Monday 16th September : Weather: 10°C Fusio all day except for 1 minute at 11°C. Overcast, windy, no rain
Fusio: 5.0k Circuit to Mogno: 5.5k + Circuit to Sambuco Dam
Ascent and Descent: Mogno: Ascent 188m, Descent 181m: Sambuco Ascent 209, Descent 195
Time: Mogno:10am - 1pm:1hr 40m walk +1 hr 20m stop: Sambuco: 1.26pm - 3pm: Walk 1hr 34m walk No stops
Accommodation: Ostello Cummunale Fusio
New master piece church Mogno
Inside new Mogno church
Jan busy finding Ticino Tickets
Ian dwarfed by 102m Sambuco dam
Ancient huts in Fusio
Dinner at Ostello not Antico Dazia
A very relaxing day doing short walks. Our first hiking circuit took us down to the tiny hamlet of Mogno where we saw the new church, an acclaimed architectural masterpiece bu Mario Botta which replaced the old 17th Century church destroyed in an avalanche in April 1986. After lunch we walked up an old service path to the bottom of the Sambuco Dam before climbing the steep pathway to the top of the dam wall.
We sleep in until almost 7am and Ian makes us a cup of tea while we stay in bed until 8am. Breakfast of meusli and yoghurt sitting beside the stove with the four cast iron hot plates full on. It’s less than 10°C inside but the kitchen is warm and cozy so we sit and chat until 10am then make a move to walk a 5k circuit down the valley to the tiny hamlet of Mogno.
It’s still 10°C when we leave all rugged up. It’s very windy but not raining when we walk down what looks like and old farm track for just 35 minutes to Mogno. The first thing we see is the ultra modern architecturally designed new church which replaced the old one, The Church of San Giovanni Battista, (St John the Baptist), destroyed in an avalanche in 1985. The new church is a marvel in design by Mario Botta, made from marble and granite with no windows, only a glass roof with internal struts to reinforce against avalanches. There’s a seat in the courtyard in a small patch of sun out of the wind. A good spot for a coffee. We dilly dally for 40 minutes before leaving to walk through the village and up the other side of the gorge to Fusio. This track is a lot steeper and narrower, and we meet Sabine, a software engineer from Zurich who was about to turn back as she didn’t want to walk the track alone. The three of us climb the steep forrest track arriving in Fusio at 1pm.
We return to our Ostello - still we’re the only ones there - and have a frypan heated bread and Alpine cheese for lunch with a cup of tea with the stove again on full blast for heat.
It’s nearly 1.30pm when we rug up again and walk up a service road (rather than the public road we took two days ago) to the bottom of the Sambuco Dam wall towering 102 metres above. There’s a side track zig zagging to the top of the dam where the gale force wind is creating white tips on the waves in the reservoir. We walk across the dam wall, only staying long enough to take a photo of our Ostello Fusio way down in the valley perched on a little knob in Fusio. Then down the public road and back to our Ostello.
The first thing we do is turn the stove on, then have a shower, blog and sort photos. We’re planning to walk up to the Antica Osterio Dazio for a drink as we’ve rum out of beer and wine, and possibly stay for dinner depending if we like the menu. At 5pm after sitting in front of the stove for an hour, we wander up in the cold wind to Antica Osterio Dazio.
CHIUSO! CLOSED! And so was the Hotel Fusio. Both closed on Monday. DAMN!
So we walk back to our kitchen and sit by the stove to have a nice salad of lettuce, onion, tomato, ham, cheese and mayonnaise - with a cup of cold water. Probably better for us!
Another early night at 8pm here alone in our 35 bed apartment, complete with kitchen, shower, WC and heater - the large stove with four cast iron hot plates!