Walk around the Maggia Delta from Ascona to Locarno

Sunday December 15, 2024 -- Today was a day for a simple and easy Sunday walk in the sunshine of, once again, the Italian part of Switzerland. 

Just a few days earlier, we did a hike in one of the side valleys between Bellinzona and Lugano (Isone Valley, photos HERE), but were reminded that mountain trails in the Ticino are difficult to walk in winter because the trails are buried in thick layers of fallen leaves, and you have to tread very carefully, so going is slow. So for this Sunday, where once again the weather is sunny and mild in the south (cold and foggy in the north), we did an 11-km level walk starting in the lovely Mediterranean-like lake-side town of Ascona, and walking around the Maggia Delta to the train station in Locarno.

In the past we have ended two hikes in Ascona, but never really had a look around the alleys of the town, and were surprised at how lovely the town is, although it does seem to cater to high-end people with expensive tastes. Sitting on a bench on the lakefront would even have been a good way to spend the afternoon, but we always want to walk. Because the straight stretches weren't too long, it wasn't too tedious, but I am still always surprised that a level walk is more tiring than several hours of hiking mountain trails. In all, we were outside enjoying the sunshine and mild temperatures for about four hours again. 

At the bus stop in Ascona (which we got to at 11:15 after a travel time of 2½ hours), we saw a lovely shop selling local specialties, so we had a look as to what might be an interesting purchase: Urs bought some small salamis (Salametti)

Across from the bus stop is the 14th-Century St.Mary's church and the 16th Century Papal College, so we went to have a look before heading to the lake. The problem was that there was a Sunday Mass in progress, which was a shame as there were some very nice frescoes I would have liked to look at. So we walked the alleyways for a while, and headed back later. 

Another church tower means we are headed that way!

The palm trees add that Mediterranean flair!

Around each bend in the alleyways was something unique to look at. 

Nice buildings and fancy shops. 

Between the houses towers the bell tower of the parish church of Saints Peter and Paul. 

A restaurant in an alleyway

Would be a cute place to have a lunch!

Another cozy alleyway

Interesting rooftops. 

Standing in front of the other church (parish church) called "Saints Peter and Paul"... and with our luck it is currently being renovated and not accessible to the public! Fortunately we had been able to see the interior back in October 2020 when we ended one of our hikes here in Ascona (photos are HERE)

Interesting sculptures on the front of this house. They were covered in nets, probably to prevent pigeons from sitting there and soiling them! When we were here in October 2020, we found out this house was built in 1620 and has a name: Casa Serodine. 

Down near the lakefront now, but before going there for our picnic lunch, we want to head back to St.Mary's in the hope that the mass is finished by now. 

Heading back to St.Mary's in the hopes that the church service is finished. 

Very nice carved wooden door. We quietly opened it to check inside, but the service was still in progress. 

Very quietly we slipped inside behind some large pillars, and I was able to take this one photo of the beautiful artwork. (Back in October 2020 we ended a hike here at the bus stop across from this church, and I took a photo of the choir/altar area, but the church was dark at the time. The photo can be found at THIS LINK on my blog). 

Passing by the other church tower again on the way to the lakeshore. 

At noon we were back down at the lakeside promenade, ready to enjoy the sun a bit. 

A perfect spot for our picnic lunch. It was warm and mild and I could have sat here for hours. 

The merganser ducks are so cute with their little "punk hairdos"

This is the lakeside promenade in Ascona. The large festive season decorations are pretty!

Heading off on our planned walk around the Maggia Delta. It is now about 12:30.

The Christmas season decorations are so unique and tasteful, and blend into the surroundings so well. 

We saw some similar paintings on other houses in the town, and discovered it relates to an art atelier around the corner, specifically art related to jazz themes. It looks pretty!

The promenade restaurants are packed on this lovely Sunday. When we were here last in October 2020, there were  masses of people walking along the promenade as well. 

Just a couple of hours from our home and we can enjoy this Mediterranean-style lakeside landscape!

This is a hotel, called Albergo Castello. 

Good place for a photo!

Final look back at the Castello Hotel as we now head out around the delta. 

The Maggia River enters Lago Maggiore at the aptly-named Maggia Delta. Ascona is located on the south side of the river and the delta, whereas Locarno is on the north side. It was a 2½ hour walk around the delta to the train station in Locarno, and about 11 kilometers in all. 

The first section was through a private residential area where the properties were walled in, so we didn't see the lake here. 

But then we reached the golf course, and the trail followed the fenced-in area there, but we at least got some views of the lakeshore. 

Lakeshore around the Maggia Delta on the Ascona side. 

On the other side of the fence are the park-like grounds of the golf course. 

Looking across the lake at the foot of Monte Gambarogno (which is all in shadow) to the Magadino Plain. From here the trail unfortunately no longer followed the shore-line, and we had to walk inland for a while. 

