Dubino is where Valtellina meets Valchiavenna, at the foot of the charming and sunny Valtellina Rhaetian shore. The southern border is made up of the Adda River. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the early Middle Ages (8th century) Dubino was, like  Ardenno, Morbegno, Talamona, Delebio e Samolaco, a Lombard curtis, that is, a territory which, having expropriated the Roman landowners and partly also the communities of the village, belonged directly to the royal treasury. Around the 9th century, the town of Dubino belonged to the Sant’ Ambrogio of Milan monastery. In the year 1000, the current hamlet of Nuova Olonio, which until 1928 was part of the municipality of Delebio, was an essential strategic center located on the communication routes between Valtellina and Valchiavenna, and a river port connected to Lake Mezzola, which ended due to the continuous flooding of the Adda. The complete reclamation of the plain occurred only in the early 19th century when Blessed Luigi Guanella started an assisted community with his religion in Nuova Olonio.

INTEREST POINTS
– Monastey of  Dubino:  the religious building was erected starting from 1698. It has a single nave and two side chapels. The marble baptismal font is attractive black.
–  S. Salvatore a Nuova Olonio: less ancient but an important testimony to the past century, the church of S. Salvatore in Nuova Olonio was built in 1903 in Romanesque style. Inside, the cycle of frescoes dedicated to the life and works of the Blessed Don Luigi Guanella, founder of the adjacent Casa della Madonna del Lavoro, is fascinating.
– Madonna della Cintura: the church is in the Mezzomanico hamlet of Dubino. It is dedicated to the Madonna della Cintura and was probably built during the 17th century. It reaches with a beautiful 185 steps.
– Chiesa dei Santi Pietro e Andrea: fit was built in 1675 on the same site as an ancient church whose existence is reported by some 12th-century documents.

WHAT TO DO
Dubino is the oldest nucleus of a picturesque village and still retains old houses with wooden galleries and ovens for baking bread. You can admire the beautiful rural architecture and sacred buildings and visit the “calchera”, a sizeable local limestone quarry.
You can also reach San Giuliano, an ancient town located in an exciting position from every point of view.
The splendid panoramic terrace of Alpe Piazza, between Valtellina and Valchiavenna, falls within the municipal territory; just below, on the same side, the band of San Giuliano meadows.

Gera Lario is located at the northern end of Lake Como, on the mouth of the Mera Stream, and at the foot of Mount Montemezzo. Nearby, we find the Pian di Spagna, a large marshy area, now a protected natural reserve of the Lombardy Region.
Traces of Roman settlements and archaeological finds have been found in the area, including the famous epigraph with the engraving of the name “Aneuniates” (inhabitants of the lands of Holonius). On these lands stood the Roman village of Olonium, one of the most important centers of the upper Lario, a prosperous town with markets and trade, a crossroads of roads to the Alpine passes, and northern Europe.
In the square of Gera Lario stands the church of Our Lady of Fatima; it was built after the plague of 1630 and subsequently renamed the Sanctuary of the Fishermen of Italy.
On Strada Regina, a few steps from the waters of Lake Como, we find the ancient church of San Vincenzo, founded in the 11th century on the remains of a Roman building and almost completely rebuilt in the 15th century.
Walking through the streets of Gera Lario it is easy to come across small Votive Aedicules, even on the facades of the oldest houses there are religious frescoes. The lighthouse that we find at the entrance to the tourist port was erected in 1957 in memory of the flood of 8 August 1951, when the San Vincenzo torrent overflowed and the waters overwhelmed the town, causing seventeen victims.
If once fishing and silkworm breeding were the main sources of livelihood, today Gera Lariois is a town with a strong tourist vocation; there are excellent accommodation facilities: hotels, typical restaurants, bathing establishments, and equipped beaches. Thanks to the splendid position and constant winds, the waters of Gera Lario are a perfect field for sailing, windsurfing, or kitesurfing. The cycle paths safely connect the town with the neighboring municipalities, and there is no shortage of possibilities for trips and excursions in the surrounding mountains.

It is one of the most famous tourist locations in northern Lario. The City of Roman foundation stands in a flat area from detrital sediments deposited by the Adda, which flows into the lake a bit further north. Thanks to its position, at the entrance to Valtellina and Valchiavenna, Colico has always been an easy access point from the north to the Italian territories and an important crossroads of routes towards the south, in the direction of Lecco and the Po Valley and towards the north, up to Chiavenna, the Spluga pass, and Sondrio.

Colico was often the subject of devastation and looting by foreign armies from the north. However, it remained commercially prosperous until the 17th century, when it faced two centuries of decline due to Adda’s frequent floods, making the area marshy. The nineteenth-century reclamation of the Pian di Spagna and the opening of the Stelvio, Spluga, and Maloja roads towards Switzerland brought prosperity back. The small Museum of rural culture collects period objects and reconstructions of environments that allow visitors to immerse themselves in the life of the area between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. (for info: museocontadinocolico.weebly.com).

In the surroundings of Colico, along the Sentiero Valtellina cycle path on the route of the first stage of the Via Francisca, there are two buildings dating back to very different periods but designed for the same purpose: to monitor the confluence area of Valchiavenna and Valtellina, to avoid that any invading armies coming from the north would exploit this natural corridor to reach first Milan and then the Po Valley.

The Fort of Montecchio Nord stands on the rocky hill of the same name on the northern slopes of Mount Legnone and was built between 1912 and 1914 in reaction to the winds of war that heralded the First World War. The fort was part of the Northern Frontier defense system, popularly known as the Cardorna Line, and is known for being the best-preserved Great War fortress in Europe. It was never involved in war actions, and its cannons fired only on two occasions, one of which was decisive for the arrest of the Nazi-fascist column commanded by Captain Fallmeyer, fleeing north after having handed over Benito Mussolini and Claretta Petacci to the partisans who had them stop in Dongo (for info and guided tours: www.fortemontecchionord.it). Not far away, on Colle Montecchio Est, stand the remains of the more ancient Fort of Fuentes, commissioned in 1603 by the Count of Fuentes, governor of the State of Milan on behalf of the Spanish crown and also mentioned in the Betrothed. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the trapezoidal fort was at the center of various military actions, boasting a firepower of twenty cannons and could accommodate up to 14 soldiers. Built-in local stone, taking advantage of the natural characteristics of the hill on which it stood, it, however, found itself faced with significant problems of water supply and the spread of malaria, favored by the presence of the swamps on the Pian di Spagna, which guaranteed the impregnability of the fort, but also rather unhealthy conditions. In 1782, the Austrian emperor stopped using it and sold it at auction. After being acquired as private property, it was destroyed by Napoleon’s troops in 1796. In 1916, it was fortified as a part of the Cadorna Line and armed with eight cannons facing Valchiavenna and Valtellina.. Today, the walls, part of the buildings intended for soldiers and officers, a mill, an oven, and the church dedicated to Santa Barbara are visible. (for info and guided tours:  www.fortedifuentes.it