Читать книгу Through the Italian Alps. The GTA - The Grande Traversata delle Alpi онлайн

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That chain is succeeded by the Cottian Alps, or Alpi Cozie, beginning in Valle Stura and boasting the spectacular isolated 3841m Monviso (Monte Viso), clearly visible from the city of Turin in northwest Italy. Bound for Cuneo by train D.W. Freshfield wrote (1880): ‘The rich vineyards and campanili of the plain form a shifting foreground, while against the sky towers, solitary and sublime, the noble pyramid of Monte Viso, fulfilling beyond all other Alpine peaks our childhood’s ideal of a mountain’. At its foot is the 465ha Riserva Naturale Speciale Pian del Re, encompassing the source of Italy’s most important river – the Po – then extending the entire course of the waterway. The Monviso is composed of relatively young metamorphic rock with a good percentage of so-called ‘greenstone’, while the southern reaches of the Cottians mean a predominance of limestone. Here lies the Gran Bosco di Salbertrand; 70% of this forestry reserve is cloaked in magnificent fir and larch woodland, and is home to a large deer population. The Cottian range purportedly took its name from Marcus Julius Cottius, a contemporary of Augustus and Roman ruler of the Susa valley, which marks their border with the neighbours.