| Facts | CAMPELLO | ||
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Deep in the mountain under the village of Campello Alp Transit are excavating the worlds longest rail tunnel. This project that is due to be finished in 2016. When complete the majority of commercial traffic that currently travels through Switzerland via the St Gottard and then by motorway to Italy will be taken by rail through the Alp Transit tunnel thereby reducing the amount of vehicular traffic that uses the motorway in the Leventina Valley.
The village of Carì boasts several ski runs and a ski school in season. In 2002 a new ski lift was erected taking skiers to the slopes and Restaurant Belvedere. 2003 saw the opening of a second ski lift that takes one even higher. During the summer many walkers pass through whilst walking the Strada Alta , a beautiful walk through northern Ticino. |
Campello is a beautiful village situated in the Leventina valley, 1370 metres above sea level, on the eastern side of the Ticino river, high above Faido. It sits on the side of the mountain like a balcony and from it one can see beautiful panoramic views across and down the middle Leventina Valley and then northwards to the snow covered Alps. Deep in the valley runs the main Zurich to Milan railway line and the motorway, which, 20 km further north, exits from the mouth of the St Gottard tunnel and continues southwards towards Italy. The village of Campello is small with la population of less than 59 (December 2004); many of these people are related to the Diviani family. In its heyday in the 1800 there were over 450 adults counted as living there. Today there is only the parish church dedicated to Saint Margherita and the 3 Cervi restaurant and hotel that is owned and run by brothers Jean and Pierre Brentini and their families. The Casa Comunale (the equivalent of a small Town Hall) of Campello sits in the centre of the village close to the church. It is the administrative centre of Campello and also of Carì another much larger village situated even higher up the mountain. Here ancient documents relating the Comune, the villages and the inhabitants are stored together with civil records pertaining to births, marriages and deaths for the locality. Prior to 1856 the administration of Campello was joined with that of Calpiogna. The Catholic church of Saint Margherita sits at the heart of Campello. The white painted building was erected in the mid 19th Century and underwent modernisation at the end of the 20th Century. St Margherita has modern stained glass in its chancel together with a spectacular mural on the wall behind the altar. Mass is said weekly throughout the summer and fortnightly in winter when a visiting priest from Faido attends. Prior to the building of the new church of Saint Margherita there was a small chapel in Campello linked to the mother church of St Atanasio in Calpiogna and families would have worshipped there on a daily basis but attended the parish church in Calpiogna for weekly services, baptisms, marriages and burials, the parish records of which go back to the early 1600s. In Campello there is a beautiful well tended small cemetery that was opened in 1847 to the north of the church with many memorials to members of the Diviani and Brentini families. |
