Bordo

The Valle Antrona and excursions

The Valle Antrona is a side valley of the Ossola valley, in which one reaches when one takes the Simplon Pass from Switzerland to Italy. The Valle Antrona begins at Villadossola and the last major town on the upper end of the valley is Antrona. Along the winding roads one ancient village follows the other. They have impressive the stone roofs, the houses are close to each other and stick to the mountain slope like swallow nests. On the bottom of the deep gorge flows the Ovesca with is rounded rocks.

On the road you get comfortable up the valley to the reservoirs, where several trails begin. The villages are still reachable on their original paths; some of them are only accessible on foot and were able to preserve their special flair. These paths are worth a visit. They are usually made from upright standing stones and built hundreds of years old. Small plants sprout out between the stones. One goes on terraced hillside with their partly broken walls. Several kinds of trees grow here and provide the hikers with shadow. Near the settlements there are ancient chestnut trees, which in former times were enormously important for the survival of the population. Higher up the mountain on higher altitudes one meets birch, larch and spruce which then change for softly shaped, grassy hills. From one pasture to the next one can see across the valley.

Architecture

Many of the old (and still used for living) stone houses of the Antrona valley are up to 500 years old. The walls are made of loose stones and at the base of the houses about 80 cm thick. The original roofing is still largely preserved. It consists of flat stones, laid loosely on a wooden structure. These roof stones as well as the wall stones were brought in from afar on human or animal back. Corner stones and the huge stones of the portals tell us that at the time of the construction a relative prosperity prevailed. It was due to ancient iron industry. In the mountains of the valley there were iron ore which was transported down into the valley and then processed there in coal ovens. Otherwise, the life for many centuries was extremely laborous. The plague and other diseases clasp wide sections of the population. With the construction of road in the valley and the start of the iron industry in Villadossola there was again little wealth, while mountain villages depopulated more and more, because they were only reachable on foot. At the end of sixties of the 20th century, the last residents left Bordo. Trees and shrubs populated the roads, terraces and squares. Bordo lapsed into a sleep until the early 80s when it was rediscovered.

Here follow some excursion goals in the near and little farer surrounding of Bordo

The river Toce

It carries with it a lot of stones of differnet mountain valleys of the region. When you roam along the river side you can many different stone types and many of the stones are very rounded.

Montescheno

It is a bigger village down the valley. There sun reaches allthrough the winter while other parts of the valley stay without sunshine for several weeks. At Barboniga you can visit an old washing house, a backing house (still in use) and a kind of squeezer made of large wooden logs.

 The Monte Rosa mountain

It is the second high mountain of the Alps. It is situated on the upper and of the neighboring valley to the south of Valle Antrona. There you will also find nice old houses made of wood and museums of the "Walser culture". 

Val Grande

If you are a trained trekker you will definetely enjoy visiting the national reserve park of the Val Grande with is rich plant and animal resoucres untouched by human civilization.

Lago Maggiore, lago di Orta

There are several bigger and smaller beautiful laks in the region where you may enjoy swimming or walk along the nice shores. The climate is very mild near Lago Maggiore, so early in springtime already a lot of trees, bushes and flowers bloom.

Viceno

Near Crodo up the mountain, reachable by car, you find the little village of Viceno. There are still parts of houses to be seen which are more than one thousand years old. In a museum you may have a look at the way people lived there 100 years ago.

Canova excurions

Canova is another nice village in valley Ossola which has been very well renovated by private persons.Two of them are Ken and his wife Kali. He is architect, originally comes from America, travelled and lived around the globe to finally settle here in the region. With a group of idealistic persons of the Canova association he organizes exhibitions and excursion for local people as well as for foreigners.