A walk to Fiumelatte

Fiumelatte is a small village on the eastern shore of Lake Como at the base of Monte Fopp. There you can see a river of the same name that is about 250 meters long and it is one of the shortest watercourses in Italy. In fact, the sign placed at near the river, which proudly indicates it as the shortest in our country, is incorrect. The record is held by the river Aril, a tributary of Lake Garda that is 175 meters long.

However, there is something unique about Fiumelatte. Numerous mysteries and legends have been told about its milky and foaming waters (that's why it has the name "milk-river").

In order to dive into the enigmas of this river, a premise is necessary: ​​Fiumelatte is a seasonal torrent. In fact, its waters flow for six months a year, appearing almost magically around the end of March and then mysteriously disappearing in the month of October. Its intermittent gushing captured the curiosity of famous personalities in ancient times, from the Roman general Plinio il Vecchio to the Renaissance genius Leonardo Da Vinci who, on sheet 214 of his Codex Atlanticus, describes it with these words: "It is the Fiumelaccio, which falls from more than 100 arm lengths from the vein from which it was born, plumb on the lake, with inestimable uproar and noise". Over the years countless naturalists and geologists have tried to give a scientific explanation to this suggestive phenomenon, without reaching an unequivocal and definitive conclusion. That is probably why the few meters that separate the moment in which the river rises in a small cave hidden by thick vegetation, from the moment in which it rushes tumultuously into Lake Como, have become the source of various popular legends. The best known tells of the decision of a blonde girl with clear eyes who, not knowing how to choose between her three suitors, revealed that she would become the wife of the one who managed to discover the origin of the Fiumelatte. According to one of the numerous versions through which this story has been handed down, the young men accepted but returned only after a few weeks, completely insane, mute and with white hair, until they died prematurely in the grip of anguish. The protagonists of a second legend are three friars who entered the Fiumelatte cave as they wanted to discover its origin, despite the fact that the locals had advised them not to do so. And they were right. After a few days, in fact, their sandals emerged from the waters of the river, while nothing was known of the probable macabre end of their bodies.

In short, a walk to Fiumelatte can be a good idea for a naturalistic excursion on Lake Como between March and October, without entering its mysterious cave though, unless you want to completely lose your mind ...