Monte Misma – Just Outside Our Window

Overview ~ About Misma ~ Musings

  

Left: View over Po River Valley - looking west from Monte Misma.

Center: The tracks for this hike up to Monte Misma, Bergamo.

Right: Descending from Monte Misma with view of Po River Valley and Apennines in the distance.

This mountain greets us every morning when we look out the window. If we can see it, it’s a good day and the air is clean. If there is snow on it, we might just hope to see snow in Bergamo (which is rare these days). Given that we look at this mountain a lot, we only climbed to its bald top once in our 10 years here. That was in 2016: A Walk from Albino to Bergamo via Monte Misma. It was a hot day and a bit of a weird walk back to Bergamo.

So, recently (end of December 2024) on a clear winter day we decided to repeat the good parts of our last effort but not walk all the way back to Bergamo.

Overview

Duration: 3.25 hours
Elevation: 889 m
Length: 14.3 km
Location: Italy, Lombardy, Bassa e Media Val Seriana

From Bergamo center, we walked to one of the TEB tramvia stops that takes you up the Val Seriana. We got off at the last stop, Albino, and started walking, following trail 511 to trail 601. Trail 511 is on the north side of Misma. From the top of Misma, we followed trail 539 back down to Pradalunga (one tram stop before Albino). Trail 539 is by far the most popular way up in winter as you catch more of the sun! 

We took the tram back to Bergamo. Hooray no car needed!

About Misma

Mount Misma (Ol Misma in Bergamasco) is a mountain in the Alps 1,160 m high. It is in the province of Bergamo, straddling the Seriana Valley and the Cavallina Valley. It is one of the first foothills of the Bergamo Pre-Alps and is visible from much of the central Lombard plain.

The summit is the border point between the municipalities of Albino, Pradalunga and Cenate Sopra, while the slopes also extend over the municipalities of Scanzorosciate, Trescore and Luzzana. Especially in the nineteenth century it was famous for the mining of coti stones and cement (mainly in Pradalunga), activities that contributed to the development of the territory, but also to the disfigurement of the mountain itself, perpetrating wounds that are still clearly visible. Whetstones, used to sharpen blades, weapons and tools, have been used since the times of the ancient Romans, so much so that there are mentions of them in the words of Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD).

Even today it is possible to find, in the locality called Valley of the Prisoners upstream of the Forcella sanctuary, huge masses of Roère, or the waste from the processing of these stones, a work begun by the prisoners of 2000 years ago, and finished in the last century when the natural coti stones were replaced by synthetic stones of lower cost, and with them their processing also ended.

Musings

On the route we took passing above Fiobbio, we came across a small chapel: Cappella del Martirio della Beata Pierina Morosini or “Chapel of the Maryrdom of Blessed Pierina Morosini”. We passed this in 2016 as well but this time stopped to read the sign carefully. Pierina Morosini (1931 – 1957), the eldest of nine siblings, was born in the "Stalle" farmhouse in Fiobbio, a hamlet just below where the chapel is. When she was 15, she was hired as an assistant weaver in the Honegger cotton mill in Albino, first as a cleaner in the department and looms, then as an apprentice and helper for the other workers, and finally as a loom operator. Morosini really wanted to be a nun but continued to work to support her family. One day after work, she was attacked and mortally wounded by a young man. Cause of death: stone to the head. 

I don’t know why that story sticks in my head. Dream not attained. Senseless loss of life.

A little bit later on the trail, we met a enthusiastic, beaming man who spoke to use in the Bergamasco dialect. He was descending and we were ascending. The more it was obvious we weren’t getting what he was saying, the louder he spoke. After a bit of back and forth, we were able to glean that this was his 86th time climbing to the top of Misma. I wondered: a distant relative of Morosini?

The day we did the hike we could see the Monte Rosa Massif and Monviso to the east. To the south, the Apennines and the start of the Ligurian Apennines. Unfortunately, it's becoming rarer that we have such clear days.

  
Left: Approaching Chapel Morosini under Monte Misma, Bergamo.

Center and right: Inside Chapel Morosini on trail 511.

  
Left: Cross on top of Monte Misma, Bergamo.

Center: Descending from Monte Misma, Bergamo on a winter day.

Right: Trail leading down to Prati Alti above Pradalunga, Bergamo.

  
Left: Helloborus niger - Christmas rose.

Center: Ice crystals - haorfrost or needle ice on the trail to Monte Misma.

Right: Niche featuring Madonna con bambino with along Monte Cura, Albino.

  
Left: Castagneto Secolare La Pratolina Information, Pradalunga, Bergamo.

Center and right: Secular chestnut tree of Castagneto Secolare La Pratolina (Pradalunga).

   

Left: Porta al Cielo (Memorial) to coronavirus victims at Santuario della Madonna della Forcella.
Center: Approaching Pradalunga, Bergamo.

Right: Prati Alti above Pradalunga, Bergamo.

  

Santuario della Madonna della Forcella - frescoes.

 

Left: Santuario della Madonna della Forcella

Right: View from Santuario della Madonna della Forcella, above Pradalunga, Bergamo.

 

Left: View from Monte Misma, looking back over Val Seriana toward Bergamo.

Right: View northeast from Monte Misma toward Casale and Lago d'Endine.