COMMUNES AND VILLAGES

The territory is comprised of numerous small communes, such as Corippo, as well as towns of some considerable size, such as Tenero-Contra, nestling in a landscape that stretches from the banks of the lake through plains and hilly vineyards right up to the mountain tops.
One of the particular features is that some of the communes, such as Lavertezzo and Gerra Verzasca, are made up of a number of separate settlements at considerably different altitudes. The reason for this is that, in the past, their inhabitants used to practise a form of farming known as transhumance – spending the winter down in the plain and moving higher up the valley and onto alpine pastures for the spring and summer.