Across the rooftops we can see the summit of "Pizzo di Vogorno" which is the dominant mountain at the entrance of the Verzasca Valley. 

So many large groves of palm trees that do so well in this mild climate. 

And these unusual trees are the pine trees from where we get the very expensive pine nuts used to make pesto. In fact, as we passed under the trees, bits of pine cones fell around us as the birds were busy in the trees dismantling the pine cones in search of the nuts!

Another view of Pizzo di Vogorno in the Verzasca Valley to our northeast. 

Large flat farmland between the Maggia River and Ascona. Back in October 2017 we hiked from the Centovalli on the far side of those mountains, across the top and down toward Brissago on the very left side of this photo. (That album is HERE)

Unfortunately there is no bridge near where the river enters the lake, so we had to walk 850 meters upriver on the south side of the Maggia River to the nearest bridge, and then another 1.3 kilometers on the north side of the river back to the lakeside trail. 

Crossing the bridge over the Maggia river, about 1½ kilometers from where it enters the lake. 

Crossing the bridge over the Maggia River. 

Another look down the Maggia River where it soon enters Lago Maggiore. Our trail now continues on the left side of the river, back to the lake shore. Many of the villages at the foot of Monte Gambarogno across the lake are in shadow of the mountain for a few weeks at this time of year. 

After crossing the bridge, we head eastward again on the other side of the river. 

A mild and sunny day for this easy walk around the Maggia Delta between Ascona and Locarno. 

Along the Maggia River. 

Once we turned away from the river and heading north, we passed a campground (no access) and another golf course, and then we discovered there is a very nice park and lake access called "Parco delle Camelie" which translates to "Camellia Park", a lovely park with hundreds of Camellia bushes. There were still a few different coloured Camellias on the bushes, but it must be quite impressive in summer. 

The Camellia Park also has lake access. The wind has picked up now, and there were waves on the lake. 

The wind has picked up now. It's 14:45 now and no longer so pleasant, even in the sunshine, so we hurried on to make it to the station for the 15:15 train to Bellinzona.  

Many boats in the harbour around Locarno

Many boats in the harbour near Locarno

We passed by some very large trees! Too bad we didn't stop to stand next to them for this photo, to show the actual size of the trunks! (We would have had time, but Urs is always in a hurry when we have limited time to get to the train or bus stations, and he was walking way ahead of me here!)

From here you can take boat trips across the lake to the towns at the foot of Monte Gambarogno on the east side of the lake (which seem to be in the shadow of the mountain all day at this time of year). 

We got to the Locarno station at 3:08 p.m., in "plenty of time" for the 15:15 departure. I wish we would have stopped at the large tree trunks on the lakeside promenade, for a photo of me next to the huge trunks! In any case, we enjoyed four hours of sunshine, and were back home in two hours from here. 

The pale pink line is what our 11-km walk looks like on Google Satellite Maps. We have done many hikes in this region (two of which ended in Ascona), and it is getting hard to find new places which we would find interesting to walk. This long and level walk was actually almost harder for us than the same distance on a mountain trail.

Location of Locarno on the northern part of Lake Maggiore. Most of the lake is actually in Italy. 

Hiking out of the Isone Valley between Bellinzona and Lugano

Wednesday December 11, 2024 -- It's that time of year again when the weather in the North is gray, gray, gray, either overcast, foggy or rainy and cold, and even though I would love to do some low-land hiking in this region (the grass is green even in winter, and I am not ready to do snow walking in the mountains yet), it's just too depressing.

So it's back to our traditional trips to south of the Alps to Canton Ticino, where there are many more mild and sunny days in winter, although the landscape is pretty brown at this time of year. Finding new places to walk or hike is difficult, as mountain trails usually require some steep ascents and descents, often difficult on the narrow and rocky trails covered in thick layers of fallen leaves. Walking in the valleys is also tricky, as the valleys are narrow and the mountains are steep, so you often find yourself in the shadow of the mountains.

One of the side valleys to the Vedeggio Valley (which joins the Magadino Plain to Lugano) is called the Val d'Isone, where we have been several times already, but never walked along the North side of that valley. Getting there only took us two hours, and we managed a nice walk in the sunshine for about four hours, before catching a bus at 2:45 p.m. in Bironico in the Vedeggio Valley. Getting back home also only took another two hours. 

It only took two hours from home to get here to the back of the Isone Valley. At 10:30, the village of Isone, where we are starting our hike, is still in shadow. The church of San Lorenzo has a Romanesque bell tower. 

A quick look into the parish church to pass a bit of time, as it looked like the sun was just going to come over the mountain. The church received upgrades in the 17th and 20th Centuries. 

