GURRO
One can reach Gurro either starting from Cannobio (if one comes from lake Maggiore) or from Malesco (if one comes from the Vigezzo valley). The old town (14th-17th centuries) consists of characteristic alleys and houses with large wooden loggias: a typical example is the Casa di San Carlo, where Carlo Borromeo spent one night in 1574. Not far from Gurro, a small Roman necropolis (3rd century a.d.) was found and its finds are kept at the Galletti Museum in Domodossola.
THE MUSEUM
The Ethnographic Museum of the Cannobina valleys in Gurro shows the costumes and traditions of the whole valley: clothes, laces, toys, pottery, wool and butter processing tools.
Let's go into an old house. In the kitchen we find the cupboard, the box for the provisions, the wooden dishes, the bowl where they ate polenta and milk, the spoons, the kitchen spoon, the bucket for water, the floor made with "piode".
Wooden bed with bedheads and edges; several engraved cradles; beech leaves mattress; a "drappone", typical blanket with hand spun hemp warp; quilt; hemp sheets; box for linen. The window, decorated with a double series of embroidered curtains, is also very interesting.
The Museum shows several tools, mainly made of wood, for craftwork, for the furnishing of the house, for farming. Among them the spinning tools, the loom, the combing tools, distaffs, spindles, spools, a spinning-wheel.
In the Museum one can see many traditional costumes of the valley, varying from village to village, with skirts, pleated underskirts of different colours, shawls, hemp shirts, the typical "peduli", embroideries and laces... There are also several fine embroidered linen items and it is possible to consult a photographical collection of ancient costumes.
Text of Cirillo Bergamaschi.
