A Hike to Rifugio Benigni

Overview | Hike Details | Via Mercatorum | Flora | Views from the Trail

Upper left: View from trail 108 looking sourtheast over Val Salmurano.
Upper right: A goat on the way down from Rifugio Benigni.
Lower left: On trail 108 near Passo Salmurano, heading toward the canalone.
Lower right: Gentianella sp. common on the trail late summer.

Overview

Length: 12 km (7.5 mi)
Duration: 6 hours (Includes ~1 hour for lunch at Rifugio Benigni.)
Elevation: 1330 m (4364 ft) gain. High point at Cima Piazzotti at 2349 m (7707 ft)
Location: Cusio, Alta Val Brembana, Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy

Hike Details

This was one of those hikes hatched over a Saturday morning coffee and hiked the next day, early on Sunday morning. That’s why we love Bergamo! The hike is described on the Club Alpino Italiano (CAI) Bergamo site as Sentiero 108. From Bergamo, you drive up Valle Brembana, forking left in the upper valley toward Olmo al Brembo, Santa Brigida, and finally reaching the little and very steep town of Cusio.

As you wind your way up through Cusio, you reach a point where you pay to use the road. Heading up hill there will be a little ticket machine on your right. We don’t remember the exact location, but you’ll know it when you see it. It costs 2 euros at time of writing this. After paying for a “ticket” you keep driving until you end up in a località called Sciocc at 1508 m where you can park near the trail head.

The first major thing you’ll see on the hike besides the beautiful scenery is the Casera Valletto at 1782 m. This is where we bought cheese and butter on the way down. See attached photo. wordreference.com translates casera as the bizarre but intriguing “cheese hut”. Treccani gives a more satisfying answer: a place in the mountains where dairy products are made from the milk produced during the summer by cattle grazing in the alpine pastures.

Left: Buying cheese and butter at Casera Valletto. Center: Hiking with goats along trail 108 to Rifugio Benigni. Right: Near start of hike on trail 108 - crossing a stream in Val Salmurano.

After the Casera, keep following trail 108 and then switch to 107 if you want to avoid Passo Salmurano (2017 m). We took a swing by Passo Slmurano to catch our first glimpse to the north of the Western Rhaetian Alps (Alpi Retiche occidentali), a mountain range in the central part of the Alps. From the pass, we shot west and hit the part of the sentiero 108 generally referred to as a canalone. This was the trickiest part of the trail. Again, our friend wordreference.com translates canalone as the scary “avalanche shoot”. Treccani gives a more nuanced definition: an eroded, narrow furrow typically inclined; a particular type of canalone is one that feeds alpine glaciers. The canalone on sentisenero 108 doesn’t have anything to do with glaciers. It is steep and there was water running through it.


Left: Climbing the canalone on trail 108. Center: A view of Rifugio Benigni. Right: Heading up to Passo Salmurano.

After the canalone and a bit more scrambling here and there, you suddenly emerge on a flat spot at 2222 m where Rifugio Benigni sits at the head of Valle di Salmurano. The rifugio was inaugurated in 1984 with help from the Benigni family who intended to honor the memory of Cesare Benigni who died in 1981 on the nearby Pizzo del Diavolo di Tenda. From the rifugio you can look south upon the Alpi Orobie (also called the Bergamasque Alps) and north on the Central Alps (Wester Rhaetian Alps).


Left: A fresh baked dessert cooling off on the windowsill at Rifugio Benigni. Right: Another rifugio-made dessert - chocolate and coffee cake. Right: A main dish - piatto unico with polenta, spezzatino, funghi, fromaggio.

Via Mercatorum

On the way to or from the hike, take a moment (or more) to stop in Averara and see a part of the Via Mercatorum. The Via Mercatorum is a collection of medieval trade routes (think mule and foot paths) that connected Bergamo with the Val Valtelinna to the north.

One of the most beautiful parts of the Via Mercatorum is a porticoed passage in Averara. The modern road now passes parallel and lower so that the Via Mercatorum in Averara looks like a covered sidewalk. The most important businesses and people of the 15th and 16th centuries were present on the porticoed Via Mercatorum of Averara. Today, only frescoes and a few clues remain to suggest it.

The slow decline of the Via Mercatorum started in 1593 and the culprit was Venice. Bergamo had been under the dominion of Venice since 1428 and in the late 1500s, Venice was searching for new trade routes to connect Bergamo with Val Valtellina and beyond to its ally, the canton of Grisons in Switzerland. In 1593, the new route, Via Priula, was finished, named after the podestà of Bergamo, Alvise Priula who ordered its construction. At Olmo al Brembo, just south of Averara, the new route took a turn to the east to Piazzolo and Mezzoldo, therefore bypassing Averara.


