Trails to Freedom: 10 days hiking in the Italian Alps

Day 1:

Your first night is spent in Biella, a pleasant town with a rail link, north of Turin.  Situated where the Po River plain butts up against the foothills of the Italian Alps, Biella has had a long history as a trade and commercial centre.  The Oropa River valley has provided access over the Alps to Switzerland and France since Roman times. 

Biella’s centuries-old textile tradition continues today producing high quality woollen clothes and it is the home of international fashion houses such as Ermenegildo Zegna.  We'll have dinner in an innovative local restaurant.  (Dinner)

Day 2:

The path we take today leaves Biella following a route that was first mentioned in 1207 and which was a trade route leading all the way to Lyon in central France.  The path climbs up through forests and hamlets with spectacular views back over the plains.  We'll stop for a delicious picnic lunch.

The hike finishes at one of the most unexpected and striking sites on the walk: an enormous baroque monastery that has been a popular place of pilgrimage for centuries and which is where we’ll be staying the night.  (17 kms, 5 hours, 766 mts ascent) 

We'll have dinner at a relaxed family restaurant.  (Lunch/dinner)

Day 3:

Today is a short walk.  In the morning we'll be taken on a guided tour of this fascinating sanctuary.  After another delicious picnic lunch, we take a small trail that climbs up through pine forest to the ridge that divides the two valleys.  We then descent to the second monastery.  (11 kms, 4 hrs, 393 mts ascent)

We'll have time to relax, before having dinner on the verandah of the monastery.  (Lunch/dinner)

Day 4:

We continue on the trail which takes us down a winding path into the next valley to a rather strange little town that was home to the benefactor who would built a road and tunnel that connects the two monasteries in the later 1800s. The trail then takes us north up beside the river to a second village at the head of the valley where we have lunch.

We start the long climb, possibly the hardest stretch of the tour, up to a welcoming mountain hut that sits spectacularly on a platform under mountain peaks.  It is a hard 3 hour ascent but the rewards are great - glorious views south across the Alps and a convivial place to relax, have dinner and sleep.  (12 kms, 6 hrs, ascent 1406 mts)  (Lunch/dinner)

Day 5:

Today’s walk takes us through the heart of the Alps with our first glimpse of Monte Rosa. We pass a number of enchanting frozen lakes and small glaciers and cross high mountain pastures that are still used by flocks walked up for the summer.  There is no road access, only a network of trails that run north and south, east and west.  

The second half of the walk is a long descent, boulder hopping down a narrow glacial valley which eventually opens up into forest and then pastures where we’ll start passing the gorgeous wooden 'Walser' farmhouses that characterise the area.  (17kms, 7.5 hrs, 540 mts ascent, 1310 mts descent) 

Our accommodation tonight is in a very comfortable hotel in the town of Alagna.  (Lunch/dinner)

Day 6:

Free morning in Alagna.  Time to relax and visit the shops, museums and cafes of this charming town.  At 11.00 am, we will meet and take a short walk up to the last settlement in the valley to visit their excellent local museum.  Afterwards, we will have a light lunch. From here it is a one-hour walk to our accommodation, a 'rifugio' in a beautifully restored hamlet, which is surrounded by pastures, and has an excellent restaurant with views up to the mountains.  (5 kms, 1.5 hrs, 360 mts ascent)  (Lunch/dinner)

Day 7:

This morning, we go up into the heart of the mountains, via a series of cable cars, which take us up to the foot of Monte Rosa.  Weather permitting, we will take a 40 minute walk from the lift station across a glacier to a marvellously situated mountain hut which has terrace that looks out over the valleys and up to the peak of Mt Rosa, where we have lunch.  

After returning to the valley, it's a short walk to another 'rifugio', a beautifully restored, stone shepherds’ hamlet surrounded by pastures, with an excellent restaurant and a terrace with views up to the mountains.   (5 kms, 1.5 hrs, 360 mts ascent)  (Lunch/dinner)

Day 8:

Today is another long hard walk but is one of the highlights of the tour: leaving the valley with Monte Rosa looming above us, we climb up an old military mule trail (built in the 1920s following a route that dates from Roman times) to the last pass (2900 mts) offering the first views of Switzerland, where we'll have lunch.

Once over the pass, we head down into another beautiful valley with a pretty lake in the distance to the village of Macugnaga.  (22 kms, 7.5 hrs, 1217 mts ascent, 1479 descent).

Our accommodation for the last two nights is a lovely family-run 3-star hotel on the main square where your luggage will be waiting for you (transported from Biella).  Luxury!   The evening is free.  (Lunch)

Day 9:

Today is an easy day.  We’ll spend the morning exploring this fascinating little town before taking the cable card that runs from Magugnaga up to the pass that separates Italy from Switzerland.  It is a short climb from the cable car station to the Swiss border, where the granite ridge is topped with a golden Madonna. 

The Saastal valley drops away from here down to an artificial lake, that wouldn’t have been there when the soldiers crossed.  We’ll have lunch at the pass before taking the cable car back down.  In the evening, we'll have our farewell dinner in town.  (Lunch/dinner)

Day 10:

This morning after breakfast you’ll be picked up at 08.00 by private bus and driven to Milan, 150 kilometres south.  We should arrive around 10.30.