The Verzasca Valley

The Verzasca comes down from the mountains north of Locarno through rock that the water has scoured into curves and basins, and the river running over it is an unusually clear green. At Lavertezzo a stone bridge of two arches jumps between slabs where people sunbathe and swim. Further up, the villages are built of the same grey stone and roofed in slabs of it, with Corippo clinging to a slope opposite the road and Sonogno at the head where the road ends. A long footpath, the Sentierone, links the settlements along the valley floor, and walking part of it is a better way to see the place than driving between car parks.

What you actually see

• The rock at Lavertezzo - smooth pale slabs and basins carved by the water.
• The double arched bridge - the old stone span over the river at Lavertezzo.
• Corippo and Sonogno - stone villages with slab roofs further up the valley.
• The Sentierone - the valley footpath linking the villages end to end.

When to go

May to October. June and July carry the fullest river; by late summer the pools are lower and a little warmer. Weekdays and early mornings are far calmer than summer weekends, when the valley road and the car parks at Lavertezzo fill by mid morning. Autumn brings chestnut colour and paths with almost nobody on them.

Honest expectations

The river is genuinely dangerous: the rock is slippery, currents under the surface are strong and the level can rise fast after rain upstream, and people have drowned here. Parking is limited, expensive and enforced. On hot weekends Lavertezzo is packed and the banks are littered. Mobile signal comes and goes further up the valley.

Nearby

Locarno and Lake Maggiore at the mouth of the valley, with the Maggia valley to the west.