Rossa – Pizzo Tracciora

II Pizzo Tracciora is one of Valsesia’s best-known and most popular mountains, thanks to its gentle, rounded shapes, accessibility and central location that offers a splendid 360-degree view of the entire Valley.The itinerary in the first section is part of the Art Trail.

From the central square of the village of Rossa, 813m, take the comfortable mule track that in a short ascent leads to the locality of Vaz, 950m where, on the left begins itinerary 401 that leads to the hamlet of Rainero. Continue straight through meadows and cultivated fields and you reach the hamlet Piana, 1050m, surrounded by two pretty little churches dedicated to St. John the Baptist.

Continuing inside the forest, you climb to Alpe Sella, 1170m and later to Alpe Selletto, 1266m, where stands the “Sleeping Lord Chapel,” so called because of the lying position of the statue of the Redeemer that is placed inside. Right here there has been a conservation intervention by the “Ancient Mountain, Mountain to be Saved” Commission.

Advancing further through pastures and woods, we move to Alpe Barbughera, 1403m, Alpe Suaroli, and Alpe Campello, 1552m, a vantage point over the Monte Rosa Massif. Continuing on, you enter the forest and transit to “Sass del Bech,” 1650m, finally exiting into the pastures divided between Alpe Prato Bianco di Sotto, 1717m, and Alpe Prato Bianco di Sopra, 1809m, which are named for the wonderful bloom of mountain lilies, aconite-leaved buttercups, and other beautiful species of alpine flora that cover them in spring and summer.
Continue on the grassy hillside and with an increasingly gentler slope you reach the summit of Pizzo Tracciora, 1917m, marked by a cross and a memorial stone erected in 1967 to mark the centenary of the CAI section of Varallo.

From here there is an extensive panorama sweeping over the upper Mastallone Valley, the Sermenza Valley and the chain of the Western Alps with Monte Rosa in the foreground.