Lanzada

This is the only comune in Lombardy that goes above four thousand metres. Its territory reaches four thousand and twenty metres with Punta Perrucchetti, the highest summit of the region, known also as the Italian peak of the Bernina: it stands a few hundred metres from Pizzo Bernina, the culminating point of the group, whose top — four thousand and forty-nine metres — is however in Swiss territory. The roof of Lombardy, in short, is the shoulder of a mountain whose head belongs to another country. The village proper lies much lower down, in Valmalenco, and is crossed by the Lanterna torrent; the weather station stands at nine hundred and eighty-three metres, and there the January average stays below zero while July's barely reaches sixteen degrees.

The name of the valley is disputed too. According to some historians Valmalenco would come from the Celtic Mal-en-ga, literally «head narrowed by the water»; according to others from pre-Roman languages, Camunic or Rhaetic, where Mall-anko would mean river of the mountain; the most recent explanation is medieval and much blunter: Val Malenga, the valley of evil, because it is surrounded by frightening mountains. The valley begins at the Valdone bridge, just above Sondrio, and climbs north towards the Bernina for some fifteen kilometres of valley floor, run through by the Mallero torrent. The village, moreover, has a second name that only those who live there use: in the Valtellina dialect Lanzada is called San Giuánn.