Camedo to Verdasio to Intragna near Locarno.
Starting at 10:30 in the still-in-the-shade village of Camedo near the Italian border, it didn't take long till we emerged into the sun just above that village, and from there it was a mild and not even strenuous hike up to Borgnone, then Costa, and through some slippery wooded trails to Lionza. All these tiny villages have so many quaint alleys and marvelously built stone houses and artistic churches, there is so much to look at.
The last leg toward Verdasio was on a very pleasant trail where we ran into a trail blockade: Closed because the bridge needed repair. I can't count anymore how often we have come across trail blockades this year, but in this case we didn't want to turn back, and we have passed much more difficult sections than a wooden bridge with a few slats missing.... for example the river between Costa and Lionza that was very difficult to pass, and no bridge there at all!
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| Riding the Centovalli Train from Locarno toward Camedo. The journey passes through several villages with churches such as this one in Verscio. |
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| Crossing the Isorno River at Intragna and heading into the Centovalli. This view is to the East (Cimetta, Cardada), where we started. This part is in shadow for most of the day in winter. |
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| Camedo (start of our hike), just this side of the Italian border, is in shade for most of the day because it is low in the valley. |
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| (Here is the same favourite spot when we came here with friends!) |
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| At the top of the village of Camedo is the church, and slightly higher, the promise of sunshine! |
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| We could have continued to Verdasio in 20 more minutes, but its train station is another 20 minutes on the opposite side. And we've been to Verdasio about 3-4 times now. |
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| The first village: Borgnone: Wonderful sunshine! |
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| Borgnone basically consists of a church and a small alley with houses on each side. |
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| Borgnone basically consists of a church and a small alley with houses on each side. |
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| From Borgnone, this wonderful view West across the border to Italy and the Alps behind Domodossola |
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| Our next goal: straight uphill to Costa. Here it looks like there used to be a set of stairs going up from the road, but someone just walled it up, including the sign post. But we could see the trail marker above, so we just climbed the wall. Turns out the start of the trail is now at a residence to the left of here. |
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| Heading straight up the hill to Costa (160m) this is the view down to the Church in Borgnone, and Verdasio in the background (near the end of our hike) |
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| Village of Costa way up on the hill, lots of sunshine up here! |
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| Turns out that's not a wall I'm sitting on, but a very wobbly pile of rocks, not yet cleverly stacked into a solid wall! |
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| From Costa we get a view down to the next village of Lionza, and in the back is Verdasio, but we headed down to the railway line just before that village |
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| Heading from Costa through the forest toward Lionza, our next stop. |
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| We came across a wild stream with no bridge and slippery rocks, it took us a while to find a good place to cross. This was harder to cross than the broken bridge we cam across later. |
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| Looking behind us to the village of Costa where we just came from |
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| Lionza, another lovely village with lots of old (1696) Rustico buildings, but also new and renovated ones. |
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| Sat on a wall and enjoyed this view while drinking thermos coffee. Across the valley is the village of Palagnedra, which is the name of the railway station where we ended our hike, but quite some distance below! |
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| "Suburb" of Lionza. I love these villages |
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| Chiesa di Sant'Antonio da Padova in Lionza |
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| Chiesa di Sant'Antonio da Padova in Lionza. From here it was down through a good forest trail all the way to the Palagnedra train station, about 200 altitude meters lower. |
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| "Attention: Bridge closed because it's dangerous. Will be repaired in Spring 2019". But we couldn't wait that long, so we passed. We've crossed more difficult sections of trails! |
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| Centovalli train heading to Camedo. We'll catch it on its way back from the border and enjoy another 30 minutes of sunshine here at the little station in Palagnedra! |
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| A logical extension to this tour would be Verdasio (40 minutes more to its train station), but we've been through that village three times already, so we ended our tour at the train station called Palagnedra |
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| Centovalli is near the Italian border |
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| We have covered lots of ground in this area! |
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