The white spruce

In 1959, during the municipal elections in Moio dè Calvi, a magistrate serving in Bergamo took advantage of his free time to explore the Brembana Valley. On Monday, seeing the quiet polling station, he wandered toward Roncobello and, walking through the spring forest, reached a clearing where he encountered the majestic “Aès” fir tree. While observing the tree, an elderly mountain man arrived with whom he struck up a conversation. The man told him the story of a young shepherd who, in the early 1900s, had carved his own name on the trunk of the fir tree. Later called to war as an Alpine soldier, he died on the front. In later years, when it was decided to cut down the forest, the boy's father asked the workers to spare that tree, a symbol of his lost son, and bought it to prevent its felling. The fir tree was thus saved and still stands today on the Roncobello trail, a testament to affection, memory and the deep feeling that also animated the simple people of the valleys.