The Hike

Andiamo! To the Top: Well, me and Uncle Larry woke up early this morning and were out the door by 8:00am. We went on a 10 hour hike, no biggy, and got back just after 6:00pm, took showers, Larry made dinner, I crashed on the couch, Vera came over for a few minutes, me and Grandma had some ice cream, and that's about it. Ciao!!!







All right!!! Kaisa this is especially for you. So, like I said, Larry and I started our hike at 8:00 this morning from our house in Belforte. We were destined for Sasso di Simone, a big plateau that used to have a Roman city on it. (If you look really close you can see it in this picture...that flat thing in the distance. Can you see it?)
















It took about an hour, give or take, to get to the point where the trail turns off the highway, and from there the real adventure began. First off, let me mention that my number one reason for hating spiders is because they leave their stupid sticky webs hanging wherever I want to walk!!!! I'm sure if someone passed us on the trail they would think I was possessed for how wild I swatted at the air and slapped my skin. EEEEWWWW!!!!! It was horrible, and about the only thing that I really hated about today.


The first 2 or 3 hours of the hike was on a trail that was pretty overgrown. We did take some "detour" paths to see some cool things off the trail and a lot of that was so overgrown (because it wasn't meant to be walked through) that I could hardly walk! Some areas were bad because they had a lot of spiky, thorny plants that were unavoidable. I have a big scratch on the back on one of my legs that bled a little, and it wasn't too long before my legs looked like I had a disease because of all the welted scratches and bites. I'm not exaggerating. It was pretty gruesome. I finally just gave up on trying not to let my legs touch the plants and I just plowed through. It gave me a bit of my pride back in contrast to the spiderweb conflict, so I didn't complain at all.


Here's a lookout tower that we passed. It's out in the middle of the forest, no buildings around, boarded up, no sign saying what it is.
















At one point on the hike, as I was walking behind Larry, I saw something move in between his feet. It was a snake! He didn't seem to notice, so I said, "Larry, look what you almost stepped on." He came over and was freaking out because he had always wanted to see one of those snakes here. Not just any snake. A Viper!!!! It was small, maybe a foot long, and it got away before I could get my camera out.


It's kinda crazy, but even up in the mountains people have farms, planting fields, cattle, sheep, etc. We walked right through a herd of cattle, only about ten feet away from some of them and they're BEASTIE things!!! Really big cattle. And it's so funny, they stop when they see you and just watch until you're gone.

















NOTE: the trial we followed once we got out of all the forest growth is supposed to be suitable for driving, but I don't know how. I still don't believe it after seeing a car pass us from behind about two hours away from Sasso di Simone. I was sure that we would come across the car again, this time upside down in a ditch. The road is that bad.

So, remember that picture up at the top of Sasso di Simone? That was still two hours away. This one is just less than an hour away:












Finally we got to the base of the plateau where we did find that car from before. The people who were driving were just getting back from the top of Sasso di Simone. They climbed in their car and drove off the way we just came. It took us two hours to catch up with them, and by that time they were ready to leave.

After a really steep climb we came to a...I guess you could call it a grove...with stone slabs engraved with a description of the place. Apparently this:














used to look like this:








Can you believe that? A whole city used to be here and now it's all forest! If you look really close you can see an old rock wall that used to be there. It's mostly just a pile of rocks actually.





This cross is at the very top of the Sasso di Simone:

























Here's a couple pictures from the top. Larry said that when the sky is really clear you can sometimes see the ocean on the horizon. And here's a video of our triumph!
















After touring the top we went back down to the little grove and ate our small but perfect lunch of apples and bread. On the way back, we had to take a big detour to go around a military set up where they were practicing shooting. Our detour took us into another forest that was full of cool things. Here's an old wall that's now covered in moss:






















Here's a tree, or two that are connected at the base, where in the middle is a perfect pool of water.




















This is one of the natural rock structures that is in this area. I was really surprised to find out it was natural and not man-made, because it seems that everything here was once a Roman or Byzantine structure.




















When we got out of the forest we followed a cattle path down a ravine to get to San Sisto, our first town in 7 hours. Guess what I found?!?! All the way up here I found a fossil of a sea shell! How cool is that? It's pretty cool.
















Finally, we started to get close to Belforte. I had this thought that when you're looking forward to reaching your destination, it always seems to be over the next hill. It was at this time of my deep pondering that I realized my legs were really sore. And they seemed to get more sore when I thought about how close we were to being done. I almost fell over when I saw the house. It was so beautiful!!!!



Each of us took a shower right when we walked in the door. Oh my, did I get burned!!! I wore sunscreen, but when it's 80 degrees and you're hiking for ten hours with the sun on your back the whole time...not much is going to help that.


So at the end of the day I'm covered in sunburn, scratches, stings, and I can barely walk because every muscle below my torso is worn down, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything. 10 hours, Larry says it was at least 15 miles, maybe more. And more than half of it was uphill. I thought of you the whole time, Kaisa!!!!!!





We had dinner, then I crashed on the couch. I didn't mean too. I was supposed to update my blog. Grandma woke me up when Vera came over to see me for the last time. Tomorrow we head to Venice and we won't get back until Saturday. On Saturday Vera and her family are going to Albania. That's where they're originally from and they're going back to visit friends and family.










And now I'm here on the computer. I'm going to bed soon. And then I won't be able to update anything until we get back on Saturday. Ciao!!!