The ancient Trades Path

Grauno

From Grauno, the route takes you down to the Avisio River first along pleasant roads, then along paths through wild, fascinating landscape. In the past, the inhabitants of Grauno used this route to reach plots of cultivated land that extended almost right down to the bank of the Avisio River. The route was also used to do small trade with Sover, Montesover and Piscine or just to visit friends or relatives on the other side of the river. Such contacts were suddenly interrupted when the bridge across the river ('Pont da La Rio') was swept away by floods in 1966 and they could only be resumed 43 years later, i.e. when the bridge was rebuilt in 2009. At Maso dei Molini (a small cluster of watermills on the opposite bank of the river), you can turn left into the 'Sentiero dei vecchi mestieri'. This very picturesque route runs along the bank of the river for quite a while before reaching Maso Pianacci. From there, a steep road takes you to Piscine. In order to get from Piscine to Sover, you can either take a dirt road (fitness trail) that forks off in the lower half of the village or ignore that fork, follow the main (i.e. provincial) road, and walk back down to Maso dei Molini. After crossing back the Avisio River, you reach Maso La Rio, and from there you can walk along another section of the Old Trades Trail which takes you back to Grauno. From Maso La Rio, the route takes you past the ruins of watermills that were abandoned in the 1960s to two recently restored workshops: a smithy and a Venetian-type sawmill (the latter stands by the old main road). Higher up, you come across another watermill ('Molino Cristofori'). From there, it's only a few minutes' walk to Grauno. This trail never fails to leave hikers with a number of unforgettable sights.