Monteviasco

Monteviasco is the highest frazione of Curiglia con Monteviasco, sitting at 928 metres on a terrace above the Val Veddasca near the Swiss border. There is no road. For half a century the village was reached by a small aerial cable-car (funivia di Monteviasco) installed in 1989; the cable-car has been suspended since a fatal accident in 2018 and the village is now reached only by the historic stone mule path of approximately 1,400 steps from the valley floor, a one-hour climb through chestnut woods. The permanent population is in the single digits — most of the houses are summer residences for descendants of former villagers — but the church of Sant'Antonio Abate, the wash-house at the village fountain, and the small alpine rifugio at the centre remain in use. The view from the village balcony covers the entire Val Veddasca and, on clear days, Monte Rosa to the west. The 1,400-step climb is the attraction as much as the village itself: a documented historic mule path with stations of the cross along the ascent. Pair with the Lago di Lugano cable-car at the Cima di Sasso above the valley and a meal at one of Curiglia's small osterie.