Left and center: Views of the porticoed Via Mercatorum in Averara. Right: CAI map showing the network of trails and the location of Rifugio Benigni.

Flora

This hike is definitely all about the Euphrasia and Gentianella - at least by the abundance of these two plants. Euphrasia is a genus of about 450 species of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Orobanchaceae. They are semi-parasitic on grasses and other plants. And lo and behold, we tended to see Euphrasia growing in grass. The common name for Euphrasia is Eyebright referring to the plant's use in treating eye infections. Gentianella is a plant genus in the gentian family (Gentianaceae). We saw many purple type - likely one species. Unfortunately, with both plants, we can only identify down to the genus as we can’t figure out the exact species.

For more on flowers found around Bergamo, especially in the Bergamasque Alps, see our Pinterest page: Bergamasque Prealps Flowers and Plants. And our usual disclaimer: we use the resources listed in the post Resources for Identifying Plants around Bergamo to identify plants shown here. If we had to give ourselves a score for identifications, it would be 90% accurate for species and 95% for genus.

The plants are arranged below as follows:

[Family] Genus species – Common name in English (Common name in Italian)

[Apiaceae] Astrantia minor – Minor Masterwort (Astranzia minore)



[Asteraceae] Anthemis sp. Aromatic flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, closely related to Chamaemelum, and like that genus, known by the common name chamomile.
   



[Asteraceae] Solidago sp. Probably S. virgaurea.



[Celastraceae] Parnassia palustris - Marsh Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia delle paludi). We encountered lots of wet and seeping areas on this hike, perfect for this plant.



[Fabaceae] Trifolium alpinum – Mountain Clover (Trifoglio montano)



[Gentianaceae] Gentianella sp. – Gentian (Genzianella). Likely, G. campestris. One of the most common plant we saw on this hike beside Euphrasia.



[Gentianaceae] Gentiana asclepiadea - Willow Gentian (Genziana di Esculapio)



[Lamiaceae] Prunella vulgaris – Selfheal (Prunella comune)



[Orobanchaceae] Euphrasia sp. – Alpine Eyebright (Eufrasia delle alpi)



[Papaveraceae] Pseudofumaria lutea – Yellow Corydalis (Colombina gialla)



[Ranunculaceae] Aconitum lycoctonum – Wolfsbane (Aconito lupaia)
(no photo)

[Ranuculaceae] Aconitum napellus – Monk’s-Hood (Aconito napello)

Views from the Trail

Left: Lago Piazzotti - near Rifugio Benigni. Right: View south toward dark forms of Torrione S Giacomo.


Panorama from Cima Piazzotti - view north over Lago Zancone and Lago di Trono.


Panorama from near Rifugio Benigni looking south.


Left: Saved GPS tracks from Cusio to Rifugio Benigni. Right: Hike profile details.


Signage at Passo Salmurano.

A Hike to Rifugio Tagliaferri via Val di Gleno

Overview | Hike Details | The Gleno Dam | Flora | Misc Photos

Upper left: A member of the Asteraceae family in the process of sending it's seeds. Upper right: The Gleno Dam from above. Lower left: The village of Vilminore in Val di Scalve. Lower right: Trail 410 in the Val di Gleno.

Overview

Length: 22.2 km (13.8 mi)
Duration: 9 hours (Includes 1 hour for lunch at the rifugio.)
Elevation: 2290 m (7510 ft) gain. High point at Passo Belviso at 2518 m (8260 ft)
Location: Pian del Gleno, Vilminore di Scalve, Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy

Hike Details

The main driver for today’s hike was to see the Gleno Dam. Ever since we saw a photo of it several years ago - part of it missing and in an impossible but beautiful looking setting - we knew we would go see it. Add to that the necessity of place to eat (because we walk to eat) and the hike to Rifugio Tagliaferri via Val di Gleno was born.

We were advised not to take Sentiero 411 – Sentiero 410 (via Val di Gleno) to the Rifugio Tagliaferri but rather to take the more popular Sentiero 413 (via Valle del Vò). We were glad we stuck to our original idea because Sentiero 411 seemed to be the less popular route, which for us was a good thing. And, Sentiero 411 is about the same in time and distance.

