Italiano
Cornisella is a few hectares of land at about 1050 meters above sea level on the Grignone, in a panoramic and central position on the Pasturo side in Valsassina, along the agro-forestry-pastoral road Pasturo - Alpe Cova and crossing of numerous paths, reachable from the village on foot without difficulty in about three quarters of an hour. The locality consists of a sloping meadow, which also serves as a cow pasture, a handful of huts, a small church of the Alpine. The Cornisella stream flows into the Valle dell'Acqua Fredda (Cold Water Valley), about ten meters deep from the level of the road, one of the main hydrographic axes of the mountain, which here changes direction going south. It should be noted that a power line crosses the meadows in the lower part of the locality, with high voltage wires between two pylons located at the end of Cornisella.
Cornisella is located halfway along one of the main paths of the Northern Grigna, Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral, which from Pialeral continues to the top of the mountain with the Brioschi Refuge. In Cornisella, the path follows the Pasturo - Alpe Cova road, as does the Pedalando nel Parco 2 itinerary, a long marked route for bikes that comes from the Valle dei Grassi Lunghi and Traversata Bassa crossing the Valle dell'Acqua Fredda.
On the opposite side of this valley, there are numerous trails, which have a partly common route. There is Sentiero Cornisella - Brunino one branch goes to the small chapel of the locality and coincides with Itinerario Pedalando nel Parco 3, the other, which I describe in the opposite direction in Sentiero Brunino - Cornisella, remains along the edge of the valley to emerge a few meters below Agriturismo Brunino. Brunino is a quarter of an hour on foot with no difference in height. The first part of the Sentiero Cornisella - Brunino is common to the Sentiero Colle di Balisio - Cornisella, which is named in the opposite direction. Ultimately, from Cornisella you go everywhere in Grigna.[^][^][^][^]
Precisely where in 1957 the small church was built in memory of the Alpine, the roads and paths wind, indicated with vertical signs. At the Cornisella crossing or Alpine crossing there are two houses and a fountain. Perpendicular to the Pasturo - Alpe Cova road, a road on the right descends steeply and on the opposite side another is concreted for the few meters of the climb before continuing on flat ground; on top of a hill stands a hut in a dominant position.[^][^][^]
Church of the Alpini
The chiesetta degli Alpini (church of the Alpini) is now the main reference point of Cornisella, located in what can be considered the center of the locality, along the Pasturo - Alpe Cova road and at the fork in the paths; the entrance faces the street. The church is a votive chapel built on the will of the Pasturo Alpine Group of the ANA (National Alpine Association), who chose this place above the village to remember the Pasturo Alpine soldiers who fell in the Second World War. their names are in two marble plaques on a side wall of the building, with a photo; one is entitled A perennial memory of the fallen and missing in the 1940-45 war, the other The "Penne Nere" of Pasturo conceived and built this small alpine church.
The church of Cornisella was built on a project by the architect Delino Manzoni and dedicated to Maria Regina Pacis. On the façade, the Madonna is drawn standing holding black pens, above the door surrounded by laurel the inscription Regina Pacis Ora Pro Nobis, to the right a steep rocky mountain, frescoes by Pierino Motta.[^] The chapel was inaugurated and consecrated on Sunday 8 September 1957, in the presence of Monsignor Arrigo Pintonello, a plaque inside commemorates that day. On the right wall a verse from a poem by Antonia Pozzi, who spent her holidays in Pasturo in the family villa, "Soul be like the mountain...".
On the 2nd Sunday of September, on the anniversary of the Lord's day in which it was inaugurated, the Alpini of Pasturo celebrate, involving the population of the town and vacationers, gathering for a mass and being together for lunch.[^]
Crossing at the church, fountain and two houses
Under the side wall of the church, where it is written Chiesetta degli Alpini AD 1957, in the direction perpendicular to the road, there is a stone basin with a hose and a button to let out water, essential for hydrating thirsty hikers, many of whom come sweaty from Pasturo. On the side, a wall and a worked trunk, and behind, leaning against the church another trunk with the date 2012, are made to sit and rest for a few minutes, enjoying the view and the silence. Here comes (or begins) the fastest route from the village, with a road that is steeply uphill in the last few meters.
