Intelvi valley

The Intelvi valley

One of the most beautiful and hard-working valleys of the Como Province is the Intelvi valley, which connects the Lario basin with Lake Lugano. The area is incredibly green: the peaks are covered with thick woods, while the man-made terraces on the mountain slopes are easily seen.

Grain and ray were once the valley's most important resources and for that very reason, along the Telo torrent and other streams of less important waters, rose numerous stone flour mills, still visible today, even if, the major part of them are in ruins. To reach the Intelvi valley from Como follow the western lake shore road, toward Cernobbio, and you will arrive, after twenty or so kilometres, at Argegno, the entrance into the valley. Just beyond Argegno is Cerano, which had numerous water-powered flour mills and works, one of these was working until 1975 and after a short period of abandonment, was salvaged by the Comunità montana (Association of Mountain Municipalities).

It is a mill dating back to the 1600s and which for generations belonged to the Patriarca family. Beside the mill rises the ironsmith and hammer, still in the recovery phase by the Comunità montana: for centuries ironworks of common use in the fields were made here. A colony of Etruscans withdrew into the Intelvi valley during the region's Roman conquest. This colony, devoted to agriculture, milled the grain with a particular type of water mill, or eastern origins, which instead of operating with rotating grinder stones, worked with a series of large stone pestles, made from sculpted stone blocks. Two of these pestles were discovered and retrieved in Ramponio, on via XX Settembre and in the garden of a villa in Pellio, on via Lem.