The Serio Falls are the tallest waterfall in 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...

, and one of the major ones in Europe. They are located approximately 100 km from Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, near the village of Valbondione

Valbondione

Valbondione is a comune in the Province of Bergamo in the Italian region of Lombardy, located about 90 km northeast of Milan and about 45 km north of Bergamo...

, in the upper Valle Seriana, Province of Bergamo

Province of Bergamo

The Province of Bergamo is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. It has a population of 1,098,740 , an area of 2,722.86 square km, and contains 244 comuni...

, 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...

, Northern Italy.

The falls are composed of three main steps, respectively 166, 74 and 75 metres tall; taken together the falls have a drop of 315 m (more than 1000 ft).

The falls are formed by the Serio River

Serio River

The Serio, in Lombard Sère, is an Italian river that flows entirely within Lombardy, crossing the provinces of Bergamo and Cremona. It is 124 kilometers long and it flows into the Adda at Bocca di Serio, to the south of Crema....

, at a short distance from its source in the Bergamo Alps

Bergamo Alps

The Bergamo Alps are a mountain range in the Italian Alps which forms part of the Central Eastern Alps. They are located in northern Lombardy and named after the city Bergamo, south of the mountains....

.
The waterfalls were closed in 1931 when the Barbellino Dam was constructed, forming the reservoir known as the Lago di Barbellino; they were only re-opened in 1969.
Since 1969 they have normally been opened four or five days annually, thanks to an agreement between 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 Valbondione and ENEL

Enel

Enel may refer to:*Enel SpA, an Italian electricity company*Enel , a fictional villain in the One Piece manga and anime series*Enel, meaning third in the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, cf. Awakening of the Elves...

, the National Electric Energy Corporation.