Valtellina is a fundamental ingredient of our work and our products: a unique area, renowned for the quality of its traditional produce. Valtellina is a valley that runs longitudinally from east to west at the foot of the Rhaetian Alps and the Orobie Prealps. As a result, it enjoys prolonged exposure to sunlight throughout the day and is sheltered from both the warm, humid winds coming from the Po Valley and the cold winds descending from Northern Europe. This is why the territory benefits from a relatively mild climate which, together with constant air circulation, temperature variations and low rainfall, has a positive influence on vegetation.
Valtellina is a landscape shaped by terraced slopes and dry-stone walls, vineyards and apple orchards, meadows and maggenghi, forests and alpine pastures. It is also a place rich in history and culture.
Travelling along the valley floor, following the course of the Adda River, we encounter towns and villages steeped in history: Morbegno, Sondrio, Tirano, Grosio and Bormio. Moving instead to the mid-mountain belt, Teglio stands out — the town from which the valley takes its name: Val Tellina.
Along the slopes, dry-stone walls, castles, watchtowers and small churches can be admired, their bell towers often hidden among the foliage. Climbing higher in altitude, we reach maggenghi and alpine pastures, all the way up to the majestic peaks of the Alps and Prealps.
Chiuro is a small municipality in mid-Valtellina, at the foot of the Rhaetian Alps, surrounded by apple orchards and vineyards. It lies at the mouth of the Valfontana stream, on the right bank of the Adda River.
The area was already inhabited in prehistoric times, as evidenced by two engraved steles discovered in 1959 by Maria Reggiani Rajna, embedded in the dry-stone wall of a vineyard in the hamlet of Castionetto. Today, they are housed in the Valtellina Museum of History and Art. One stele depicts, on one side, an anthropomorphic figure holding what appears to be a halberd, and on the other a pattern of parallel lines, probably representing a necklace. The second stele shows a double-circle wheel with eight internal spokes, possibly a solar symbol.
Many buildings in the town bear witness to its past: in the historic centre, the noble houses along Via Rusca and Via Borgofrancone, together with Palazzo Quadrio — residence of a Ghibelline condottiero loyal to the Visconti of Milan, who made Chiuro his fiefdom in the early fifteenth century.
We must also mention the parish church of Saints James and Andrew, of medieval origin, as well as the sixteenth-century portico of the Disciplini with the adjoining Chapel of Saint Martha. On the outskirts of the town stand the Baroque churches of Madonna della Neve and San Carlo. In the hamlet of Castionetto di Chiuro, we find the small Romanesque church of San Bartolomeo and the imposing tower known as Roncisvalle, built between the 12th and 15th centuries.
This is how a tribute begins to the scenic, natural, artistic, cultural, food and craft heritage with which the province of Sondrio is extraordinarily rich. We have selected a series of truly distinctive itineraries — real hidden gems, away from the most popular tourist routes — offering a broader perspective on one of the oldest Alpine valleys, a direct witness to, and at times protagonist in, numerous moments of great historical significance. The desire for discovery and knowledge lies in the hands — or rather, in the legs — of those who choose to immerse themselves in the stories told here.
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