In front of the Alpine chapel dedicated to Mary Queen of Peace, there is a concrete road for the first few metres perpendicular to the Pasturo - Alpe Cova road, and two of the few houses in Cornisella: slightly raised a pink two-storey house on the left and a white one on the right, I saw the owners spend a few days in the beautiful location.
Road that goes down steeply, to Pasturo with three huts
At the Cornisella intersection, near the side wall of the church and the fountain with the stone basin, a road descends steeply with an S-curve, the bottom is in concrete, a pole with horizontal green and white stripes is in the middle, to avoid letting off cars, on the right nailed to a cut trunk there is a Stop Moto sheet metal sign.[^] This is the path to Pasturo, the first part of the Pasturo - Pialeral path, uphill to reach Cornisella it takes 45 minutes, the village is indicated with a wooden sign in front of the church. Immediately, a dirt road branches off that leads to a hut half-hidden by the meadow. The road continues straight and unpaved, along which on the left there is a cabin transformed from a ruin to a luxury home in 2016. I can be so precise on the date because I never fail to climb the Grignone every year. The dirt road becomes a path a hundred meters below, near a large stone farmhouse. This uninhabited artifact, the only one left as it was long ago, really fascinates me, it appears right in my face when I go up to Pasturo.[^]
Signposting at the crossroads of the Alpine
At the intersection of the chapel of the Alpine, or more briefly at the intersection of the Alpine, on both sides of the secondary road, there are two zinc poles with the direction of paths and places; next to the one on the right there is a didactic panel of the Mountain Community. The downstream pole has existed for many years, originally they were two CAI trail signs, used by 'private individuals' to add directions; today we have reached five, the next will touch the ground! This is an example of the non-homogeneous signage found on the mountain because the paths have been managed over time by different bodies, once and for all without revision and with the absence of some reference points. The five signs:
- old yellow signpost of the C.A.I. with three places: Pialeral Northern Grigna Rifugio Brioschi, the direction is the main road, which the route follows up to Acquafredda. The indicated route is none other than the path 33 Pasturo - Pialeral - Rifugio Brioschi; from Pasturo to Cornisella takes the same time as from Cornisella to Alpe Cova, three quarters of an hour per segment.
- another table of the Italian Alpine Club with two places: Colle di Balisio Valle dei Grassi Lunghi, along the flat dirt road, to the left of the road that goes up. There are two defects in the old CAI tables, there is no travel time, in this case it is less than half an hour of walking, and the numbering, which was 31A.
- a wooden arrow: Pasturo, for the road downhill along the fountain. It's crazy that official bodies have omitted the direction for the village downstream, the first part of the Pasturo - Pialeral Path, one of the most popular and important of the entire mountain. Someone saw and intervened, certainly not following the regulations of the signs.
- a yellow aluminum sign, a strong yellow: in the direction of the internal concrete road, Agriturismo Brunino cell. 339 67 18 395, until recently there was a larger one of the same color with a travel time of 10 minutes... instead of the telephone number. It is evident that this flashy road sign was wanted by the refuge itself.
- another wooden sign: Agriturismo Oneda 10 minutes, for the main road towards the valley. Added in 2020, the sign is of an advertising nature of its business like the one Agriturismo Brunino.
Next to the church, on an external wall, the horizontal sign 33, the number assigned by the CAI to the Pasturo - Pialeral - Rifugio Brioschi Path, resists, faded by time.
