Chiavenna

Chiavenna sits on the Mera river, the administrative and cultural centre of the Valchiavenna at the foot of the Splügen Pass. The Roman name Clavenna, from clavis, key, came from its strategic position on the trade route across the central Alps. The town arose on a large ancient landslide; the boulders that fell on the slope created the air pockets and rock crevices that gave Chiavenna its defining feature, the crotti.

A crotto is a domed stone cellar built over a natural crack in the rock called the sorèl, which exhales cold air at a constant 7-8 degrees year-round. Valchiavenna has about eighty crotti, mostly private, used as natural fridges for wine, cured meats and cheese. The Collegiata di San Lorenzo, founded in the tenth century, holds a 1156 baptismal font carved in pietra ollare and an annexed Museo del Tesoro with the eleventh-century Pace di Chiavenna, a gold evangeliary cover inlaid with enamels and pearls. The town carries Bandiera Arancione and Cittaslow.