My Hikes in Switzerland: Lavertezzo to Cognera in the Valle Verzasca

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

May 13 - Lavertezzo to Cognera hike. On the edge of the mountain!

Taking advantage of good weather today, Rick and I took the train and bus (actually, bus-train-train-bus) to the town of Lavertezzo, in Valley Verzasca, which is a valley that branches out from near Locarno. We have been here before a number of times, and it is one of our favorite places – it’s very magical! Since we’ve been here before and had taken many pictures previously, I didn’t drag along my camera. Hmmm, never do that in Switzerland! Fortunately I had my iPhone, so the pictures you see here are from the phone – not bad, but not the best.

We started out by just taking a relaxing walk along the river, which is so blue-green. There is a great path that follows the length of the river – in Lavertezzo you get over the river by crossing a bridge that looks like it’s from Hansel and Gretel. It was built in Roman times – and still there! All throughout this area (and all of Ticino for that matter) there are very old stone houses. One house that we passed along the river had a date of 1761. There was a lady still living there, taking care of her garden.

Along the river we found a great rock perch in the sun to have our lunch – sandwiches we picked up in the morning before heading out. It became a bit cloudy, and since the weather report said there was a chance of rain, we walked back to the town – better to stay nearby. Once back at the town, it was sunny again and we weren’t ready to go back home! We decided to hike up to one of the little “towns” along the mountainside. We had hiked up there our first time here 9 years ago.

We obviously followed a little different path, which brought us to a road which kept leading around to the back of the mountain. We kept going because we wanted to know what was there, for a paved road to have been built. I did not know of any other town there. Along this road we found just a few things: A pulley system and cart to carry goods over the gorge where another river was running into the Verzasca River. You find these in lots of places, since there was no other way to get goods to some of these remote homes. We also came across a helicopter landing pad, and then a house down by the river behind the mountain. A lot of road built for practically nothing! But at the end of this road we found a stone path leading uphill which had a sign indicating “Cognera 10 minutes”.

Swiss paths are quite accurate when they give the time needed to reach a destination. We hiked up this stone path – I mean an elaborate stone path – a lot of work went into making it – until we came to an idyllic group of old stone houses in a small clearing and an little stream running through it. This was Cognera. We saw a woman overseeing a couple of guys doing some outside work by her house – obviously the equipment was brought up by helicopter that must have used that helicopter landing pad! This little settlement was so removed from everything. It’s difficult to describe the sense of amazement when you take time to just sit there and look at all the mountains and how high up we were. Actually, we weren’t really super high up, but from the view we saw, it was high, and our legs told us we had hiked up high! You can see the route we took if you look up Cognera, Switzerland on Google Maps/Earth. You’ll see the road heading to the back of the mountain and the little hamlet above at the end of the road. Totally cool!

There was another path indicating the way back down to Lavertezzo – 30 minutes. We headed down this path, but much more frightening!!! The entire path was carved out of the side of the mountain and laid with rock. It was about 3-5 feet wide and dropped off into nothing, no rail, nada. Water was trickling down the mountain here and there which made for numerous wet areas. We were fortunate that God had placed a dry rock here and there so we could make our way without stepping into water. That would have been dangerous, making it slippery, and if you slip off the side….. The hike was slow and tedious. We finally came out in a farmer’s field, filled with stone walls and terraces. And there was the farmer! We stopped to talk to him. He said the stone houses and terraces have been there for hundreds of years – he really didn’t know exactly how old they were. But the fascinating thing he told us was that at one time the hamlet of Cognera was inhabited year-round (now it is just summer vacation homes). He said the children who lived there hiked the path down to Lavertezzo every day to go to school! I just can’t imagine that when it’s wet or winter!

We eventually made it over to the original town we thought we were headed to – the one we saw 9 years ago. It’s called Sambugaro, and you can see that on Google maps too. Of course it’s an old stone village, but we both felt that much work had been done to renovate the buildings and it really looked beautiful!

We ended the afternoon with a beer at a restaurant along the river. The buses only run a few times a day at this time of year, so we had 1 1/2 hours until the next bus. Exhausted doesn’t describe how we felt. My whole body felt like I was hit by a truck, but it was worth every step and every ache and pain. It was truly a hike I will never forget!!!!!!!!!

Verzasca river where we had our lunch.

In the puddles on the rocks - tadpoles!

These signs are all over - the river is extremely dangerous. There are parts which entice people to swim, but the currents are so dangerous. There are deaths here every year.

Bridge from Roman times

Looking down on Lavertezzo from a meadow full of spring flowers

Hamlet of Verzöö, on our way up.

One of the pulley systems to carry goods across the gorge.

Helicopter Pad along the road

Hamlet of Cognera

Me in Cognera!


Of course each of these hamlets had running water for the inhabitants. It's hard to see, but the "box" in the center of the picture is an artesian well. Notice the solar panel on the roof on the left!