Spazzacamini

Spazzacamini (Italian for chimney sweep) was the term for child laborers in 19th- and early 20th-century Italy and Switzerland, where they were also known as Kaminfegerkinder in German-speaking areas.

The boys were hired in the winter, so at the family tables in the badly developed valleys of Ticino one mouth less had to be fed.

At that time, bitter poverty and hunger was widely spread in Ticino during the winter months.

Many children came from the Valle Verzasca, the Cento Valli and also from the Italian Val Vigezzo valleys,[2] and frequently worked in northern Italy.

The book is popular and, amongst others, a film, a television serial, a musical and a radio play have been based on the novel, as well as naming a hiking route starting in Sonogno in the Verzasca Valley.