The total length of the roads in the mountain valleys of Ticino is about 5,000 kilometers. Most of them were built 300 years ago to drive cattle from the villages in the valley to the alpine pastures in summer, because the narrow valleys held insufficient pastureland. The fields in the steep terrain retaining walls also had to be built to prevent the heavy rains from washing away the soil. It is these paths, which people built out of economic necessity of that time, which enable us to reach certain areas in these mountains. ...

Since one cannot reach these alpine pastures without great physical effort, has finally led to their abandonment and assures these silent witnesses of human efforts the necessary peace for a slow but dignified death.