Obviously you want to come to the Val d'Intelvi to get away from it all and immerse yourself in nature, but if you get the urge to go to the city (just for a little while, and just to enjoy the best parts of it, and without the stress of work weighing you down), get in your car and in a few minutes you will find yourself in Lugano, ready to do a bit of shopping in the elegant shops under the porticos of Via Nassa, or see an art exhibit in one of the renowned Ticinese galleries.
Black or red? Feel lucky and take a chance in the casino, and don't forget to go to Campione d'Italia - a delightful Italian enclave in the middle of the Swiss territory, with one of the most beautiful casinos in Europe. Just a few kilometers away is Bellinzona, with its three castles and San Bernardino, home to

some of the most popular Swiss ski slopes that can be reached in a day……from the much more inexpensive lodgings in Val d'Intelvi. Or head towards Porlezza - delightfully cool during the heat of summer - and take a drive along Ceresio: these are
the settings of famous Italian novels (for example, Albogasio and Oria are the settings of Fogazzaro's novels) Along Lake Lario, experience the enticing views that are awaiting you on Comancina island and among the flowering gardens at Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo, or at the splendid 18th century villa in Punta Balbianello.

How different life is now in these parts! Today wider roads and more cars make traveling easier. Once this was difficult land for farming - just hay for feeding animals, chestnuts and not much else - woodcutters, stonecutters, the famous "picapreda" who made works of art in all of Europe.
Now many inhabitants of the Intelvi valley are border workers with nearby Switzerland, others are entrepreneurs and businessmen working in the tourist industry. But we still relive our ancient traditions, for example the festival days in honor of the Beata Vergine di Loreto (Blessed Virgin) during the last weekend of January - three days of celebrations with solemn processions, music, auctions in the town square.
There is the revocation of the Palio Lanzanese where the young people of the town parade in colorful traditional medieval costumes and the "Festa dei Cuurt" in Scaria, in July which lights up the most beautiful courtyards of the little town. There is also the "Lanz cume Serum" in August, which brings back the life, times and foods of the past. In Schignagno during carnival time, there is the grotesque masquerade of the "beauties and the beasts", with the former dressed in sumptuous costumes and colored ribbons, and the latter covered with sheep skin and bells, their faces covered with wooden masks as they run up and down the streets.


In Argegno, at the mouth of the valley, visit the "living crèche" in December and feel the devotion of the people. In terms of artistic wealth, Val d'Intelvi has a treasure of rare beauty.
Next to the cemetery in Scaria, the Romanesque church of San Nazaro and Celso will surprise you with its vivid renaissance frescos. In the center of the city you can visit the Museo d'Arte Sacra (Museum of Sacred Art), with interesting findings reflecting the religious culture of the area, and the late Baroque church dedicated to S. Maria: here the frescos and decorative stuccos by Diego e Carlo Innocenzo Carloni testify to the legendary pure Rococo style of the early 18th c. in the Val d'Intelvi, which spread quickly to the rest of Europe.
For centuries, artists and craftsmen in the valley who were masters in the scagliola decorative arts left elegant masterpieces in the courtyards of Europe.
At the beginning of the 20th c., the Liberty style villas built in Lanzo by well-to-do families from Milano and Como, with ornate stone walls decorated with harmonious wrought iron grills, cosy porticos, elegant columned windows facing the mountains reveal the opulence and style of the time.
Natural history enthusiasts will not be disappointed by what our valley has to offer.
The Museo dei Fossili in Scaria (Museum of Fossils) displays findings that date back over 310 million years.

Visit the Grotta dell'Orso (Bear's Cave) on the top of Monte Generoso: a three and a half hour walk from Lanzo, or half hour by cog-railway that leaves from Capolago (CH) that takes you to where the remains of approximately 10 Ursus Spelaeus, giant cave bears that roamed the area as far back as 12 thousand years ago, were found.
…including ski lift and use of cross country runs.


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