Considered one of Italy’s most picture-perfect small towns and a member of the “Borghi di Italia” Association, time seems to have stood still since the middle ages. Vogogna boasts a wonderfully preserved mediaeval core behind which rises its main attraction: the Castello Visconteo, a stern fourteenth century structure keeping a watchful eye over a chokepoint in Val d’Ossola and controlling the route between Switzerland and Italy.

 

The town’s development was shaped by its strategic position. The castle was enlarged in the fourteenth century by Giovanni Visconti, one of the most famous names in Italian history and associated with a plethora of castles and fortifications in various regions of Italy.

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The family’s coat of arms, adorning buildings throughout the region, is a coiled snake.

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Look carefully and you’ll notice a gruesome detail: a half-eaten baby protruding from its mouth.

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This emblem is also associated with Milan, so much so that an extremely stylised version is used by the TV company belonging to Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister as well as a somewhat more explicit version by Alfa Romeo.

Next time you see an Alfa Romeo take a look at the logo on the grill; you can clearly see a human figure, arms outstretched, in the process of being devoured by a giant snake (or in a more sanitised version, being spewed up, Jonah-like).

Anyway, after bequeathing a bizarre logo to posterity, the Visconti family ended up on the wrong side of history and whilst their rivals, the Borromeo family, have, over the centuries gone from strength to strength, steadily acquiring a string of important monuments, the Visconti family is now encountered largely in history books.

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Vogogna has an austere medieval charm, and can perhaps best be savoured on a glum, overcast day when the atmosphere is dark, brooding and moody with just the sound of your footsteps echoing around the often deserted town centre.

This is quarrying country so virtually everything you see is made of stone including most of the town’s roof tiles, known locally as piode.

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The castle, whose crenelated battlements, thick stone walls and stout turrets have amazingly survived through the centuries relatively unscathed, is usually open on weekends and every day during the summer.

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There are often special events such as exhibitions.

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Continuing up alongside and behind the castle along a steep, rough stone track, after around half an hour , you’ll arrive at the delightful sunny village of Genestredo. You’ll probably be thirsty so stop for a drink at the fountain.

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At this point, turn right and after a short walk you’ll arrive at a tumbledown fort on a steep valley side.

This is La Rocca; viewed from below, it is almost indistinguishable from the rocky outcrop from which it seems to grow, but up close it looms larger. The building was attacked and partially demolished exactly 500 years ago by soldiers from Domodossola, and never restored.