palazzo Vertemate Franchi near Chiavenna
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From: Giovanni Drogo on 29 Jun 2010 07:42 If anybody occurs to pass by Chiavenna coming down into Italy from St. Moritz via Maloja pass, or from the Splugen pass, I definitely advice to visit this building (I was there last Saturday with a special guided tour). It is a 3-storey family house dating back to about 1550, with frescoes and boiseries, excellently preserved and a nice garden, orchard and vineyard. It was built by a wealthy merchant family of nearby Piuro, a small town which was totally destroyed by a landslide in 1618. One of the curiosities is a couple of 17th century paintings, which are a posteriori reconstructions of Piuro before and after the landslide. Also nearby Chiavenna is interesting, due to its position on the fork of the ancient roads to the two passes, it looks more a city than a mere 8 thousand inhabitant town. Lot of houses with door sides carved in the local "pietra ollare" (a kind of steatite which is used to make pots or to cook barbecues ... find a "crotto" to have a meal). There is also an interesting baptismal font dating to the 11th century. Some km south of Chiavenna in the plain, on the coast of the little lake of Mezzola (which in the past was the northern tip of lake Como) there is an even more ancient (year 964) tiny church called S.Fedelino (-ino because of its limited size, built on the place were the martyr S.Fedele was buried). It can be reached with an about 2 hour walk from the nearby villages (we started from Casenda), or crossing the river with a little boat. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nospam(a)mi.iasf.cnr.it is a newsreading account used by more persons to avoid unwanted spam. Any mail returning to this address will be rejected. Users can disclose their e-mail address in the article if they wish so. |