How many times have we passed by some places without really knowing them, without looking around in their history. This month I went to one of these places. We are in the Ossola Valley, in a hilly area that encloses the municipality of Montecrestese. It is here that some treasures of the past are hidden, pedaling on these roads you go through centuries of common life.
The departure is located in Pontetto, where a convenient parking allows us to leave the car and begin the exploration. We go towards Roldo where we will find the first pearl of our exploration, a Lepontonic temple dated 2000 years ago, a lookout tower was then built around it over the centuries, but the base remains the same.
Observing the plain below you can imagine what the men of those centuries could see, and the reason that led them to choose this place for this work of worship, around it more recent buildings, we are around 1800, stone houses that in all probability they belonged to nobles and wealthy people, the finishes and fine details say this. We continue our exploration by following the official signs of the local CAI.
A hill kissed by the sun with large terraces where the vine from which the is born is grown Prunet, a local red wine with a strong and decisive taste. This is a quiet walk, let's leave the speed and adrenaline alone for once and let's enjoy the views, let's imagine projecting ourselves into the past, and free the manta from any conditioning of modern frenzy. Each hamlet has its own ancient nucleus, fascinating for its architecture and for the network of arched stairways that connect the different structures, frescoes, bread holes, ancient wash houses, effigies of ancient noble families, everything recalls the history of these lands. A single exit is not enough to know and find all the details, but it certainly manages to give a sense of the importance that the villages had in the past.
As we said, this is not a tour of those we are used to with our MTBs, but an open-air history lesson, the only stretch of true off road, as we understand it is the one that leads to the hamlet of Veglio, and from there to the strong house called Castello dei Picchi.A panoramic point on the valley, a scattering of waters between the plain and the mountain with its peaks that reach 3000 meters and with the snow that in spring still makes a fine show, remembering the winter just ended. Little remains of the splendor of the past, this small castle is now in ruins, but you can still see chimneys, defensive cracks and the classic architecture of these fortifications. It is easy to imagine the military strategy with which they were made, inaccessible rock spurs with a wide view that allowed you to see the enemies well in advance, these are the reasons that pushed to realize these works that have come down to us.
But wandering is easy, time passes and the wheels stand still… but the day has yet to show the most evocative site, the one that always leaves you speechless. We will go in search of Gandalf's house! Seriously, here we find the menhirs of croppola and castelluccio. Boulders arranged in a circle, with a clear arrangement that characterize the place, next to these openings in the ground created with stones, often with a semi-vaulted construction. Fantasy attributes to these places an esoteric charm, it is imagined that they could be the place of propitiatory rites or from where the shaman led the populations. The reality was often different, in fact it is thought that they could have been tombs where the most important people of the community were buried.
A suggestive place, however, dating back to 3000 BC. The tour at Piero Angela ends here, we return to the car enriched in spirit. A tour that I recommend, get lost in these villages, go and discover the treasures that our territory offers, the bike is also used for this.
