Tenero to Locarno: Sentiero Collina Bassa and Madonna del Sasso

Thursday December 26th, 2019 -- Not having done any excursions in the past 10 days, this was a day for finding a sunny area to walk, and I was under the mistaken assumption that the only nice weather was, once again, in the Ticino, as this is what the forecast told me. So on Thursday morning I didn't even check again, nor did I look at any webcams other than for the South, where indeed it was shaping up to be a beautiful day. But as we were heading South by train i.e. when it was too late to change our minds, we passed the beautiful lush green hills along Lake Lucerne, where we could still have done some lovely hiking...

This is Lake Uri and Seelisberg. There is a nice trail, a section of "The Swiss Path" which you can walk from the right, down to the village of Bauen on the lake below. This we could easily have done this day

But never mind, I figured a nice 8-km walk along the "Sentiero Collina Bassa" which is the lower trail along the Southern flank of Mount Cimetta (Locarno's local mountain) in the afternoon sunshine is quite alright as well, even though we are running out of new places to walk here (p.s. we did the "Sentiero Collina Alta" -- the higher trail, in November 2015). This is what it looked like, the flank of the mountain, as we approached it by train:

Up ahead the communities at the base of Monte Cimetta, where we are planning to walk. It's looking good! Always lots of sunshine on this southern exposure.

Our little walk with start in Tenero was shaping out fine: mild, sunny.... 

Starting in Tenero, we hiked up the hill to Brione, then took a tour of the Madonna del Sasso church before descending to the station in Locarno

First order of the day: Check out the church in Tenero. This was a surprise. Usually these churches are dark inside, but this one has been modified with large glass doors letting in lots of light. I especially liked the pastel pipe organ

Stairs take us up to Mondacce. The sunshine lasted this long

That cactus is really that big!

I never get tired of stone and stairs

...but barely 15 minutes later the sky clouded over, and the sun disappeared. At least it wasn't cold! 

Barely 15 minutes after starting our hike, the clouds had already moved in over Lago Maggiore to the South, although behind us to the East the sky is still cloudless

 

Looking SW over the cities of Munisio/Locarno/Ascona. Right exactly where the sun is, the clouds have moved in.

Nevertheless, there are always many nice buildings and lots of beautiful stone walls to admire

From Mondacce, we ascended on a lovely forest trail with a detour to have a look at the charming community called Brione Sopra Munisio (= "Brione above Munisio" as there are several villages in Ticino called Brione). We have been here in Brione before, but only to catch a bus after having descended from the hill above. This time, we spent some time discovering nooks and crannies, alleys and cats, lots of cats. And we were graced by about 15 minutes of sunshine while we were there!

Next stop: Brione. After that, Orselina, before descending to Locarno

Brione, a place we have been to once before, to catch a bus across from the church. But this is the first time we are really looking at the village...

Main fountain in Brione. About a hundred years ago, this was an important drink stop for the cattle on their way up to Cardada to the summer pastures

One of many small alleys in Brione

Some nice artistic touches!

That fellow is not real....

A sunny little courtyard

Brione from above the village

Lots of cats

At the communal washing fountain

So many interesting alleyways to discover

My favourite alleyway, with a clock from Paddington Station

Parish church in Brione. This is where we caught the bus on a previous hike.

From Brione, we continued westward toward Orselina, to the Sacro Monte Madonna del Sasso (=Sacred Mount of The Lady of the Rock), the most important Marian Pilgrim Site in the Canton of Tessin. The main sanctuary, Santa Maria Assunta, was built here in 1480 because a Franciscan Monk named Bartolomeo d'Ivrea claimed to have had a visitation by the Virgin Mary. I jokingly said to Urs: "Just wait, by the time we get there, the heavens will rip open and we will be blessed with another bout of sunshine!".... It was a bit of a shock when this actually happened....

Last section through the woods before we got to Orselina

And just as we came to the Sacro Monte, the "Heavens rent and the sun shone upon the church"!!!

Last rays of afternoon sunshine on the front of the main Sanctuary Maria Assunta

Last time we were here in November 2015, we could not find the entrance to the sanctuary (you enter through the convent at the bottom of the building). We think they might have been doing renovations at the time. This time we found our way through... 

Absolutely stunning interior

I adore the ceilings of these churches and cathedrals

And the beautiful pipe organs

As I was busy photographing the beautiful ceiling, Urs said to me: "Look, this alcove is cordoned off with a sign that reads ALARM, there must be something important here". Surely, it was an important looking painting. So I photographed it, and another one behind another cordoned off area. Our own mini-Louvres, I said! Something to read up on later. Sure enough, these are important artistic works:


FLIGHT INTO EGYPT by Bramantino (1520):

And one that I found stunning:

THE TRANSPORT OF CHRIST TO THE SEPULCHER by local painter Antonio Ciseri (1870):

And after this very interesting and successful viewing of the Church of Madonna del Sasso, we descended along the Via Crucis, the stairway with the Stations of the Cross, down to the train station in Locarno.

