Moesano — Mesolcina
Websites in Lostallo
A village of trades: building, joinery, farming — and a salmon farm
Photograph: Adrian Michael CC BY-SA 3.0
- Altitude
- 439 m
- Hamlets
- Cabbiolo and Sorte
- Economy
- Building, joinery, farming and livestock
- From Bellinzona
- About 23 km
01
Lostallo sits at 439 metres on the right bank of the Moesa, with the hamlets of Cabbiolo and Sorte. Cabbiolo has the grotti and the patrician houses, and the oratory of San Nicolao built in 1611; the church of San Giorgio has been documented since 1219.
The village economy is made of real trades: farming and livestock — including a salmon farm, which is not common for an alpine valley — building firms, joineries, and a hydroelectric plant. Work done with the hands and sold on trust.
For businesses like these, word of mouth has always worked. It still works, but for some years now it has taken a different route: the name arrives from a friend, and the first thing that person does is look you up online.
02
Word of mouth is not dead — it just goes a different way
A tradesman in Lostallo gets his name passed on over the phone, and at that moment the part he does not control begins: that person searches. Find nothing, and the doubt sets in on its own; find four photographs of good work and a number to call, and the call gets made.
It does not take a big website. It takes one that answers three questions in a minute: what you can do, what you have already done, and how to ask you for a quote.
03 — In practice, here
The portfolio is your trade
Photographs of finished work with two lines saying what it was and how long it took. Worth more than any company profile.
Quotes get asked for on the site
A form with the right questions cuts out wasted phone calls: measurements, materials and timings written down before you even speak.
Cabbiolo and Sorte exist
People often search the hamlet by name. If the site never names them, those searches are lost.