The Ossola [ˈɔssola] (also Valle Ossola or Val d’Ossola) is an area of Italy situated to the north of Lago Maggiore. It lies within the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola. Its principal river is the Toce, and its most important town Domodossola.
It is composed of one main valley (the Ossola proper) and seven side valleys: Anzasca, Antrona, Bognanco, Divedro, Antigorio, Formazza, Isorno and Vigezzo. It also includes parts of the Val Grande National Park, Italy’s largest wilderness area.
There are many etymological claims as to the origins of the name Ossola. The most likely is from the Celtic "hoch hill", which means "high lands". The German name for the valley is Eschental ("valley of the ash trees").
In 1944, with the Allied forces still stuck south of the Apennines and Benito Mussolini's Italian Social Republic controlling all of Northern Italy, the Italian partisans staged an uprising behind German lines, led by the Committee of National Liberation of Upper Italy. This rebellion led to the establishment of a number of provisional partisan governments throughout Northern Italy, of which the Free Republic of Ossola was the most prominent. It received official recognition from Switzerland and from Allied consulates in Switzerland. Within a few weeks, German reinforcements had crushed the uprising, and the area's liberation had to wait until the final offensives of 1945.
There's a house down on the corner
That we always used to talk about
Never had the guts to go inside
Not even on a dare
Boarded up and creepy
Scary eyes looked out upon a sleepy town
Fascination kept us guessin'
Why the sign read to beware?
We always knew just
What would hit the fan
If we got an up close look
At the boogie man
Shadows on the wall
Voices in the hall, oh, yeah
There's more than just a mouse
In the Zavelow House
Zavelow, Zavelow, Zavelow, yo
I could look inside the window
If I jumped upon my trampoline
Could've sworn I saw Hannibal Lichter
With a hatchet and a head
Not the kind of place you'd see
In Better Homes and Gardens magazine
Unless they did an expose
On the night of the living dead
But with a pretty girl
To hold my hand
Could've got an up close look
At the boogie man
Yeah, shadows on the wall
Voices in the hall, oh, yeah
There's more than just a mouse
In the Zavelow House
Oh, Zavelow, woah
But with a pretty girl
To hold my hand
Could've got an up close look
At the boogie man
Yeah, shadows on the wall
Voices in the hall, oh, yeah
There's more than just a mouse
In the Zavelow House
Yeah, shadows on the wall
Voices in the hall, oh, yeah
There's more than just a mouse
In the Zavelow House
(Zavelow, Zavelow, Zavelow)