Overview
The village is the last in the north along the upper Non Valley, before the dominant language switches from Italian to German, and is in a crucial position because it is at the crossroads of the state roads leading to the Mèndola/Mendel and Palade/Gampen passes, both towards Alto Adige-Südtirol, and the Tonale pass towards Lombardy. But Fondo is interesting in itself, for the buildings with late fifteenth-century frescoes on the theme of the pilgrimage to San Giacomo di Compostela, the water clock in a display case in the main square that also indicates the position of the Sun in the Zodiac and the lunar phases, the parish church of San Martino, and above all, the small church of San Lucia on a hill just outside the town, with late thirteenth-century frescoes that are the work of a late-Gothic itinerant painter.
When it comes to nature, you shouldn't miss the Tret waterfall upstream of the village, to be approached with care because the path from below can be challenging, and a walk to the Pradiei, crossing meadows and fields between Fondo and Romeno. The latter had been the home of the 18th-century painter Giovanni Battista Lampi, to be mentioned by name and surname as an invitation to visit his frescoes and altarpiece in the Church of the Assumption in the village, works executed respectively before and after the Habsburgs and Catherine of Russia commissioned him as a portrait painter.
In the upper valley, however, there are other small Italian-speaking towns to consider, from Cavareno to Sarnonico and Ronzone, names undeservedly unknown to mass tourism and with fine artistic endowments but certainly inferior to the natural attractions. This is why they should be preserved for as long as possible.
38013 Fondo TN, Italia
