The
Monte Has Many Houses, Dairies, And Cowhouses, - Being Almost The
Paese, Or Village, In Miniature.
It will always have its chapel,
and is inhabited by so considerable a number of the villagers, for
so
Long a time both in spring and autumn, that they find it worth
while to make themselves more comfortable than is necessary for the
few who make the short summer visit to the alpe.
Every inch of the ascent was good, but the descent was even better
on account of the views of the Dalpe glacier on the other side the
Ticino, towards which ones back is turned as one ascends. All day
long the villages of Dalpe and Cornone had been tempting me, so I
resolved to take them next day. This I did, crossing the Ticino
and following a broad well-beaten path which ascends the mountains
in a southerly direction. I found the rare English fern Woodsia
hyperborea growing in great luxuriance on the rocks between the
path and the river. I saw some fronds fully six inches in length.
I also found one specimen of Asplenium alternifolium, which,
however, is abundant on the other side the valley, on the walls
that flank the path between Primadengo and Calpiognia, and
elsewhere. Woodsia also grows on the roadside walls near Airolo,
but not so fine as at Faido. I have often looked for it in other
subalpine valleys of North Italy and the canton Ticino, but have
never happened to light upon it.
About three or four hundred feet above the river, under some pines,
I saw a string of ants crossing and recrossing the road; I have
since seen these ants every year in the same place. In one part I
almost think the stone is a little worn with the daily passage and
repassage of so many thousands of tiny feet, but for the most part
it certainly is not. Half-an-hour or so after crossing the string
of ants, one passes from under the pine-trees into a grassy meadow,
which in spring is decked with all manner of Alpine flowers; after
crossing this, the old St. Gothard road is reached, which passed by
Prato and Dalpe, so as to avoid the gorge of the Monte Piottino.
This road is of very great antiquity, and has been long disused,
except for local purposes; for even before the carriage road over
the St. Gothard was finished in 1827, there was a horse track
through the Monte Piottino. In another twenty minutes or so, on
coming out from a wood of willows and alders, Dalpe is seen close
at hand after a walk of from an hour-and-a-half to two hours from
Faido.
Dalpe is rather more than 1500 feet above Faido, and is therefore
nearly 4000 feet above the sea. It is reckoned a bel paese,
inasmuch as it has a little tolerably level pasture and tillable
land near it, and a fine alpe. This is how the wealth of a village
is reckoned.
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