Acquafraggia (also Acqua Fraggia) is a short and frequently steep torrente

Torrente

Torrente may refer to:* Torrent, Valencia, a municipality located within the metropolitan area of the city of the Spanish city Valencia* Torrente , a Parisian haute couture fashion house founded by designer Rosette Torrente-Mett in 1969; current creative director Julien Fournie* Gonzalo Torrente...

, or seasonal stream, of the province of Sondrio

Province of Sondrio

The Province of Sondrio is in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the town of Sondrio.It has an area of 3,212 km², and a total population of 176,856...

 in Lombardy

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...

, north Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.

Its source is on Pizzo del Lago, at an elevation of 3,050 metres, on the north side of the Val Bregaglia

Val Bregaglia

The Val Bregaglia or Bergell Tal is an alpine valley of Switzerland and Italy at the base of which runs the river Mera River...

 and close to the Swiss

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 border which here marks the limit of the Po

Po River

The Po |Ligurian]]: Bodincus or Bodencus) is a river that flows either or – considering the length of the Maira, a right bank tributary – eastward across northern Italy, from a spring seeping from a stony hillside at Pian del Re, a flat place at the head of the Val Po under the northwest face...

 drainage basin

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

. From here it flows in a southwesterly direction within the territory of the commune

Comune

In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

 of Piuro

Piuro

Piuro is a comune in the Province of Sondrio in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 100 km north of Milan and about 40 km northwest of Sondrio, on the border with Switzerland...

 until it joins the Mera

Mera River

The Mera is a river in Switzerland and Italy. Its source is near the Maloja Pass, in Graubünden, Switzerland. It flows west through the Val Bregaglia and crosses the Italian border near Soglio...

 as a right tributary at the locality of Borgonuovo, a little upstream from Chiavenna and the mouth of the Val Bregaglia.

At an early point of its course the stream forms the lake of Acqua Fraggia at an elevation of 2,043 metres; it then runs through two hanging valleys of glacial origins, emerging from each in a series of waterfalls, which were noted by Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...

 in the Codex Atlanticus

Codex Atlanticus

The Codex Atlanticus is a twelve-volume, bound set of drawings and writings by Leonardo da Vinci, the largest such set; its name indicates its atlas-like breadth. It comprises 1,119 leaves dating from 1478 to 1519, the contents covering a great variety of subjects, from flight to weaponry to...

. This has been a protected area

Protected area

Protected areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognised natural, ecological and/or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the enabling laws of each country or the regulations of the international...

since 1983.