The hike worked out like this:

1. We started in Vilminore and took the shuttle up to Pianezza.
• If you are off-season, you can try and drive up to Pianezza and park.
• Or, you can start walking in Vilminore.
2. From Pianezza, we took Sentiero 411 to the dam.
3. From the dam, we picked up Sentiero 410 to Passo Belviso.
4. From Passo Belviso, we picked up Sentiero 321 to Rifugio Tagliaferri.
5. Lunch at Tagliaferri.
6. Reverse direction and head back to Pianezza/Vilminore.

Left: Hike stats: distance, velocity, time and altitude. Right: The hike route in the Val di Gleno.

A note on the shuttle bus:

We started in Vilminore and parked the car in one of the many free lots. From there, we took a small shuttle (navetta) up to Pianezza, where we started hiking. You can also hike right out of Vilminore by walking up to Pianezza following the road or taking one of the trails marked “Diga del Gleno”. We walked back down the road from Pianezza to Vilminore at the end of the day and it wasn’t bad. The shuttle costs 4 euros one way. We purchased tickets at Bar Imperial and the shuttle stop is at the municipio across the street from the bar. Why take a shuttle instead of driving up to Pianezza? During the summer months, only residents are allowed and you must take the shuttle. Off season, and you don’t need to worry. On our way up to the dam – around 8:00 am – it wasn’t crowded at all, that is, no people on the shuttle, few hikers, and few people at the lake except for some overnight campers. When we returned in the afternoon, the tents on the lake where gone and replaced by many families up to enjoy Sunday at the lake. And there was a waiting line for the shuttles back going from Pianezza down to Vilminore, which is why we walked.

On this hike it’s hard to get lost, but in bad weather, uncertainty, or just plain wanting to know how far to go to the next landmark, you can download the GPX tracks from the CAI links included in this post and use them in MAPS.ME. We’ve found that you sometimes need to convert tracks from the CAI Bergamo site from GPX to KML to get them to load in MAPS.ME.

There was a small refreshment stand / bar on the lake. After that, there is nothing until you reach Rifugio Tagliaferri. The Rifugio is named for Nani Tagliaferri, the first president of the Valle di Scalve chapter of CAI. Tagliaferri, the person, disappeared in 1981 in the glaciers of the Peruvian Andes. Tagliaferri, the rifugio, was inaugurated in 1985.


Some of the dishes a Rifugio Tagliaferri. Left to right: a simple pasta dish, salamella with polenta, lamb with polenta, and homemade apple cake.

The Gleno Dam

The central part of the dam collapsed early on the first of December 1923. From 1535 m (5,036 ft), the water rushed out finding its way to the north end of Lago Iseo at approximately 186 m (610 ft) and killing more than 350 people along the way. What went wrong? The dam had just been completed not more than four months before, but there were warning signs along the way from the quality of the cement and reinforcement used to a change in the type of dam permitted and type build. The last point is interesting because the Gleno Dam was permitted as a gravity dam but during construction which was changed from a gravity dam to a multiple-arch dam. A gravity dam relies on its weight to hold back water. A multiple-arch dam uses less concrete and relies on distributing the force of the water to the arches (buttresses) on both sizes of the dam. It’s these arches that give the Gleno Dam its captivating look as if it were of ancient Roman origin. But sadly, it wasn’t or else it would probably still be standing. Cost cutting to save concrete and reused scrap metal from WWI inside the concrete likely led to its collapse.

However, a very thorough analysis (in Italian) Il crollo della Diga di Pian del Gleno: Errore Tecnico? suggests that situation was much more complicated and that the dam was built to specifications of the time. Further, many of the allegations of bad cement or reused scrap metal may not have much to do with the collapse. The analysis also discusses the evidence supporting the possibility of sabotage, including the theft of dynamite two days before the collapse. The court case ran from 1924 to 1927 and found the owners and many others involved guilt, with compensation for damages to the survivors.


Views of the Gleno Dam (La Diga del Gleno) which collapsed in 1923.


An interesting point raised in the report is that the dam was planned to provide energy for a cotton factory. At one time, the valleys above Bergamo were filled with industry run by the water. Today, as you drive up the valleys, in this case Val Seriana and then into the Val di Scalve, you can’t help but notice along the road (which stays close to the river) the hulking abandoned factories that speak to that past. Some of the structures are beautiful examples of industrial architecture.

Another point from the analysis was this disturbing sentence: “L’ondata fu preannunciata da un violento spostamento d’aria che iniziò l’opera di distruzione, strappando le vesti a chi si trovava all’aperto, seguita dalla massa d’acqua che, dopo aver devastato I centri abitati della valle, si esaurì nell ago d’Iseo.” The translation is this: “The wave was preceded by a violent rush of air before the destruction, ripping off the clothes of those who were outdoors. The rush of air was followed by a mass of water that, after ravaging the population centers of the valley, found its way to the top of Lago Iseo.” The ripping-off of the clothes part stuck in my mind. In the report, there is a picture of the victims laid out in a room - presumably by the responders to the disaster - some with bits of cloth or twigs and branches discretely placed over private parts.

