Palazzo Besta in Teglio, and Sondrio - a day trip

The prosaic reason for our visit to Sondrio is to pick up some things Andrea bought on ebay, but it seems like an excellent opportunity for a proper visit to a city we have only seen briefly before. It’s not far from where we live, but getting there involves going up a winding road to Aprica pass, down the other side where there are even more bends, and then a stretch of straight but very busy road where queues can accumulate. We park in Sondrio handy for picking up the goods, but it also turns out to be near to the centre. The outskirts of Sondrio, as with any city, verge on the mundane if not gritty but the historical centre looks promising.  The heart of the city is Piazza Garibaldi, a spacious square with a statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi, flanked by caffès and hotels. We also have a look inside the Collegiata dei SS. Gervasio e Protasio. Just opposite is Palazzo Pretorio with a beautiful arched courtyard.

After a stroll there, we got to the MVSA - Museo Valtellinese di Storia ed Arte, a small but interesting museum focused on local history and art. The archaeological section, with artifacts from the Bronze Age and Roman times is in the basement, an atmospheric dungeon type place, while the upper floors host a collection of sacred art, an exhibition of traditional costumes, and there’s also a section of modern and contemporary art.

The ticket isn’t expensive although we have got the Lombardy annual card so it’s free for us and also includes a visit to the CAST - il CAstello delle STorie di montagna. It’s late August and the castle is decidedly uphill from the centre but it sounds promising – a museum about rock climbing. It’s quite hot and tiring walking up Salita Ligari. Castello Masegra is nice, although one tends to see a lot of castles and this is nothing special. The museum is mostly empty – it’s a multimedia experience that I don’t see the point of. I could watch something like that online from the comfort of my home. 

Or are we just hungry? We have looked for a ‘pranzo di Lavoro' and found one with glowing reviews. The position is pleasant near the river, but the food is canteen-like. Pesto out of a jar. Disappointing. After lunch we stroll a little more around the historical centre which is nice, old buildings, clean, some green areas and then go back to the car for the next stage in our journey.

Teglio has been internationally certified as a Città Slow. At 900 meters above sea level, it is the village that gives its name to the Valtellina and is situated on the south-facing slopes of the valley in a sunny and panoramic position. The road is good and we are soon parking. Teglio is more tourist-friendly. There are lots of restaurants offering typical food of the area such as pizzoccheri and bresaola, and we probably should have eaten there. We wander around for a while, enjoying the sun at an altitude which makes it pleasant and warming, and then go to look for Palazzo Besta, the main reason for our visit.

Palazzo Besta is one of the most beautiful renaissance palaces in Lombardy. It was built at the turn of the 15th century and decorated and transformed into a Renaissance court hosting artists, writers and philosophers. The ground floor hosts the Antiquarium Tellinum but one of the most striking parts is the internal courtyard with two rows of arches supported by columns and frescoes on the upper loggia depicting scenes from the Aeneid.

One of our favourite things is on the second floor - the stüa - a wood panelled room with an elegant Renaissance wood burner would have been warm and snug in the winter – temperature plummets in this area of the Alps.  The wood pannelled ceilings,  the Room of Creation on the first floor, with a cycle of frescoes portraying stories from the Genesis and on the second floor Late Middle Ages and Renaissance fresco cycles from various Valtellina sites mean that the visit takes a while. 

Palazzo Besta is a very pleasant surprise, unique in this mountain context, and well worth a visit if you are heading north along the Valtellina to Bormio and the ski slopes or to Tirano to take the Bernina Express.

It's been a nice day, time to take our winding road home...