Restoration of Pratosaiano’s Road and Impact on Ancient Olive Trees

One year ago, while counting the days until the opening of the ring road, another topic briefly diverted attention from the main issue. There was a debate about how to restore the inter-farm road network of Pratosaiano, which had been partly sacrificed to the passage of the urban road, without damaging the large boulder that stands alone among the vineyards north of the village.

The story of the boulder and recent works

Testament to the glacial era that gave origin to the Sarca Valley, the boulder was supposed to be excavated to widen and straighten the small road that had wound around it for eons. Many opposed this solution, including the environmental councilor of the municipality, Fabrizio Miori, who ultimately succeeded in obtaining a revision of the original plan.

Today, the inter-farm road is almost finished: tall dry stone walls line the first hundred meters excavated into the countryside, from the Pratosaiano road to the famous boulder, which now appears larger and grayer than ever. As one commentates: it had to be uprooted to make way for the roadway passing in front of it, no longer behind it, and three beautiful olive trees have been uprooted to clear the way.

The olive trees and implications

For decades, they had enhanced the appearance of the boulder beneath which the farmers had planted them, for aesthetic reasons and for economic sense. You can’t have everything: the road, the millennia-old rock, the olive trees… but some wonder whether the integrity of the stone was worth the lives of three healthy, productive trees, which were protected by a regulation from the 1930s, an old law that was never repealed and perhaps not even superseded.