Descrizione

The walk begins at the hospice of the Sempione, the New Hospice. It is a severe and massive building: it has the forms of the barracks that Napoleon had begun to build. Purchased in 1825 by the Augustinian canons of the Gran San Bernardo, it was adapted to a convent and a place of hospitality. It is located on an ancient path already frequented in prehistoric times. In the lower valley, the Old Hospice, known as Alter Spittel, was founded in 1235 by the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem at the behest of the Bishop of Zion, Landric de Mont (circa 1206 - before 10 April 1237) He built a chapel dedicated to Saint James and a hospice for travellers. The building was rebuilt in 1666 at the behest of Baron Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper.
The long building, further down on the plateau, was used as a depot and had stables for horses and warehouses for goods in transit. The way of the Sempione that went up from Brig and led to Domodossola was made someggiabile by the baron in the seventeenth century and helped to form his great fortune with the salt trade. Along this route, Napoleon had a military and commercial route planned and opened, connecting Paris to Milan. The current route follows its route and leads to the upper Val d'Ossola, along the left hydrographic Diveria. Following the words Stockalperweg (trail n. 90), from Passo del Sempione you begin to descend, keeping always in the valley floor, more or less distant from the cantonal road. The path winds through one of the most suggestive valleys of the Ossola: from the Sempione among the green prairies, the peat bogs, through the traces of the ancient mule track and the sheep track that follows the Napoleonic Road with the small Walser nuclei, continue to Nideralp, Chiusmatte, Engiloch on the beautiful mule track that winds alongside the state road you cross the pastures of Maschihus and you get to Egga you reach the village of Simplon Dorf with the solid stone houses and the Ecomuseum of Sempione. From here the path descends to Gabi where there are the ruins of an ancient warehouse for storing goods, you pass the exciting Gorges to get to Gondo, crossing the Forte tunnel.
The Alte Kaserne Museum with the documentation of the streets of the Sempione from Roman times to our days is of great importance . From Alte Kaserme begins an exciting path with metal walkways and air bridges that cross the narrow Gorges of Gondo. You cross to the military fort of Gondo and finally you reach Gondo place border with Italy.