In front of the historic 'CAI' pole, probably installed in 2014, there is the Pedalling in the Park vertical signage, that is pedaling in the Regional Park of the Northern Grigna, which is managed by the Valsassina, Valvarrone, Val d'Esino and Riviera Mountain Community institution; the two logos are at the end of the signposts:
- locality table: Cornisella 1050 meters
- signpost table: Risciöl - 2, uphill along Strada Pasturo - Alpe Cova, green label, easy
- signpost table: Brunino - 3, along the flat road, which coincides with the Cornisella - Brunino path with arrival at the Brunino chapel, blue label, medium difficulty
Curiosity prompts me to look at this latter vertical signage from the opposite side of the information: I discover the manufacturer, Mec.Tir in Tirano.[^]
Next to the sign for bikes, an educational panel Between Geology and Landscape of the Regional Park of the Northern Grigna mounted on a structure that looks like wood has the purpose of informing the hiker who frequents the mountain about Geomorphology: the evolution of the landscape.[^] Along the Pasturo - Pialeral Path there are several of these tables. On the left, on the supporting axis, there is an oval plate of the manufacturer: Ecosol Recycled plastic maintenance-free www.eco-plastica.it, which is based in Montecchio Precalcino, in the province of Vicenza.[^]
Strada Pasturo - Alpe Cova
The Pasturo - Alpe Cova carriage road crosses the locality for about three hundred meters with a variable gradient of approximately 4 to 6%, the bottom is made of concrete. Going up, after passing Felice Invernizzi's farm in Oneda,[^] which is hidden by a curve, on the right a dirt road about ten meters long leads to a hut in the middle of the largest meadow of Cornisella, which is in a northerly direction. Then there is another hut with a large drinking trough, both are in rough stone. The crossing of the Alpine is right next to it, with the church, the signs, the two houses and everything else. From the church, the road is also the path towards the mountain for hikers, helped by the vertical CAI signs and by the historic trail marker 33 on a wall to the right.
Continuing after the church of Cornisella and the flat dirt road, on the right a green bar, then the view opens onto a well-kept lawn and a hut or villa with yellow walls on top of a hill, more beautiful than all the others, the Baita di Cornisella. At the top of the slope, a secondary road leads to this hut and to another hidden by a curve.
Moving away from località Cornisella, the road first becomes flat, skirting the Cornisella stream which is invisible down in the steep valley, then descends to Ponte dell'Acqua Fredda, about two hundred meters in length in all, leaving one on the right where there are signs for hikers.
Road at the crossroads in front of the church
Returning to the crossroads, in this back and forth in Cornisella, we finally enter the cemeneted road between the vertical signs described above and the houses of the intersection. After a few meters, there is a second crossroads, on the left on the flat, on the right down. The signs on the bikes help us to understand something because a signpost in the first line indicates on the left for Brunino - 3 blue circle, in the third line Spinarolo[^] green dot. But how many of those who go to Grigna by bike or on foot know the second place? Halfway up the pole, the ZacUp sign in the same direction was added, indicating a mountain race held once a year. Looking better, from the opposite side below, on a stone wall that divides the road from the pink house, a wooden arrow Chiesetta-Sacro-Cuore Colle-Balisio points in the same direction. I then deduce that on the left you go to Brunino passing through Spinarolo (three huts and a meadow), with an easy bike path up to Spinarolo, and to the Sacred Heart Church.
I follow this road, which turns left and right, drawing almost a circumference from the intersection of the church. The surface is now dirt for the two wheels of a car with a green lawn in between. The view opens onto the Valsassina mountains because the Cornisella meadows are lower, in the opposite direction you look closely at the Northern Grigna, which is fascinating. You come across a house on the right and a stone house in a panoramic position on the left. Continuing, outside Cornisella, past two huts (Spinarolo locality), you go down to a third house, and here a path actually goes downhill to the Sacred Heart Church and then to Colle di Balisio (Sentiero Colle di Balisio - Cornisella, the former 31A of CAI), while one continues along a meadow, where it divides: on the left for the chapel of the Holy Family of Brunino, on the right for the Agriturismo Brunino.
