Piemonte without cars | Paesana-Dronero Stage 5: Bellino-Elva

From the hamlet of Chiesa, head out towards the pastures to the south of the village along the U22/GTA/SI trail, following the signs for Colle della Bicocca; the trail corresponds to Stage 54 of the GTA and Stage E19 of the Sentiero Italia. The first stretch is on a dirt road that veers east until it crosses the Rio Cuculet basin, which you cross by continuing for a bit more sideways, with a wide, almost flat semicircle to the left, then entering the woods and turning right, starting to climb steadily.

The mule track, well marked in the Cumbal del Cuculet, then climbs decisively into the thick woods of larches and Swiss pines with patches of rhododendrons. From here, with a diagonal that goes up to the right, you go around the ridge of the Costa Sarsenà and with a short flat stretch you cross a small grassy hollow and then start to climb steeply again, once again crossing the ridge that acts as a watershed with the steep valley of the Combal della Pissa with a view of the town of Casteldelfino in the valley floor; after cutting the head of a small valley covered with alders, you quickly reach the wide saddle of the Colle della Bicocca (2,287 m.), one of the most interesting places from a landscape and historical point of view on the watershed between the Valle Varaita di Bellino and the Valle Maira, where the ex-military carriage road of the “Strada dei Cannoni” arrives.

The itinerary continues straight on the dirt road (signpost T23) that runs along the watershed on the side of the Val Maira for a couple of km, until beyond Colle Terziere, and then after a semi-curve to the left - under Punta Morfreid - you find the signpost indicating Serre d'Elva (signpost T23A /GTA) from which you take the path that descends under the road on the right and gradually loses altitude cutting halfway up the slope.You descend along the grassy ridge, with the panorama that opens up on the Elva basin and on Col San Giovanni: the path passes by the scattered rural buildings and the Grangia Tagliata mountain pasture (2,175 m.), descends further and enters a U-bend on an agricultural-pastoral track that you follow for a stretch until you come across a watering hole on the left. The trail then heads east diagonally, with the fork just marked by a colored marker post (at about 2,060 m).

Just above the Grange Ciardonetti (at about 1,900 m) you take a narrow dirt track that crosses the road that comes from that mountain pasture and bends down the valley, descending diagonally until it intercepts the asphalt road near Borgata Martini. From here another short steep and vertical stretch quickly takes you, returning to the asphalt near a votive shrine, to the gates of Serre di Elva (1,639 m), the capital of this small town perched on the right side of the Val Maira, where you can spend the night.

The Strada dei Cannoni starts from Colletta di Rossana, in the territory of Busca at about 600 meters, and ends after 42 kilometers at Colle della Bicocca. Its construction as a high-altitude military road dates back to the early 1700s, by Bertola, the military engineer of Carlo Emanuele III, as a logistical work to support the observation lines and high-altitude barriers. In 1938, as part of the defensive program of the Vallo Alpino, it was decided to adapt the dirt road to motorized traffic. The still unpaved stretch from Colle di Sampeyre to Bicocca is about 6 km long.

Elva represents the authentic essence of a thousand-year-old Alpine community that is almost self-sufficient, thanks to an enormous extension of pastures: it is located in a very isolated position, far from the main communication routes, but the first evidence of the existence of a residential nucleus in the area dates back to Roman times.Its name perhaps derives from the "Gens Helva" which took its name from the indigenous population of the Helvi who occupied this sector of the trans-border Alps. Already in the 13th century it was among the lands of the Marquisate of Saluzzo, but due to its position it passed almost unscathed by the many war events for the dominion of these valleys.

The jewel of the town is the parish church of Santa Maria Assunta; in Romanesque style which houses the cycle of frescoes, attributed to Hans Clemer, a Flemish painter who worked in the Marquisate of Saluzzo and in Provence between the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th, around 1493. The walls depict stories from the life of the Virgin and Christ. A grandiose scene of the Crucifixion occupies the entire back wall and in the vaults the four Evangelists are portrayed intent on discussing with the first four Doctors of the Church. A work that earned the painter the nickname of Maestro d’Elva, while recently these masterpieces have been defined as the “Sistine Chapel of the Alps”. Also of notable value is the late Romanesque portal, a Madonna with child in the lunette above the portal and the Romanesque bell tower, with characteristic arches and allegorical stone decorations.

The Sundials House and the Pels Museum, (of hair) tells the story of a unique profession in the Maira Valley: that of hair collectors: “lhi pelassiers” in Occitan or “caviè” in Piedmontese. To supplement their income, which was entirely tied to agricultural and livestock farming, the people of Elva invented this profession at the beginning of autumn. Starting in the 19th century, men left Elva at the beginning of autumn, when the mountain work was finished, and before the big snowfalls they went all over the north, looking for women and girls willing to sell their hair in exchange for some money, ribbons, pieces of cloth and scarves. At the end of the campaign the "harvest" in large bags was taken to Elva where the women of the family took care of selecting them, washing them, combing them and dividing them by color. At this point they were sold to intermediaries who took them to the ateliers of the capitals and large cities of half of Europe to make wigs. The museum tells the stories of this itinerant profession and the memory of an ingenious "poor" mountain community that was able to invent a lucrative profession to serve the rich bourgeois citizens.The Vallone roadElva, today with a few dozen residents but with 30 hamlets once inhabited all year round, has always suffered from its isolation. The funnel-shaped territory, formed by a basin that gradually narrows between high walls, remained almost accessible until beyond the middle of the twentieth century only by mule tracks or by the military road of the Vallo Alpino, through the Col di Sampeyre, impassable in winter. Today only the most recent road, SP 335 Stroppo-Elva, which follows the route of the ancient mule tracks from Stroppo towards the Colle di San Giovanni and Colle Bettone, is passable all year round. This is because the Strada del Vallone, the Provincial 104, has now been closed due to repeated landslides since 2014.The history of this wonderful road, 10 km of daring hairpin bends, twelve tunnels, sheer walls and views that have nothing to envy of the Verdon gorges, starts from afar. Already in 1763 the mayor asked the Intendancy for help to alleviate the difficulties that the Elvis had to face. Only in 1914 was a project for a carriage road presented and twenty years later the first loaded mule passed. In 1959 the incredible and spectacular work of art was inaugurated. Today, while waiting for it to be reopened safely, a panoramic stretch of it can be walked from Elva.