7 timeless places to visit in Valtellina

Amidst silent mountains, secret valleys, and boundless panoramas, Valtellina is home to small villages where time seems to have stood still. Here are seven hidden gems offering authentic experiences far from mass tourism: reach them on foot and along untouched roads, rediscover traditions, savor traditional dishes, and experience a profound sense of authenticity.
If you're looking for a different, quiet, and poetic Valtellina, these are the places to be.

In Valchiavenna, near the Acquafraggia waterfalls, lies Savogno, a destination that enchants anyone who loves timeless places.
Accessible on foot via a 2,886-step staircase nestled in the woods, the village is a magnificent example of perfectly preserved Alpine architecture. The rural center has not been permanently inhabited since the late 1960s, but it is populated during the summer, when some former residents return to their mountain homes to enjoy the coolness of the 932-meter altitude.
In Savogno, you can stay and eat at the refuge of the same name. The current building was originally a school and opened in 1961. It closed following depopulation and was subsequently repurposed in the early 1990s: it houses rooms and a restaurant, is open year-round, and has an excellent menu featuring all the Valtellina wines and traditional cuisine.

Just minutes from Chiavenna, Pianazzola overlooks the valley from a sunny terrace where the hamlet is perched on the northern slope.
The village retains its timeless atmosphere, with its stone houses, quiet lanes, lack of traffic, and incredible views that span from the Italian mountains of Valchiavenna to the Swiss ones of Val Bregaglia.
It can be reached from Chiavenna on foot via a scenic walk through dry stone walls. Here, vineyards that had been abandoned for years have been restored, and now, thanks to the arrival of the Hermau and Balze Grigie wineries, the area has begun producing wine again, making it a destination for passionate wine lovers: Hermau also runs the Agriturismo Ca' Pianazzola. The village is located at 627 meters above sea level and is still populated: in 2011, 68 inhabitants were registered. In Pianazzola, you can have lunch at the Lassù restaurant and stay at the “La Vecchia Scuola” guesthouse, a B&B opened in 2018 and occupying the spaces of what was the town school until 1981.

It's the small capital of the eponymous valley, a transversal section of Valchiavenna.
There are no roads here: it can only be reached on foot, following an old path, mostly stepped, for about two hours. It's a journey worth taking, where the sense of achievement outweighs the difficulty of accessing the village: among the rewards is the guaranteed view of an enchanting panorama in a timeless atmosphere. The landscape has a medieval and mysterious feel, also because the village of granite houses is permanently inhabited by only a handful of valley dwellers. But the village remains vibrant thanks to its highly prized landscape, and to the residents and associations who, with their immense dedication, cultivate the surrounding vegetable gardens and maintain the typical Valtellina terraces.
There are two options for accommodation and dining: the Osteria Alpina is managed by the Cooperativa Antica Cotaria, established in 2017 with the aim of developing eco-sustainable tourism through the creation and operation of tourist and hotel businesses, while La Locanda has restored the building that here – as in Pianazzola and Savogno – was originally the village school.

From Sondrio, along the road leading to Valmalenco, the road widens along the Mallero stream in the Prato area. On the right, clinging to the mountainside, you will notice a rural hamlet of great character and beauty: the small cluster of houses called Scilironi. It is one of the nine districts of the Municipality of Spriana, almost entirely evacuated between 1960 and 1965 due to an impending landslide, which is still monitored by the Civil Protection Department.
Scilironi is open to visitors, with its steep streets, stairways, washhouses, and a few residents, especially during the summer months. The "The Roots of an Identity" project stopped here in 2021, renovating and repurposing a rustic building, which later became a venue for artistic performances, known today as "The Smallest Theater in the World".
During the winter, the outlines of the houses in the district are all decorated with lights, creating a very evocative fairy-tale Christmas nativity scene.

In his “The Magic Mountain” (1924), Thomas Mann sets the novel in the Berghaus sanatorium in Davos, in the nearby Swiss Engadine. These were years when the acronym TBC (tuberculosis) was still feared. To treat this disease, before the discovery of antibiotics, many sanatoriums were built in the Alps, including in Italy, primarily in Valtellina.
The wooded, sunny, and high-altitude areas were best suited to healing the sick: the first structure in the Sortenna pine forest in 1903 – which was later incorporated into the largest sanatorium in Europe, the “Eugenio Morelli” sanatorium, built in Sondalo between 1932 and 1938 – was followed by the construction of the Sanatorio Popolare Umberto I in Prasomaso: it was built between 1905 and 1910 by the Opera Pia Sanatori Popolari of Milan in Art Nouveau style.
Today, while the Sondalo hospital complex is still active, the Prasomaso sanatorium represents a ruin awaiting rebirth, a non-place where time has stood still.

Heading up the Valtellina, after Tirano, on the southern slope of Mount Masuccio, you'll see the hamlet of Baruffini at an altitude of approximately 800 meters.
Overlooking the Chiosa Valley, it offers a majestic panorama of the Adda Valley and the Orobie Alps, a view that can also be enjoyed from the Big Bench (giant bench no. 218), inaugurated in 2022.
The area is also interesting for its prehistoric engravings (cup marks).
From Baruffini—once the site of the local mill—the Bread Trail, approximately 2 km long, leads to the nearby hamlet of Roncaiola. It was restored in 2007 thanks to historical research by the Tirano Primary School and the Italian Alpine Club (CAI). The adjacent Contrabbando and Memoria Trail, approximately 4 km long and with an elevation gain of 450 m, is more challenging. The more trained can instead opt for the 10 km Tirano-Roncaiola-Baruffini loop with its vineyard terraces and the “baitei”: characteristic domed buildings, built dry and similar to crotti, once used as food storage.

Giovanni Bertacchi (1869-1942), a poet from Valtellina, gave his name to many squares and streets in the province of Sondrio.
The road from Sondalo to Migiondo, a small farming hamlet, is also named after the literary critic. The rural village, overlooked by Mount Storile, takes its name from the Adda tributary, and has around a hundred inhabitants. A handful of houses, surrounded by pastures and chestnut groves, is known for several unique features that have made it a niche destination for slow tourism. It is a couple of kilometers from Sondalo: along the easy trail, you'll come across the old mill and enjoy a panoramic view of the sanatoriums and surrounding mountains. The nearby cliff is highly popular with climbers and is considered a veritable rock climbing gym.
In October, “La Migiondara” takes place, a multi-stage gastronomic walk that has its roots in the chestnut festival and has evolved over the years into an autumn event that showcases typical local dishes, among which a type of sweet or savory stuffed focaccia stands out: the cornat.