Val Grande Photo: Val Grande

Val Grande is Europe's largest area of wild nature, which occupies 14.598 ha from the shores of Lago Maggiore in southern Lepontine Alps. This is a real untouched "island" mountains and valleys with amazing and breathtaking mysterious scenery, lost in the canyons, steep cliffs and impenetrable forests.

All this wild beauty was the result of the fact that in 1950-60-ies were abandoned many types of agricultural activities, which for hundreds of previous years in these places dealt with people. Today, the landscape of Val Grande and its vegetation are of extraordinary richness and diversity. Especially notable in this respect the valley of the river Pagallo, which is a source of rapid flood San Bernardino right at the peak of Monte Togano (2301 m).

Forest of Val Grande mostly mixed deciduous and represented most often by the chestnut. In wet areas yews grow, and if you climb higher into the mountains, you can meet black and grey alder, spruce, willow, poplar, Austrian oak, ash and countless books. Among the flowers by their special beauty stand out Alpine catchments, tulips and white rhododendrons. In the forests roam chamois, deer, ROE deer, foxes, badgers, weasels and Martens, and high in the sky soaring eagles and eagle owls.

But the vast region of Val Grande is not only important for its unspoiled nature, but also numerous historical sites associated with thousands of years of presence in these places man. Here you can see rock paintings, abandoned huts, carved tunnels for livestock, man-made terraces, chapels, devices for transporting wood and cleaning charcoal, fortifications (the"Cadorna Line") and the commemorative plaque. In addition, in the southern part of the quarry Kandolo from which for six centuries, the marble was extracted for the construction of the world famous Milan Duomo.

On the territory of the Val Grande there are many expensive, some of which are accessible to all and the other only for the experienced travelers, Malesco, Novegro di San Bernardino Verbano, Intragna, Premosello of Chiovenda.

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Val Grande
Mergozzo
The monastery of Santa Caterina del Sasso
The regional natural Park "Campo dei Fiori"
Verbania
Isola dei Pescatori
Alpine Botanical garden
Sesto Calende
Cannobio