Codera: Italy's Remote Village Accessible Only on Foot

Codera, a hamlet in Lombardy's Val Codera at 825 meters altitude, is reachable only via the "Mulattiera delle Scale," a 2,500-step path from Novate Mezzola. The village, with about ten permanent residents, is a remnant of the picapréda (stonecutter) community that quarried Sanfedelino granite from the 11th century until the 1960s. The granite boom began in the 18th century when Milan lost access to Baveno quarries; by the early 1900s, over 82,000 tons were extracted in five years. Today, Codera's population includes 94-year-old Alfonsina and a 40-year-old shepherd. Roberto, president of the Friends of Val Codera association, runs an ethnographic museum and fights depopulation. The trek to Rifugio Brasca, managed by Mirco (geologist) and Elisabetta (psychotherapist), takes four hours one way. The refuge, built in 1934 and burned by German soldiers in 1944, serves homemade pasta and bread baked in a solar oven. The area also hosts the clandestine Aquile Randagie scout group's history.