There are countless abandoned hamlets as well as several uninhabited villages dotted all over the hills and mountains between Stresa and the Swiss border. But only one, Marone, has its own station – almost certainly Italy’s least used station.

 

This sizeable village was abandoned after the last war as people moved away to the valley bottom and further afield to work in factories. Trains on the scenic Domodossola - Locarno narrow gauge railway line still stop, but no one gets on and no one gets off. In fact, you’re more likely to see goats occupying the station platform, leisurely moving out of the way of passing trains.

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The village, with its 100 or so crumbling houses now populated solely by snakes and other creepy crawlies, is 100 metres downhill from the station across terraced fields. The houses are all empty. Most stone walls are still standing but several of the stone roofs have collapsed under their own weight and nettles and weeds are now growing within the walls; windows and doors swing open and shut in the wind.

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Like all self-respecting villages, Marone has its own church which is now deconsecrated; the main door has been blocked off. Note the hands of the clock on the belfry, both hanging limply in the direction of six o’clock. Just below the church is the tiny cemetery which appears to be still tended.

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The best time to visit is undoubtedly summer when the village has a haunting, dreamlike quality; last time we visited, in July, there was just one person about: a floppy-hatted character eyed us up as he slowly scythed his way through a tiny meadow, only serving to heighten the sense of eeriness. In winter, the place is likely to be downright dismal.

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Who knows why the village was completely abandoned? Probably because a road was never built to link Marone with civilisation. Maybe because the village was built on the cold, shady side of the valley.

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If you wish to disembark from the train, make sure to inform the driver. Alternatively, if driving up from Domodossola, turn right as soon as you come to the end of the tunnel. There are some parking spaces next to an old stone bridge which you cross before making your way uphill through the woods to the abandoned village. This is a longer and steeper route.