we walked towards the small village Lionza just a few hundred meters above. Our goal was to reach Pizzo Ruscada, but we got a little lost on the mountain and ended up walking a much longer route than necessary. For your information, and in my defence, the routes can be quite hard to identify in some places. We reached Lionza and had to walk a little bit through small villages before heading out in the mountain forest again. The Swiss Italian alpes have lots of rustic huts, granite huts, which are an magnificent sight for people who have interest in architecture or construction work. The huts are build almost purely out of granite stone from the surrounding mountains and wood strong enough to carry the weight. Back in the days, these rustic huts were inhabited by farmers, but today they are mostly used for vacation.
Continuing from the village Lionza we headed to Costa, another village, and also what we later would learn to be the wrong direction. But not to regret though, because it let us through beautiful sceneries. We came to a small pond with a little waterfall. It was a bit further down than the path we were walking, but the scenery seemed to good to just pass, so we climbed down to get a better view. We took som nice pictures and Ceazar, my dog, got a cold swim in the pond which he seemed to be enjoying a lot. Walking further, small overgrown and abandoned rustic huts appears occasionally in between the tress and cliffs, creating a very fantasy kinda atmosphere.
We reached Costa where we again had to walk a bit through the village before heading out in the mountain again. It was here we found out that we might have taken a slightly longer route than necessary, and we therefore have to change the plans a bit. two hours hike from Costa where we were, is the Rifugio (Mountain hut) Corte Nuovo 1635 meters above sea level, and an hour more away Pizzo Ruscada. So we decided to go to Rifugio Corte Nuovo instead, because we unfortunately didn’t have more time.
Excited of what we have seen so far, we totally forgot to fill our water bottle with water. Out on the trail again, our focus were pulled towards a leaf hanging in the air as if it was frozen in time. Unfortunately it was just a spider decorating its web and not a leaf stuck in time. From here on the trail became very steep and in some places we almost had to climb. After an hour of almost climbing in the sun we were very thirsty, but we didn’t have any water. Luckily we found a little stream of water flowing down the rocks. In the Swiss Italian Alpes the water flowing down the mountain is drinkable and also nice and cold. From where we were standing it was not really possible to get to the water, so i had to climb a bit further op the stream in order to harvest some of the water. I used a stone as a spout to redirect the water into the bottle and all though it did take some time, we eventually got hydrated. As we walked 2 minutes further up, we found a bigger stream, much more approachable and easier to harvest.
A bit further up we started to be surrounded by the cliffs. Here we were walking on a landslide of stones. Ceazar was jumping around as if he was a mountain goat, while we were struggling a bit more. But every time we would stop to catch our breath, we also got time to appreciate the beautiful landscape. A few hundreds meters after, we reached Rifugio Corte Nuovo. Looking North from here you see a lot of Swiss Italian mountains yet to be explored. Looking East you can see all the way to Lake Maggiore and Locarno. And to your West you see Pizzo Ruscada laughing at you, teasing you to continue the hike. We stayed here for a while enjoyed the view before walking down again. This time we took the faster, more direct trail, leading almost straight down to the village Lionza.
Besides the route that we accidentally took was slightly longer, I actually prefer it to the direct way that we came down from. So from this one day hike, we are left with a little life lesson, that the straight path is not always the right, also referred to as, “life is not a straight line”. You should still remember to bring water though.
©, AlexanderAnsel, 2025