Val Malvaglia: Earliest Farming Community in Switzerland

Sunday June 16th, 2019 -- Sunday turned out to be quite a nice day, even in the North (contrary to forecast) but we had already planned our trip to South of the Alps again, to one of our new favourite places called Val Malvaglia. This upper side valley of the Blenio Valley can be accessed via a toll road (one lane, very narrow) but for us people using only public transit, there is a recently-refurbished cable car that takes us up 1000 altitude meters to a little village called Dagro, which claims to be one of the oldest villages in Switzerland (13th Century)

Two years ago at around this time we first discovered the valley, walking part-way to the back to visit the five main villages, then passing by the reservoir lake and walking out of the valley back to near where the cable-way starts. At the time, we took a detour to a very very old village called Germanionico, which consisted of about 20 fairly dilapidated homes, but which is historically valuable as the homes date from the 15th century, depicting how our ancestors eked out their living on these steep hillsides growing rye and potatoes, keeping sheep and goats. (Why so high, who knows?). Shortly afterwards we found out that various foundations decided at high cost to restore the houses and reintroduce farming here, so we came back to check on the progress.

Our comfortable hike on this wonderful day was planned for slightly higher up on the hillside so we could look at the village from above. We did a round tour this time, coming back to the cable car for the descent into the Blenio Valley, instead of walking out the 1000m. The weather was ideal, warm with a slight cool wind, and it was pure exhiliration to walk high up in this wild and narrow valley.

ALSO: This valley is popular with cyclists, as they can take their bikes up on the little cable car for 5 SFr., and then zip on all the way down on lovely paved roads. I might consider trying that sometime, as the best kind of cycling is definitely downhill.

Heading by bus from Biasca to Malvaglia, where the cable-car takes you up 1000 altitude meters to the village of Dagro, at the entrance to Val Malvaglia

The four-person cable-car takes about 10 minutes to get you up the mountain

The very old village of Dagro. Claims to date from 13th Century. Splendid location with view down the Blenio Valley to Biasca

Lots of stone houses up here

I am not familiar with these pretty flowers, have never seen them before

Our round tour started with a 250m uphill climb, which we can do pretty quickly now (30 minutes)

We sat on a stone wall with this view for a coffee break before heading into the valley.

This time we are even higher up on the mountain side than the last time we were here.

It was exhilirating to walk this high up with the wild steep mountains all around

Perfect hiking weather

There were actually several people up here this day, in their vacation homes in this quaint hamlet called Monda. They have to park their cars quite a bit lower down and hike up. 

We had our lunch at this picnic table, above Monda

Continuing along the trail toward Vipéra

The white goat had a broken leg. We reported it to a local who knows the farmer who owns the goats...

 

Vipéra, where we turned around and headed back, ended up being just a collection of four buildings. No one at home to tell about the goat...

Heading back to Dagro

Heading back out the valley. Way below is the reservoir lake we walked to last time. In the center is the old village of Germanionico, currently being renovated

I find the funnel drain fascinating

The village of Germanionico is apparently about 500 years old. Farmers used to grow rye and potatoes up here. The houses are currently being fixed up to preserve the village for the sake of history

This is one of the five villages in Val Malvaglia: Ciavasch, which we visited last time we were here.

One last look backwards into Val Malvaglia before reaching Dagro and heading back down with the cable car

Round Tour in the valley called Val Malvaglia. Marked by the blue circle is the village of Germanionico, currently being restored at great cost.

The green trail is what we hiked two years ago. The purple is what we did this time.

Here is the link to the pictures from the last hike we did in this valley, two years ago: Val Malvaglia May 2017