Val Masino has 939 inhabitants in a side valley of the Valtellina, on the Swiss border. The comune is recent and artificial: the Grisons created it in 1785, detaching the territory from Civo, Mello and Ardenno. The hamlet of Bagni di Masino is known for its thermal springs, while San Martino, the highest village, stands at the mouth of the Val di Mello — which however takes its name from Mello, a comune that lies twenty kilometres further west and does not touch the valley at all: its inhabitants held grazing rights there.
The Val di Mello is made of walls of ghiandone, a compact pale granite that comes down from summits above three thousand metres to below a thousand at the valley floor. Since 2009 it has been a nature reserve, the largest protected area in Lombardy. Climbers call it the little Yosemite: more than two thousand bouldering problems are traced on its blocks, and the Sasso Remenno is the largest rock monolith in Europe. High above runs the Sentiero Roma, linking the heads of the side valleys.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Val Masino
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
