La Calà del Sasso: it could be defined as a stream where the steps run and not the water. Or, and perhaps this is the best way, like a long stone staircase. The longest in Italy still viable and among the longest in the world with its 4444 steps for a total of about seven kilometers of steps and a difference in height of over 700 meters. We are located in the province of Vicenza, where this very particular work of road architecture connects the Valsugana with the Altopiano dei Sette Comuni. Starting from the hamlet, downstream, of Valstagna and arriving at that, upstream, of Sasso d 'Asiago. An ancient and fascinating work, immersed in the green of the plateau, among shady woods because, especially in some places, the vegetation is very dense.
Ancient path of descent of the trunks, today it has become a fascinating historical-naturalistic path
However, the Calà del Sasso was not created to invite you to take a walk or a naturalistic excursion, but for practical purposes. Are between 1388 and 1392 when it was decided to build this communication route to transport timber from the mountains to the plains. The 4444 steps - two meters wide - of this particular staircase (originally they were only 4422 but in 1498, following the lowering of the bed of the Ronchi torrent, a further flight of 22 steps was added) are in fact flanked by a stone that in ancient times was used precisely for the transport of large and heavy tree trunks downhill, thanks to the slope which in some places is quite significant. These were the years of the dominion of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, but the use of the staircase was also providential in the following centuries, especially by the Venetians. Because the large loads of timber that were used to supply the Serenissima departed from here too. Once they reached the valley, they took the Via del Brenta towards Venice. Destination the great shipyard of the Arsenale, where galleys and boats were built.
The channel was a kind of stone slide for the logs that the lumberjacks could control by descending the ladder. The steps, made of stone and pebbles, are still present today and together represent, once the commercial function has been lost, a historical-naturalistic itinerary of great interest and a certain charm. Particularly in autumn, when in these parts the color of the vegetation takes on extraordinary shades. The name Calà derives from the verb “to descend”, to descend, linked to the specific use for which this particular path was born. But, as the Italian Alpine Club recalls, popular imagination over time has given the route various names: Bretella dell'Altopiano, Scala del diavolo, Via del contbbando, Strada per Venezia, also Via dei tre rosari, for the time it took. to follow it.
The legend of two lovers linked to what has been called "one of the most fantastic works in the Alps"
And listening to the tales of popular imagination, a particular legend is linked to the Calà dedicated to two lovers of Sasso d'Asiago, Loretta and Nicolò. When the couple was close to marriage, Loretta, expecting a baby, fell ill. Nicolò went down the Calà and headed to Padua in search of medicines. The inhabitants of Sasso also came down from the Calà when they no longer saw him return while Loretta's conditions worsened. But behold, in the darkness of the staircase, the torches of Nicolò and the men of Valstagna appear, accompanying him uphill with the medicines. Loretta recovered and married her Nicolò. Even today it is said that if two lovers walk the whole staircase together by the hand, their love will last forever.
From the fantasy of popular legends to the intense words that the writer Paul Rumiz dedicated to this ancient road, where so much humanity has passed. Even the one that fought the First World War on these mountains. "It is as long as a purgatory - writes - dark as the storm, the staircase that takes you ... up there on the Asiago plateau ... It is called Calà del Sasso and is one of the most fantastic works of the Alps ... The most secret, the most beautiful, the most direct, the most alpine ...". Every year in August the Calà, almost unique example of daring work of human engineering, is the scene of a suggestive historical torchlight procession.
(ph credit: Asiago.it)
