First consideration of the name Sommarovina doesn’t exactly set the heart beating with hope anew, nor does it suggest in the slightest the beauty of the landscape and environment all around. However the reality is somewhat less of a catastrophe, as the place name does not actually refer to devastation on a grand scale, rather a small community situated at a top of a slope noted for mere landslides. The name derives in similar fashion to that of Cimaganda or Sommaganda, noted centuries ago indicating a habitation which sits at the top of a ‘ganda’, that is to say the geological form produced following a collapse or rock-fall. The dialect form is Samaroina, where the “u” from the Latin “summa” has been replaced by an “a”, just as Samolaco was derived from the original “summus lacus”. Regardless of its actual name, Sommarovina is certainly in an enviable position, with views rarely surpassed throughout the valley: from way up high it dominates the whole of Italian Bregaglia and much of the valley fl oor. It occupies a position half-way up the Lepontine valley side, at slightly below 1000 metres in height and became a permanent habitation as early as the mid 15th century, when having previously represented summer pasture it was adopted as an all-yearround community. It was to remain precisely that until postwar Italy fi ve centuries later. Today the village serves for summer stays and the ancient houses, which encircle the church of San Giacomo – consecrated in 1677 have become holiday homes. The place has a fascinating history of emigration. Really rather special because of the nature of the work undertaken by those leaving. The population by and large took to the Austrian road and in particular to Vienna and its surrounding area, where they applied themselves as chimney-sweeps, not unlike others in the small Swiss towns in valleys to the west. You need only visit the cemetery to appreciate the phenomenon. The inscriptions within bear witness: “dedicated to fellowcountrymen / in Austria and Hungary, in the year 1886”. The chapel at the heart of the village was constructed in 1768 and was decorated with ‘il Guidizio Universale’ probably by Giovan Giacomo Rieg di Somvix of the Grigions, a work of the utmost simplicity, almost naif , but striking and of considerable signifi cance – and only very recently restored courtesy of the Centro studi storici valchiavennaschi.