Search
Visit
Monte Rosa
The massif that dominates the entire area
Credits © L. Fochi
Credits © L. Fochi
Monte Rosa needs little introduction: it is the largest massif of the Alps, second in height only to Mont Blanc, and it stands at the border between Aosta Valley, Piedmont, and Switzerland.
In Italian territory, it extends in the municipalities of Alagna Valsesia, Gressoney La Trinità, Gressoney Saint Jean, Macugnaga, and Ayas-Champoluc. The highest peak, Punta Dufour (named after Guillaume-Henri Dufour, a general and cartographer of the Swiss army), reaches 4,634 meters, while the massif as a whole has the highest average altitude of all the Alps, with nine of the top twenty peaks of the Alpine chain.
Monte Rosa is the great protagonist of the Valsesia and hilly landscape both in summer and winter: its imposing silhouette with a peak covered by perennial glaciers is an incredible spectacle in all seasons, and seeking it on the horizon, while walking through the various Valsesia excursions or simply looking up while traveling through the wine hills, becomes a real necessity.
Monte Rosa needs little introduction: it is the largest massif of the Alps, second in height only to Mont Blanc, and it stands at the border between Aosta Valley, Piedmont, and Switzerland.
The presence of Monte Rosa is so influential on the surrounding territory that it is even remembered in literature as a great mill under which the life of the inhabitants of the area unfolds, favored by climatic conditions that, thanks to the massif of Rosa, allow the cultivation of excellent vineyards and, even lower down, the growth of a particular rice, irrigated by the waters of the Sesia river which originates from Monte Rosa itself.
The Italian name, as well as the French Mont Rose, does not derive, as is often erroneously believed, from the colors that its peaks take on at dawn, but comes from the Latin Rosia and Rosae in patois, a Francophone dialect spoken in Aosta Valley, meaning glacier, just like the perennial ones covering its peaks.
Seen from below, Monte Rosa seems like an invincible giant, crossed centuries ago by the Walser people, today it hosts the highest alpine refuge in Europe, the Capanna Regina Margherita at an altitude of 4,554 meters, strongly desired by the CAI and inaugurated in the presence of Queen Margherita of Savoy herself.
Fondo europeo agricolo di sviluppo rurale.
L'Europa investe nelle zone rurali.
PSR 2014 - 2020, Misura 19 - op. 7.5.2 tipologia 2
Infrastrutture turistico-ricreative ed informazione nell’ambito del CCLD LEADER - Informazione
