La Sassella and wineyards in Valtellina - Apt Valtellina archive

Deeply carved out by receding glaciers at the end of the last ice age, the Northern Italian lakes are most spectacular introductions to the Italian Alps.
The Alps massif to the north protects them from the brunt of winter weather, so that they enjoy relatively mild climates with respect to their alpine neighbors or locales north of the divide. As soon as one ascends from the lakes, however, winding up steep, narrow valleys, the weather takes a turn for the alpine rather quickly. Many of the valleys off of Lake Como, perhaps the most dramatic lake of them all, have little in the way of arable land, not to mention good sites for habitation. The greatest of these valleys, the east-west running Valtellina, is wide and fertile enough to have supported human settlement since ancient times. It is shaped by the flow of the Adda River, which in addition to feeding Lake Como at its northern ends also serves to drain the lake at its southeast corner, at the city of Lecco; many tributaries flow into the Adda along its course, forming the numerous north-south valleys that intersect the main Valtellina artery. From the Adda source in the Stelvio National Park on the border, to the northeast of the lake on the border with Switzerland, the wide valley makes its way down entrance on Lake Como. Due to its key position at the foot of several mountain passes it came to be an important trade corridor: perhaps something of a surprise considering its location, wine has been its principal export product for many centuries. Here a variant of the Nebbiolo grape, the same used for Piedmont's noble Barolo and Barbaresco, is grown extensively on the high terraces that line the valley. The wine is superb, a worthy comparison to its more renowned Langhe cousins.

Aside from wine exportation, however, the valley until recently had developed very few other business enterprises. Its vicinity to the Bernina and other alpine passes to the north meant that there was a certain extent of commerce; however the great majority of Valtellina residents continued to work the land as their ancestors had until the middle of last century. The Grigioni family, long-time rulers of the valley, regarded the Valtellina as their personal vineyard and thus did little to promote other business or agricultural affairs of their subjects, not to mention personal, religious or political liberties. During adverse climatic conditions, during times of war or pestilence, valley residents suffered immensely, many emigrating. The 19th century was a particularly disastrous period, after two cholera epidemics, a 'mini-ice age' cooling and the destruction of 90% of their vines by disease (wine producing was still by far the greatest export). The then sovereigns, the Austrian Habsburgs, sponsored a lottery to give aid to the region, and asked the Empire's brightest economic minds to help Valtellina emerge from its crisis. So dire was the situation in fact that Austrian newspapers referred to the region as the "Irish Lombardy".