Bondone

Overlooking the waters of Lake Idro, the municipality of Bondone is located at the south-western end of Trentino, on the border with Lombardy. Entered in 2018 among the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy, this small town in the Chiese valley was for centuries inhabited exclusively by charcoal burners, who obtained the precious fuel from the wood of the forests in the area. Even today this municipality remembers the ancient trade in its statute, and in the main square stands a monument commemorating the hard work of the charcoal burner. The village is a labyrinth of paved streets, with numerous frescoes on the façades of the houses that narrate the inhabitants' devotion to the Madonna, who, according to legend, placated the plague epidemic that struck Bondone between 1628 and 1630, also recounted by Manzoni in his Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed). The 14th-century parish church of the Nativity is worth visiting, as is Castel San Giovanni, an ancient fortress of the Counts Lodron from the 11th century, now an exhibition centre.