All clear? No, because at the crossroads of the secondary concrete road immediately after the Cornisella intersection there is no indication for those who turn right. The road descends dirt with a certain slope up to the Cornisella stream, where there is a hut. After the small bridge, the road becomes a path, which from experience I can say runs through the Acqua Fredda Valley up to Piazza Spinola and continues through the Grassi Lunghi Valley, until it crosses the Traversata Bassa, part of the route of the old Scaccabarozzi Trophy, which in the opposite direction is the Itinerary Pedalando nel Parco 2. Here the cyclist coming from Itinerary 2 wonders disconcerted about the presence of this vertical sign of Pedalling in the Park Brunino - 3, why he should turn left towards the small church and stay on the 2.
Baita de Cornisela
The house, or villa, or hut on top of Cornisella gives prestige to the locality. The qualities are: visibility from the street, position, isolation, simple mountain architecture, color of the walls, an inconspicuous light yellow, the well-kept lawn without being a garden, panorama. The lawn faces east as the main direction of the mountain, there are some distant plants, of small and medium size and of different families, fruit trees, junipers, roses, combined wisely. Particularly like the solution of the space in front of the house, a grass terrace with birch trees, which descends sideways into the lawn with a few steps;[^] ahead the slope is steeper. The view it enjoys can be imagined by turning your head walking along the Pasturo - Pialeral road, which is lateral to the edge of the lawn, about thirty meters from the house: the Valsassina from south to east, between Zucco di Desio and the mountains of Introbio, with in the middle Barzio, Monte Orscellera, Zuccone Campelli. Its origin could be a renovated farmhouse like there are many on the mountain or it could be born in a more refined way.
Attracted by this building, I have the courage to approach, turning right onto the dirt road at the top of the bump. Known the entrance, and a fresco on the wall, the Madonna della Cintura, dear to the pasturesi for the Sanctuary of the sixteenth century down in the center of the town.[^] Behind, the building is made of stone. Turning the building again, to be clear on the opposite side of the main road, there is a wooden plaque, Baita de Cornisela, the Cornisella hut.
Conclusion
I rewrite from scratch in September 2022 my article Cornisella, which is the first of the blog, published on Saturday 13 June 2015. It means that, thank God, I still practice the activities of years ago, including walking on the Grignone on the Pasturo side. The photos, which were the bread to describe, are in three folders: Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral, subfolder From Pasturo to Cornisella, which contains the photos taken of the locality along the path from low hut up to the fountain at the church of the Alpine, Cornisella folder, most of them, Sentiero Cornisella - Brunino folder, photos along the dirt road to Spinarolo.
Cornisella was spared from tourism and building speculation which led to the construction of many houses in Valsassina and also on Grignone, especially between the 60s and 80s of the last century, many of which are useless and ugly. We must not let our guard down because greed is always lurking, even today that within a regional park protected by law. The locality still has a fertile meadow in which to graze cattle and collect hay as in past centuries. A few cars and noisy and polluting motocross bikes pass along the road, directed to the huts further up, scattered up to Alpe Cova, in the inhabited area of the Alpe itself and to the Pialeral. Cornisela, to say Cornisella in dialect, so dear to the Pasturesi that more than sixty years ago they made it a place of memory for their fallen in the second war, in a small church, which is doubly unusual if you consider that the fallen are also in the war memorial in the center of the town, added to those of the first.
The church and the fallen of Pasturo are a valid reason why Cornisella bella is the destination of arrival, for a mass or a form of greeting. Not for hikers, who instead are headed higher, Alpe Cova, Pialeral, Church of San Calimero, or the more trained at the top of Grigna and Rifugio Brioschi. That's the way it is for me too; however, sometimes I am satisfied with the flat Brunino ring-route, or at most the place is the point of arrival to take some pictures. I appreciate the fresh air when you go above a thousand meters of altitude, which is even drier. I am impressed by the large stone hut along the Pasturo path, the meadows and the drinking fountain. At the crossroads of the Alpini, I observe the hikers who sit on the trunks along the church, I pause perplexed on the heterogeneous indications at the intersection, I contemplate the facade of the church of the Alpini, with photos of the fallen, the fresco of Mary, who intercedes for us in prayer, the cross on the roof and the little bell, before continuing on my way.
