Two of the best known names in Italian cheese were born in the same mountain village a few years apart: Locatelli in 1860 and Galbani in 1880, both based at Ballabio, at the mouth of the Valsassina, and both much later absorbed into the French multinational Lactalis. It is a coincidence that says a good deal about this valley: the milk was there, so were the alpine pastures, and from here to the Milanese plain the road was short enough to send the cheese down it.
Four thousand and eighteen inhabitants in the province of Lecco, between the Grignetta and Monte Due Mani, below the Balisio saddle. There are two theories about the name: it may come from Vallabi, place of the Orobi, or from the Celtic words bala, village, and bi, mountain hut. On the coat of arms the red tower with two golden halberds recalls the strategic importance of the passage that climbs from Lecco into the valley, and the blue lion is the emblem of the Valsassina itself. On the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth of September 1971, in the meadows around the village, the first Re Nudo festival was held.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Ballabio
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