We decided to start up the hill before the sun hit the village of Isone at the back of the Isone Valley. 

We started in Isone at 10:30, and had originally planned to walked to Medeglia along the river. But the valley was all in shadow, so we hiked up the hill instead, then descending to Medeglia. We got to Bironico at 2:30 p.m. where we caught a bus to Rivera (Originally we were going to walk to the train station there, but that part of the valley was also already in shadow). 

At the highest house in the village of Isone, the sun was already warming the hillside. 

It was an easy walk uphill through the forest. Best of all, we had sunshine!

A copse of birch trees, looks really pretty.

It didn't take long to reach an upper road with a great view of the back of the valley! The main mountain at the back is called Camoghè. It looks like a good mountain to ascend, but it takes five hours from Isone and is an ascent of 1500 meters!

At the back of the valley is a military training site for the grenadier division of Switzerland's military. Urs did his army training there, and has been in this valley many times!

Nice place for a summer home. 

Unfortunately the descent through the forest to Medeglia was much trickier than the ascent. The trail was narrow and hidden under the fallen leaves. There were steep sections where we had to descend carefully, as a false step might have meant sliding down the hillside. 

Walking very carefully on a trail we couldn't really see because of all the leaves!

Made it safely to Medeglia at 12:30, with our first views into the Vedeggio Valley and the Monte Tamaro Range.  

Now we can see to the entrance of the Isone Valley. (The perpendicular valley is the Vedeggio Valley).  Below is the church in Medeglia, which we had a look at when we started a hike there in March of 2022, so we didn't do a detour to there this time. 

Heading out of the valley above the village of Medeglia.

A look down at the church in Medeglia

Up ahead on the other side of the Vedeggio Valley is Monte Tamaro, the dominant mountain here. We did walk along that entire crest once in 2014, but also more recently around that peak on the right in July of 2023 (photos HERE). The famous Mario Botta church at Alpe Foppa is on the far right of the range.  

Another look past the rooftops of Medeglia toward the back of the Isone Valley. The mountain at the back is Monte Bar, another one we haven't climbed up to yet. That one is quite do-able. The hill on the right is called Caval Drossa. 

So many remains of huge chestnut trees. I'm not sure if this tree was still alive, but there was no other side to it. It was like a large wall of bark...

At 1 p.m. we found this convenient bench for our picnic lunch. 

Originally we had planned to walk along the lower road, but changed plans again to stay up higher on the hillside, passing later through that little cluster of houses on the right before descending to Bironico in the Vedeggio Valley.

A few neat stone houses along the way

We can no longer see the main village of Medeglia, as it's around the corner. That village below is the western part of Medeglia, called Drossa Medeglia. The hill at the back is Caval Drossa, and we did walk at its base once when we did one of our crossings of the Gola di Lago Pass in December 2018 (photos HERE). 

Heading down the hill now.... 

Another look to the back of the Isone Valley

A view over the towns of Bironico and Rivera at the bottom of the Vigezzo Valley. Our original plan was to walk to the train station in Rivera further to the north, but we can see that there is shadow there already, so we decided to end the hike just below here at the bus stop. 

A close-up shot of a church building which we had seen on the bus ride up into the valley, so we calculated that we just had enough time to take a detour there, before catching the bus. 

From above, we had seen another old building that looked like a church, and so had a look there first, but it looks like this building was abandoned a long time ago. 

The bus stop was close to this parish church in Bironico, called "Chiesa dei Santi Giovanni evangelista e Martino" (Church of Saints Martin and John the Evangelist). We had enough time for a quick look inside before the 14.42 bus.  

According to website information, the church was built in the Romanesque period, and was enlarged and modified between the 15th and 17th centuries. The single nave is richly decorated with stuccoes and Baroque paintings. 

The main altar which dates back to 1625 is especially valuable 

Interesting place for an organ. 

There are eight "chapels" opening up from the nave. 

What our hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps. We started in Isone at 10:30 and caught a bus in Bironico at 14:42. We were home by 16:40, so not even two hours to get home!

We have done several hikes in the region between the Magadino Plain and Lugano, including twice on Cima di Medeglia

As the train from Rivera passes from the Ceneri to the Magadino Plain, there is still plenty of sunshine on the north side there!

These are the peaks in the Mesocco Valley, where we were just one week earlier. We always get a view into the Mesocco Valley when the train heads north from Bellinzona. 

Location of the Isone Valley within Switzerland. 

In December 2018, we did a hike starting in Medeglia and walking over the Gola di Lago Pass. From our climb up the hillside (in shadow!) we could see the village of Isone at the back of the valley. On this photo we can see where we climbed into the sunshine this time. 

And in July of 2023 we did a hike on the Monte Tamaro Range, from where we got this view to the East into the Isone Valley.