The valleys we cover
Two countries, five valleys, and travel times that a map in kilometres will not tell you.
Every town has its own page.Five valleys across two countries. We think in valleys and travel time, never in kilometres.
Italy — Province of Sondrio
Upper Valtellina — Bormio, Livigno, Valdidentro, Valfurva, Valdisotto, Sondalo. The tourist heart: Livigno holds roughly a third of the province's beds and Bormio a further quarter. Demand peaks at Christmas, in February and in August, and collapses in between.
Middle and lower Valtellina — Sondrio, Tirano, Morbegno, Chiavenna's approaches, Aprica, Teglio. This is where most of the 179,000 residents live, and where the steady, year-round demand is: after school, evening shifts, hospital rotas.
Valchiavenna — Chiavenna, Madesimo, Campodolcino, Villa di Chiavenna. A separate valley, not a part of Valtellina, and it is worth saying so: the road, the dialect and the habits are different.
Val Masino and Valgerola — two side valleys off lower Valtellina, each with a single town: Val Masino, gateway to the Val di Mello's granite climbing and hiking, and Gerola Alta, home to the Bitto DOP cheese and the Pescegallo ski area. Val Masino's own page and Gerola Alta's own page.
Switzerland — Canton of Grisons
Val Poschiavo — Poschiavo, Brusio, Le Prese. Connected to Tirano by the Bernina line; around 1,300 Italian cross-border workers commute into the Bernina district.
Val Bregaglia — Vicosoprano, Stampa, Soglio, Castasegna, reached from Chiavenna over the Maloja.
Engadine — St. Moritz, Pontresina, Samedan, Zuoz, Silvaplana, and the Lower Engadine down to Scuol. The Maloja district alone counts about 5,600 Italian cross-border workers, the Lower Engadine about 1,600. More about childcare in the Engadine.
Why we think in valleys
Fifteen kilometres can be ten minutes along the valley floor or an hour over a pass, and in winter the pass may simply be shut. A radius on a map is a promise nobody can keep here, so we do not use one. When you write to a sitter, say which town you are in — not how many kilometres away you are.
