If you plan a trip to Piedmont, you cannot miss the Lanzo Valleys: an area to discover, full of interesting historical and legendary anecdotes.
Always a tourist destination, the Valleys of Lanzo are located in Piedmont along the border between Italy and France, a short distance from Turin. Thanks to its position and the history still imprinted in the territory, the valleys are an excellent mix of sport, culture and relaxation.
The Lanzo Valleys
To visit the valleys the ideal starting point is Lanzo Torinese. A town that still maintains a medieval style with narrow streets and the civic tower of the fourteenth century. From here it is then possible to walk to the famous Devil's Bridge overlooking the Stura.
Near Lanzo Torinese there is the Viù Valley, famous for the location of its villages specialized in woodworking. It is one of the first Piedmontese tourist resorts, frequented since the XNUMXth century. Furthermore, in the immediate vicinity there are two Roman votive areas, legacy of the first historically attested occupation of the valleys. In the country of Margone, instead, it is possible to visit the artificial lake that submerged the village of the same name, of which the chapel of San Bernardo di Mentone is still visible.
Then returning to Lanzo, climb up to Ceres, also reachable by train starting from Turin. The buildings bear witness to the life of a holiday village since the end of the 800th century and also in this case there is a bridge over the Stura, with the same donkey shape as the Ponte del Diavolo.
From Ceres you can move towards the widest of the valleys, the Valgrande, the country of Mondrone in the Balme valley, as a starting point for mountaineering and tourist excursions Ala di Stura with a series of medieval buildings that can still be visited and the Grand Hotel di Ala, built in 1910, which it housed Eleonora Duse, Guglielmo Marconi and Luigi Einaudi.
The Devil's Bridge
Il Devil's Bridge in Lanzo Torinese is a fourteenth-century bridge built on the back of a donkey on the Stura. Also called Ponte del Ròch (rock bridge, in Piedmontese), it rises over the river to a height of 16 meters and boasts a history mixed with legend immersed in mystery.
Historically, some countries under the dominion of Savoy were obliged to cross hostile territories to reach Turin and therefore passing through areas controlled by the princes of Acajia and the marquises of Monferrato. In 1378 it was therefore decided to build a bridge in Lanzo over the Stura to facilitate the passage of goods and people of the Savoy. The bridge was paid for through wine taxes which continued for ten years.
Then a why the devil's bridge? This name derives from the presence of the potholes of the giants, or of the devil. The potholes are pit-shaped depressions in the river rocks that were created following glacial erosion in prehistoric times. Near the Devil's Bridge there are 21.
Legend has it that these pots were the result of the devil's intervention in the construction of the bridge. In one of the versions, the pots were the pots the devil cooked in during the construction of the bridge. In a second version, however, the devil would have demanded the first soul to cross it for the construction of the bridge. The villagers then made a dog cross the bridge and the devil got so angry that he stamped his feet on the ground, creating the potholes.
How to reach the Lanzo Valleys
The valleys are well connected to Turin through the railway network and several lines of bus, designed to reach the individual valleys. By train the easiest line is the Turin-Ceres line, from which it is then possible to easily continue exploring the valleys.
If, on the other hand, you travel by car, the SP 1 connects Venaria Reale to Lanzo Torinese, and then it is up to you to decide which way to continue.
