Among the many "wonders" of Monte Rosa is also gold.
Not only the gold in the rivers which in ancient times urged golddiggers to move away from lowlands along the valleys and to venture as fas as the impressive glaciers and the rocky ravines, but also the gold locked like a treasure in the most secret and darkest of caskets, in the rocks and deposits of auriferous pyrites emerging from beneath the layers of gneiss and mica-schists which vein this large mountain.
The ancient gold mines of Mount Rosa (the most famous ones being near San Carlo in Anzasca Valley and, higher up the mountain, those of Pestarena in the Macugnaga territory) not only allow one to admire an "extraordinary" history of natural metamorphosis, but are also proof of a by no means less "extraordinary" history of the laborious work carried out by man.
The gold mine of Guia is an ideal place for a fascinating approach to the history of mining and of its technology.
The Guia Gold Mine is the first gold mine in the Alps open to educational visits and tourist excursions; it is the first "mine-museum" in Italy: the guided visit allows one to see and personally experience how, with what tools, what techniques and in what conditions, work was carried out in the gold mines of Mount Rosa.
The visit to the mine lasts approximately 45 minutes. The route that can be visited has a length of approximately 1.5km there and back. The visit is on a single floor which is also accessible to disabled people.
