Dosso Valley, Como Province, Lombardy, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Dosso Valley	Valley
Como Province	Province
Lombardy	Region
Italy	Country

Formely known as Mugiam Valley (Val Mugiam), it almost entirely belongs to the municipal territory of Dosso del Liro. This wilderness area, located west of Dosso del Liro village, is the left-side branch of the main Liro Valley (the right branch is known as San Jorio Valley), which ends at the northwestern corner of Lake Como, near the small town of Gravedona.

The upper Dosso Valley is surrounded by a ring of peaks, including (from east to west) Monte Durìa (2264 m), Costa degli Orsi, Pizzo Campanile (2459 m), Pizzo Caurga (2419 m), Pizzo Martello or Piz Martel (2450 m), Mater de Paia (2482 m), and Monte Cardinello (2520 m), that divides it from Darengo Valley (Como Province) to the east, Bodengo Valley (Sondrio Province) and Cama Valley (Val Mesolcina/Misox, Grisons, Switzerland) to the north, and Grono Valley (Val Mesolcina/Misox, Grisons, Switzerland) to the west.

From the car park at Pian Castagno it takes two hours to reach Alpe Madri (1293 m a.s..l), situated at the beginning of the upper valley, where mineral collectors can start looking for typical minerals of this area.

The most typical minerals occur in pegmatites that are part of the so-called Bodengo pegmatite area, a large region including the upper portions of a series of valleys (Leggia and Cama valleys, Moesa, Graubünden, Switzerland; Bodengo, Soè and Garzelli valleys, Sondrio Province, Lombardy, Italy; Dosso, Darengo, and Bares valleys, Como Province, Lombardy, Italy) located between the Mesolcina (west) and Mera (east) valleys, Southern Steep Belt of the Central Alps.

As in the neighbouring valleys the pegmatite dykes are embedded in migmatites. Most of the pegmatite dykes are located above 2000 m a.s.l. The main collecting places for pegmatite minerals are the Mater de Paia area, the Pizzo Martello area, and Costa degli Orsi (between Pizzo Campanile and Passo dell'Orso).

Kyanite- and sillimanite-bearing schists and amphibolites sometimes occur.

Fossils

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Localities in this Region

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References