A Hidden Jewel! Excursion to Valstagna, a village of 1800 inhabitants in northern Italy
By now you have understood it! I'm never stopping, I like exploring new places.
Without having to go far, every week I visit new and incredible places.
There is so much to see that it is a shame not to thoroughly explore the territory where I live!
Yesterday I was in Valstagna, a hidden village, because it was cut off from the main road that bypasses it.
In fact, to see it, you really have to want to visit it, otherwise it is difficult for it to happen.
I usually study the cartography of the territory and choose where to go to explore...
The city is narrow and long, this because on one side there is the river Brenta, on the other side there is the slope of the mountain that is built only in the first stretch.
One of the first things I noticed is architecture, similar to Venice.
There is a front of buildings all leaning against each other. The number of floors of houses is never excessive. One senses the influence that the Venetian Republic has had in this country also as regards the urbanistic and decorative rules.
Continuing on foot, I see that, even here, as in all the territory, the soldiers fallen during the First World War are remembered with a memorial monument.
I turn 180 degrees to enjoy all the perspectives that the landscape offers me...
The three-arched bridge leads from ancient Valstagna to the industrial area which is fortunately mitigated by trees.
I continue along the main road, which is lined by a row of parked cars but I realize that it is not very busy by car.
The cars parked are almost all residents.
The morphology of the territory does not allow to waste surface to make garages.
I notice an effigy on a wall of a house...
I read what is written and I understand that the effigy shows the memory of a flood that took place on 19 August 1748.
The horizontal line with the Latin writing "hucusque excrevit" indicates the level that reached the water that night!!
I hear a sound of water, like a stream, so I approach and walk a suspended walkway that goes up a channel almost dry...
I hear voices of laughing children, but I never imagined seeing...
It looked like a movie scene...
Three little boys, friends, in swimsuits playing in the water at a small waterfall.
Above them a small village on the cliff... that scene, without me expecting it, put me in a good mood!
How nice the pleasure of discovery!
One of the three kids experiences a clumsy dip.
These are moments that they enjoy with the lightheartedness of their age, but they do not yet know that, as simple as they may seem, when they will be elderly, they will remember them as magical moments, with nostalgia...
I take a few steps back and try to take a better picture...
I continue the walk and take the opportunity to photograph that place from another perspective ... I'm developing the photo, I try to give a nostalgic touch to the image.
A few meters further I see a religious aedicule.
Attract my attention, to watch it I have to force myself because it is just against the light!
It seems that the divine light that is often represented in the paintings in the churches, here is realized by the natural light of the sun!
I leave behind the aedicule and I notice the typical brown sign indicating the points of interest, I approach to see better...
Interesting! The Calieroni waterfall!
Naturally I went to see it!
I climbed a staircase between buildings and a beautiful wisteria hedge with the characteristic fragrant panicle flowers...
I see a glass parapet and I understand I've already arrived!
I'm a little above the kids I've seen before.
I try to take a picture, the sun is strong and to shoot the whole setting I have to lean out and stretch my arms trying to photograph looking from a distance to the camera screen...
Click!
What a surprise! Take another picture! I would like to dive but I'm sure I would not leave alive: D
I go down the steps that I did a little earlier and draws my attention to a house that has on its facade the remains of an ancient decoration.
These decorations were made on the buildings of bourgeois families or important buildings.
I'm back on the main road, I decide to continue and draw my attention to the houses that are located on the mountain ridge.
There must be a nice view from up there!
Here I am at the village church.
It is not very beautiful, but this is also due to the fact that it has not been completed with marble cladding, it is clear from the holes on the façade that serve to fix them to the wall.
I turn back and think of the road I've made...
I have not walked much but it's time to get back to the car!
While I walk the sidewalk I think: where could I go next time?
Definitely in a new place!
Thank you for passing by here, I thank everyone for the support!!
Stay tuned for new interesting explorations!!
Good day everyone!!
Amazingly lovely town! The high water mark is very cool, as was the stream and waterfalls. Thank you for sharing your trip!
Thank you! I'm glad you liked the post! :)
The name of the village is really interesting, would be interesting to look into its etymology, to me it sounds like something very Baltic...
I loved that moment where you took a picture of three friends playing, they will definitely remember that day in their old age as a very idyllic moment!
The surroundings of this place are truly spectacular!
Thank you for the comment! Regarding the origin of the name Valstagna, i found this:
Various hypotheses have been presented on the origin of the toponym. The most immediate, but also less convincing, would be derived from the Latin vallis stagna "stagnant valley": in an unspecified period, a landslide would have detached from the mountain Lora, blocking the course of the Brenta and forming a lake of stagnant water. Of this event, however, there is no historical information, moreover the course of the Valstagna stream that descends the valley is almost always dry, devoid of swampy areas.
We can not exclude a relationship with tin, the metal of which there may have been some deposits in the area (which was effectively beaten by miners for its alabaster reserves). Or, it could recall a voice of the ancient Vicenza that means "hard" (always in relation with tin, an element that unites and solidifies).
Other theories refer instead to the Germanic linguistic area. It could be a compound of the terms Wall, "canal", but also "dike, barrage", and Steine, "sassi", or "mountains"; would therefore mean "mounts of barrier", toponym originally assigned to the steep location called Stretti di Fontanella where the Val Stagna forks. Alternatively, it would refer to the cimbro stéela "rock, rock", with the meaning of "valley of the rock" and always linked to the conformation of the territory.
Regarding the three guys, it was an incredible moment, because while they were playing, someone in a house was listening to some really nice jazz music ... you could hear the music everywhere, it had the windows open.
Unfortunately I did not think to make a video... it was a perfect moment...
Thanks @alequandro for such an extensive description of theories surrounding the name of Valstagna. For me it's always fascinating to try nad explore these things.
It's a bit like archaeology, trying to reconstruct historical realities from broken pieces of pottery...:)
Yes you are right! Behind the name of a place, interesting information is hidden!
Incredible! It looks like a beautiful place. Thanks for sharing
Yes it is!😃 It was nice to visit it!
so nice
Thank you!
A beautiful post. Thank you
Thank you for the comment😃
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