PINZOLO—THE CHURCHES OF VAL RENDENA—HISTORY AND LEGENDS—VAL NAMBINO—THE BRENTA GROUP—LA MADONNA DI CAMPIGLIO—HOSPICE AND PENSION.
Pinzolo is conspicuous amongst the villages which cluster round the head of Val Rendena by its tall campanile of Adamello granite, a pretty feature of the landscape, but, as I shall afterwards show, an evil sign of the times. Its houses, gathered along two stone-paved streets and round a little open space—the piazza—stand close against the eastern hillside at the point where the mountain-ranges, bending towards one another and almost joining, enclose in their semicircular folds the lower valley. Great torrents rush out of two clefts in the hills, the openings of Val Nambino and Val di Genova, and but for human industry would devastate the low ground on their banks. But they are held fast in fetters of their own contriving. The huge granite boulders, which in former floods they have borne down from the heart of the Presanella or the Adamello, have been turned to account for the building of massive dykes through which so much water only is allowed to pass as will suffice to irrigate the plain and turn its alluvial soil into the richest of water-meadows.
The beauty of the situation does not, like that of Grindelwald or Chamonix, depend on mountain sublimity. On one side some shreds of snow and granite belonging to the Presanella come into view. On the other the southern crest of the Brenta group lies couched like a huge gold-red Egyptian sphinx on the green back of a lower hill. But these are mere glimpses of the upper world, valuable and suggestive glimpses it is true, but not sufficient to decide the character of the whole landscape. The hills which encircle the head of Val Rendena rise in steep but nowhere perpendicular banks, swathed in chestnut woods about their base, lying open higher up in sloping meadows fringed with mountain ash, birch and pine. The valley floor, a smooth, brilliantly green carpet, gives an impression of wealth and softness rendered more welcome by the knowledge of the rugged grandeur so close at hand.
It would be hard to find a more delightful spot in which to idle away a sunny day than the hillside immediately behind Pinzolo. It is only needful to climb a few hundred yards among the chestnut-boles to find platforms covered with a soft carpet of moss, ferns and delicate southern flowers. Here under the shade of dancing leaves, fanned by soft breezes and lulled by the cool tinkle of falling water and the murmur of innumerable living things which fills an Italian noon, the restless traveller may for once enjoy unmixed with other thoughts the sympathetic delight of coexistence with a world seemingly for the moment wholly given up to enjoyment.
In another mood he may climb higher and higher through the forest, gaining at each step new glimpses of the bright fields and villages of Val Rendena, and watching the icy horns of the Adamello group as they shoot out one by one against the sky. Then entering a hidden upland glen he will reach a gap where, in the opposite direction, the dolomite towers soar stark and red over the green slopes. Hence he may descend into Val Agola, and so to Campiglio, or, turning to the right, wander along shady forest paths to the ridge of the Pra Fiori. But left of the depression, and cut off by it from the other hills, rises a grassy down which must give one of the most perfect views of the surrounding ranges, raking as it does Val di Genova, Val Rendena, and Val Nambino. There is a châlet within five minutes of the meadow-top, but any lady who likes the walk may, so far as I know, boast herself afterwards of having made 'the first ascent by travellers' of the Dos di Sabione.
If the rain-clouds hang low on the hills and the woods are too wet for loitering in, the old churches of the valley may give employment. The mother-chapel near the mouth of Val di Borzago has been already referred to. The large modern church in the village, with its campanile built at the cost of the noble forests of Val di Genova, has no particular interest.[53] But five hundred yards north of Pinzolo stands San Vigilio, a plain building consisting of a nave and small chancel, with a belfry, probably of older date, at the western end. The southern face is decorated with a frescoed Dance of Death, dated 1539, a work of some spirit, and retaining traces of rich colouring. We may stroll further across the valley to the romantically situated chapel of San Stefano perched high among the woods on a granite bluff above the mouth of Val di Genova. The outside is covered with representations of the life of the saint, and another Triumph of Death, dated 1519; within is a very curious fresco of Charlemagne—I beg Mr. Freeman's pardon, the great Karl—engaged, in company with a Pope, in baptising the heathen. Close by, a long and most interesting inscription tells the history of the campaign, in the course of which the great emperor penetrated this remote region. The following is a very curtailed summary of the events there recorded.[54]
Lupus, Lord of Bergamo, was a pagan, and Charles strove with him to convert him. But Lupus took a certain Sandro and many others and cut off their heads; whereupon there appeared six burning torches, no one holding them; and by God's grace the bells rang without earthly aid. Seeing this miracle, Lupus with all his people was converted to the Catholic faith, and joined Charles. The host, numbering 4,000 spears, marched up Val Camonica, slaying heretics, such as Lord Hercules and King Comerus, destroying castles, and building churches. Then they crossed a mountain where there was a great fight between the Christians and pagans, at a place since known as 'Mortarolus.'
