Vellano, located in Valle Morobbia (or, as it is locally often called, "Val Morobbia"), is a part of the community Sant'Antonio, which is made up of five "frazioni": Vellano, Carmena, Melera, Melirolo, Carena. All the frazioni are located on the north side of the valley (that is, the sunny side!); Vellano is about midway between Giubiasco and Carena, and easily reached by post bus starting from the Bellinzona train station.

The Val Morobbia region has many hiking trails, many hikeable mountains. A particularly well-known trail is "la Via del Ferro" ("the iron trail"), which runs through the upper part of the valley and was once a link between local iron mines and Maglio di Carena (the Carena forge), where the ore was first smelted and then forged into iron items, and beyond to Giubiasco. The forge has been recently excavated by an archeology group, and now has a number of interpretive signs.

Here are a few useful links:

• Ticino listing in Wikipedia
• Ticino webcams, for those who want to see what the weather is like at any given moment. Some specifically helpful links:
  • Two views of the southern St. Gotthard entrance, looking north towards the entrance and south away from it.
  • A view of the northern St. Gotthard entrance, looking at the south-bound traffic.
• Weather forecast for Bellinzona. To approximate the predicted temperature in Vellano, look at Airolo's, too, and take an average...or, now, you can directly get the forecast for Sant'Antonio.
• Trail guide (including map) of part of la Via del Ferro, in four languages (Italian, German, French, English).
• If you're using Google Earth, the Vellano bus stop can be found at 46 10'07.84" N 9 03'25.39" E. The east edge of Vellano is marked in the "Google Earth Community" layer.

...and some photos to share. These are a bit big; most are 6 megapixel, so I've reduced resolution a bit on most of them to keep them under 1 MB.

• A beautiful double rainbow, seen 15 June 2007 from the eastern edge of Vellano, looking towards Valmaggina, across Val Morobbia. The eastern flank of Camoghe is there on the right. (thanks, and photo credit to: Steffen Jünger)
• The Carmena dam that provides hydroelectic power.
• View of the Vellano bus stop
• On the way towards Chiesa Sant'Antonio
• Chiesa Sant'Antonio entrance
• View west from near the top of Vellano, towards Lago Maggiore in the distance
• A view across the Val Morrobia, from more-or-less the southern edge of Vellano
• One of Vellano's small pedestrian ways
• The small square near Mary's shrine
• A Vellano house that features a large scale model train
• View from the east end of Vellano towards Passo San Jorio, in winter (01 January 2006)
• View of the ruins of il Maglio di Carena
• One of the many shrines that can be found in and around Vellano

A collection of "house names" in Vellano.

And last but not least, my Virtual Vellano project.