To this day, we’ll never know what caused the dam to collapse.


Information board at the dam talking about the collapse.

Flora

If we had to pick one plant that characterized this hike, it would be Sanguisorba. It is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rosaceae native to the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The common name is burnet. We guess we were seeing the most common type S. dodecandra – Italian Burnet (Salvastrella con dodici stami).

For more on flowers found around Bergamo, especially in the Bergamasque Alps, see our Pinterest page: Bergamasque Prealps Flowers and Plants.

Usual disclaimer: we use the resources listed in the post Resources for Identifying Plants around Bergamo to identify plants shown here. If we had to give ourselves a score for identifications, it would be 95% accurate for species and 98% for genus.

The plants are arranged below as follows:

[Family] Genus species – Common name in English (Common name in Italian)

[Amaryllidaceae] Allium schoenoprasum – Wild Chives (Erba cipollina)

[Apiaceae] Bupleurum petraeum – Rock Hare’s Ear (Bupleuro delle rocce)

[Asteraceae] Carlina sp.

[Asteraceae] Centaurea uniflora - Plume Knapweed (Fiordaliso alpino con un capolino)

[Asteraceae] Cirsium erisithales – Yellow Thistle (Cardo zampa d'orso)

[Asteraceae] Cirsium spinosissimum - Spiniest Thistle (Cardo spinosissimo)

[Asteraceae] Crespis aurea – Golden Hawk's Beard (Radicchiella aranciata)

[Asteraceae] Leontopodium sp. – Edelweiss (Stella alpina)

[Boraginaceae] Eritrichum nanum – Arctic Alpine Forget-me-Not (Eritrichio nano)

[Brassicaceae] Noccaea rotundifolium – Round Leaved Penny Cress (Erba storna a foglie rotunda)

[Caryophyllaceae] Cerastium arvense – Filed Chickweed (Peverina dei campi)

[Caryophyllaceae] Dianthus sp.

[Caryophyllaceae] Dianthus superbus – Fringed Pink (Garofano superbo)

[Caryophyllaceae] Saponaria officinalis – Bouncingbet, Common Soapwort (Saponaria comune)

[Celastraceae] Parnassia palustris - Marsh Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia delle paludi)


[Crassulaceae] Rhodiola rosea – Roseroot Stonecrop (Rodiola rosea)

[Crassulaceae] Sempervivium sp. – Mountain Houseleek (Semprevivo), possibly S. montanum

[Gentianaceae] Gentian sp. – Gentian (Genziana)

[Orobanchaceae] Pedicularis sp. – Lousewort (Pediculare) – possibly P. kerneri.

[Orobanchaceae] Rhinanthus sp. - Yellow Rattle (Cresta di gallo)

[Orobanchaceae] Euphrasia sp. – Alpine Eyebright (Eufrasia delle alpi)

[Papaveraceae] Pseudofumaria lutea – Yellow Corydalis (Colombina gialla)

[Plantaginaceae] Linaria alpina – Alpine Toadflax (Linajola alpina)

[Plumbaginaceae] Armeria alpina – Alpine Thrift (Spillone alpino)

[Rosaceae] Potentilla nitida – Pink cinquefoil (Cinquefoglia delle Dolomiti)

[Rosaceae] Sanguisorba dodecandra – Italian Burnet (Salvastrella con dodici stami)

[Ranunculaceae] Pulsatilla alpina – Alpine Pasqueflower (Pulsatilla alpina)

 

[Saxifragaceae] Saxifraga aizoides – Yellow Saxifrage (Sassifraga gialla)

[Saxifragaceae] Saxifraga byroides – Mossy Saxifrage (Sassifraga briode)

Miscellaneous Shots of the Hike

Left and center: Donkeys (or are they mules!?) eye us suspiciously. Right: Walking up the Val di Gleno.


Left: The trail along the Gleno River. Center: On Passo Belviso - A view of Lago Belviso. Right: View toward Presolana.


Left: A mural in Vilminore showing trail to the Gleno Dam. Center: A war monument in Castione della Presolana. Right: Vilminore - Parrocchia S. Maria Assunta e S. Pietro Apostolo.


Left: The start of the trail, just above Pianezza. Center: Trail 411 from Pianezza to the Gleno Dam. Right: Trail near Passo Belviso.