Ten thousand years ago, Valchiavenna – like the vast majority of the Alpine range – was a completely different natural phenomenon. After millennia of ice, the temperature of the entire planet was slowly rising and as a result the thousands of metres of frozen swathes which represented a deal of Europe, began to melt and created vast, dominant river courses.
It was the end of the ultimate ice age, and the 110,000 year-long cycle of the Pleistocene. Unsurprisingly this extraordinary phenomenon has left its mark right up to today in the morphology of the local territory, created by the force of the tumultuous flow of rivers generated by the melting glaciers. To offer some sort of perspective, studies carried out by the Arctic University in Norway (Deglaciation of the Eurasian ice sheet complex) confirm that the water that coursed under the glaciers and headed for the sea would have represented double that which the River Amazon empties into the Atlantic.
And as a result? Some very special natural features, evident in all their glory within the Parco delle Marmitte dei Giganti, located in an accessible area between Piuro and Chiavenna. A clamber around the park represents a journey into a past of at least 10,000 years. Rocks, smoothed and polished by the passage of both water and ice, deep ravines gouged out by the debris carried along by rampant currents of water are clearly evident everywhere.
And that’s not all. On the vertical walls of the ancient quarries, on isolated, individual boulders and within caverns, there is evidence of a human presence through rock engravings. Figurative graphics and dates are accompanied by abstract representations, signs, abbreviations and symbols - still for the most part to be satisfactorily interpreted.
A visit to the Parco delle Marmitte is a genuinely engaging experience for young and old.
A natural open-air museum easily accessed from either Chiavenna or Piuro by following clear, well-marked pathways.