References
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- Mauro Vezzoli (18 June 2015). "Small church of the Alpine in Cornisella, dedicated to Maria Regina Pacis. The votive chapel was built on the will of the Penne Nere and the population of Pasturo, it was inaugurated on Sunday 8 September 1957. I arrived 10 days ago in Valsassina for the summer holidays. I am writing two pieces, on the locality and the church, the first of my blog Grignone on the side of Pasturo driven by the innate desire to know and by photos.". In Chiesetta degli Alpini a Cornisella, Cornisella, Escursioni sul Grignone, Escursioni sulle Grigne, Escursionismo in montagna, Escursionismo in Valsassina, Estate, Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral, Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral (da Pasturo a Cornisella). [Google Photos photo]. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
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- Mauro Vezzoli (8 August 2023). "The green-and-white bollard in Cornisella at the beginning of the descent to Pasturo, now rusty and on the right the slightly visible Stop Moto sign in sheet metal. It is right to prohibit access to motorized vehicles on paths and mule tracks.". In Cornisella, Escursioni sul Grignone, Escursioni sulle Grigne, Escursionismo in montagna, Escursionismo in Valsassina, Estate, Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral (da Pasturo a Cornisella). [Google Photos photo]. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
- Mauro Vezzoli (8 September 2016). "The beautiful view when you exit the path to Cornisella with the stone hut, which alone is worth a climb from Pasturo. In the background, a half-ruined hut has become a modern mountain hut.". In Baite del Grignone, Cornisella, Escursioni sul Grignone, Escursioni sulle Grigne, Escursionismo in montagna, Escursionismo in Valsassina, Estate, Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral, Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral (da Pasturo a Cornisella). [Google Photos photo]. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
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- Mauro Vezzoli (5 November 2022). "The signs for the bikes of Pedalando nel Parco in Cornisella and next to it the panel Between Geology and Landscape. Two hikers with the dog come down from the main road.". In Autunno, Cornisella, Escursioni sul Grignone, Escursioni sulle Grigne, Escursionismo in montagna, Escursionismo in Valsassina, Itinerario Pedalando nel Parco 2 Incrocio Valle dei Grassi Lunghi - Piazza Spinola - Cornisella, Itinerario Pedalando nel Parco 3 Bike tour della dorsale, Segnaletica dei sentieri del Grignone. [Google Photos photo]. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
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- Mariolina Cattaneo (26 September 2007). "A Felice Invernizzi il Premio Fedeltà alla Montagna [To Felice Invernizzi the Loyalty to the Mountains Award]". (in Italian). Associazione Nazionale Alpini. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
- Mauro Vezzoli (28 March 2016). "I go on to photograph the vertical and horizontal signs on the Northern Grigna on the Pasturo side. It is the end of winter 2015-2016, in the background the trees are still bare. Signpost table Pedaling in the Park in Cornisella, itinerary 3 for Brunino and in the same direction for Spinarolo, a place unknown to most.". In Cornisella, Escursioni sul Grignone, Escursioni sulle Grigne, Escursionismo in montagna, Escursionismo in Valsassina, Itinerario Pedalando nel Parco 3 Bike tour della dorsale, Inverno, Primavera, Segnaletica dei sentieri del Grignone. [Google Photos photo]. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
- Mauro Vezzoli (11 June 2015). "Near a plant of yellow roses, five steps lead down from the garden terrace of the hut. My new Samsung NX3000 camera helps me take close-up photography very well.". In Cornisella. [Facebook photo]. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
- "Santuario Madonna della Cintura [Sanctuary of the Madonna of the Belt]". (in Italian). Vallinf@miglia-WiFi. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