View from Madonna del Sasso over Lago Maggiore

To head down to the city, we followed the path called Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross)

Via Crucis

Heading down to Locarno

A look back at Madonna del Sasso (Lady of the rock) and the Via Crucis

Heading down the stairs to the train station. Below in the old building are the remains of the Franciscan Monk who claims to have had a visitation by the Virgin Mary in 1480

This ca.9-km walk was not a particularly difficult one. We started in Tenero, and walked the "Sentiero Collina Bassa" via Brione and Orselina (Madonna del Sasso) back down to Locarno

The pink trail "Sentiero Collina Alta" (High Trail) we did in November 2015, and the purple trail "Sentiero Collina Bassa" (Low Trail) we did this time.

A Short Section of the Toggenburg High Trail from Gähwil to Wil

Tuesday December 17, 2019 -- Sometimes an outing just doesn't really work out as planned.

There are currently very strong Foehn winds blowing in the Alpine valleys, which blow away the clouds and create Foehn windows with sunshine and mild temperatures and super clear air, but the wind is annoying. We traveled two hours to the Northeast corner of Switzerland to Rheineck (near the Austrian border on Lake Constance, away from the Alpine valleys), in the hopes that we'd be spared some of the wind there, but it was not to be. (Turns out that the Rheintal Valley near there got up to almost 20 degrees that day, with winds to about 167 km/hr). The winds hit us as soon as we got off the train, and we decided it wasn't going to be pleasant walking in that, even if we had a sunny window later on (it was too early to tell).

So we headed back in the direction of home, checking our hiking map and randomly choosing a 12-km stretch in an area where we hoped there was no wind. As it turns out, we ended up traveling almost four hours to get there, although ironically it would have been only a two-hour trip if we had chosen that as the original destination.

There wasn't much new or exciting to discover on this hike along the Toggenburg High Trail, mostly forest trails with just one short and interesting stretch at the bottom of a ravine with a waterfall and bridges. Besides that, the highlight of the day were the lop-eared rabbits and the black-nosed sheep on the farm at the very start of the hike in Gähwil. Plus, there was no sunshine and everything looked sad, and by the time we got to Wil it was 4 p.m. and getting dusk already, so we didn't bother going into the old town, which we had visited on a sunny October day in 2013 which was a much nicer experience (photos below...).

Our original plan was to take this special little train with wooden benches from Rheineck to Walzenhausen (the village on the hill in the back) and start our hike from there, but the wind was so strong that it would not have been pleasant. So we will put off this hike for another season.

Heading back in the westward direction we decided on a section of the Toggenburg High Trail (Regional Train no.48), with an easy 12 km to walk back to Wil. Usually, the Toggenburg is a very pretty pastoral area, but there was no sunshine and it was very cloudy. At least it was mild and not windy.

This is looking back down at the town of Gähwil where we started our hike, on our way up the hill to join the Toggenburg High Trail. 

I always photograph the churches in each village we come through. This one in Gähwil has a very interesting shape, and is dedicated to St.Galle (appropriate, as we are in the Canton of St.Gallen), and St.Idda, a local Saint with a very stormy history.

Highlight of my day, looks just like my beloved bunny I had a few years ago...

It is always a treat to see Valais Black-Nosed Sheep, no matter where we are in Switzerland! They are just the cutest with their black faces and spots on the back of their knees!

It took us about 30 minutes to walk up to the Toggenburger High Trail from Gähwil. From there we walked to Dietschwil and Wil, but some other time we will walk to St. Iddaburg.

 

To the West, also on the Toggenburg High Trail, is the castle of St. Iddaburg. "Saint" Idda (late 12th Century) was allegedly accused of adultery by her husband and he pushed her off the cliff here, but she survived and lived in the forest for years. That's why she became a local Saint.

(We did a loop tour hike on the other side of that castle earlier this Spring, here are the photos from that one: https://swisstravelgirl.blogspot.com/2019/03/fischingen-abbey-and-highest-point-in.html)

To the East of us is the village of Kirchberg St. Gallen, and the Austrian Alps way in the background. Over that way is where we originally planned to hike.

To the Southeast we had a very nice clear view of Mount Säntis in the Alpstein Massif, and the clear skies created by the Föhn winds blowing at about 160 km/hr over there!

Also the Churfirsten Mountains to the Southeast

We passed through only one other village between Gähwil and Wil, this was called Dietschwil

From Dietschwil the trail headed down into a little ravine, the most interesting 20 minutes of the hike!

A good spot for our picnic lunch

An interesting little waterfall (Giessenfall) and pool of water over a wall of Molasse (German = Nagelflue)

This was the most interesting section of the hike, 20 minutes along this little stream!

On this section of the Toggenburger High Trail between Dietschwil and Wil is a Nature Reserve with endangered plants and animals. No bikes allowed, and yet the muddy trails clearly showed several bikes went through here. Always there are people who think the rules don't apply to them...

And since it was already dusk by the time we got to the city of Wil, we opted out of visiting the old town again, since we had already been there under better weather circumstances back in October 2013, for which I dug out a few of my nicest photos at that time:

Old Town Wil, October 2013

Old Town Wil, October 2013

Old Town Wil, October 2013

Old Town Wil, October 2013 (both of us slimmer 6 years ago!)

A view of Mount Säntis from Wil