Directions
Difficulty: T (tourist path)
After leaving the car in the square of the municipality of S. Croce, start walking towards Bivedo; here you enter and cross the village always keeping left. At the last house, the sign SAT465 indicates to continue left again. Now the asphalt road narrows and goes up gently along a ridge of steep meadows with walnut trees and some rustic cottages. A narrow road bordered at times by dry stone walls on one side and vertical granite slabs planted in the ground on the other. This system of vertical granite slabs, used to mark property boundaries, was in use many years ago and today, finding signs of these ancient traditions is something exceptional that deserves particular observation. Along the path you can see: in front Cima Sèra and Monte S. Martino, on the left Val Marcia and below the hamlets of Bleggio and Lomaso. You reach the beginning of the Scots pine forest and the asphalt road ends. The SAT 465 signs indicate to continue on the right ascent, at the end of which you find yourself in the locality “Tre Vie”. Other SAT signs indicate, to the left, the path to Monte S. Martino; the path to follow instead goes right along the road called by locals “Via Piana”, because it actually proceeds on semi-flat ground (waymark SAT 465/B). Walking in a forest made up of pine and shrubs, you soon reach the locality “La Guarda”. In the wide meadow dominates the granite monumental construction “El Sass de Santa Cross” in memory of the “Croce Taumaturgica”. History and tradition tell that an anonymous shepherd boy, at the time of the Crusades, carved and raised a wooden cross in the locality “La Guarda”. This Cross, according to legend, was brought several times to the parish church of Bleggio, but miraculously returned to its place at “La Guarda”. However, since 1629 it has remained definitively in the Pieve of Bleggio. In years of calamities, the Cross was and still is carried in procession on Monte S. Martino to “La Guarda”, its medieval seat, to obtain special graces. After seeing the monument, saying a prayer, enjoying the splendid panorama on the valley, you return descending along the SAT 465B path down to Vergonzo. Here you can admire Castel Restor. Continue towards Duvredo and then return to the starting point.
