Back to the Mountains

It’s summer holiday season here in Italy, the time when many people take their annual break. As cities and towns fill with tourists, locals pack up and head for the mountains or the beach. We seem to have been caught up in the trend.

Though we’ve been based in Spoleto since the start of July, it feels like we’ve spent most of our time outside Umbria. In particular we’ve been drawn to the mountains of Abruzzo and Piedmont where the days are long and cooler.

‘Walk, eat, walk’ is what we’ve been doing – probably too much eating and not enough walking – but as we’ve found, it’s a pretty good way to spend the holidays.

Alpe Devero

Alpe Devero (1600m) is a small village in northern Piedmont, only about 3kms from the Swiss border

It sits at the start of a wide alpine plateau

And is the centre of any number of activities - hiking, climbing and, in winter, cross-country skiing

On this beautiful day Alpe Devero was the starting point for our hike

But the first priority was a stop at the village store to buy bread for lunch later on

Our goal was the tiny village of Crampiolo, just an hour or so further along the valley

With the track following the water course, it was a very pretty and easy walk

Heading into Crampiolo (1780m)

Oh, time for lunch? Okay!

Lago delle Streghe (Lake of the Witches)

Memorials for people who've died in avalanches in these mountains

And on the way home, the bonus of this lovely waterfall

Alpe Pile

Another day, another beautiful walk in the Italian Alps; our goal on this day was the Rifugio Pastore at Alpe Pile (1575m)

We thought it was going to be an easy walk

But it turned out to be something a bit different (clearly we didn't do quite enough pre-walk map checking!)

The further we went, the steeper ...

... and steeper it became

At least it was pretty

Benedetta and Anna on the final stretch

And then, there we were

Reward for Effort 1

Reward for Effort 2 🙂

Prepared by volunteers from the Club Alpino Italiano, absolutely delicious polenta (venison and sausage)

Then there was just enough time to enjoy lunch and that spectacular view before the rain came in