Villette

The village of Villette lies in a sunny location at the eastern end of the Vigezzo Valley close to the Swiss border.

An ancient village facing the spectacular Monte Gridone, Villette is surrounded by beech woods with well-marked paths that make it easy to explore the countryside.

The historic side of the village finds expression in the Cà di Feman (House of women) Museum, which displays tools and objects once commonly used by the women of the valley in their daily work. The Museum also has a model of the ancient mill of the village, the Mulino della Fula.

Many of the houses are decorated with sundials, which have led to Villette being called  the “sundial village”. There is one on the wall of the municipio, as well as on a number of elegant bourgeois houses. Even the façade of the Baroque Parish Church of San Bartolomeo is minutely ornamented with two sundials (one of the 17th century, one dated 1922), and a statue of St Bartholomew.

Another place of historical interest is the ruined Castle of Vallaro, in an elevated position in the hamlet of the same name.  In the same hamlet is the oratory of San Rocco (1655), decorated inside with paintings by Vagliani.

You can get to Villette by the scenic Vigezzina railway, which after this point continues its route across the Swiss border to Locarno.