Valbondione

The Serio falls drop 315 metres in three leaps, of 166, 74 and 75, and are the second highest in Italy. Until 1931 they could be seen all year round, fed by the Barbellino plateau and in summer by the Trobio glacier; then came the dam, which held back the water, and for almost forty years they were gone. Since 1969 an agreement between Enel, which owns the reservoir, and the municipality, which owns the falls, has put them back on the calendar: five times a year, usually one Sunday a month between June and October, the dam is opened for half an hour and the waterfall works again.

Valbondione is the largest and northernmost municipality in the province of Bergamo, and the twelve highest peaks of the Orobie Alps all stand within its boundaries, beginning with Pizzo Coca. The first settlements are traced back to the iron mines discovered in Roman times over towards Lizzola, which brought up here the damnati ad metalla, those condemned to labour in the mines whom Pliny the Elder writes about: from their huts the first inhabited nucleus is said to have grown. The hamlet of Maslana, on a rocky shoulder above the valley floor, can still be reached only on foot, some thirty minutes' walk: in 1720 there were 71 people living there, in 1749 fifty.