a double treat this morning, a nice comment from zac and grace and the notification that they are followers! as well it was nice to hear from jessica and the kid.
Yesterday was Elena's day off at work, she works for a company that provides guides for skiing and other mountain activities in the area, like rafting, climbing, walking, or paraglyding. To celebrate her and Lucca, and Zabeth and I took the day to hike in to the Otro Valley. Alagna is in the Sesia river valley, but just downstream of Alagna the Otro river flows into the Sesia, so if you follow that river back you come to the Otro Valley. To start the day though we walked up our normal path past the goats, and then continued uphill past some old mines and there are always alters on the trail. The more direct route is to follow the path of the Otro, but we were trying to see all the sights. The trail is always pretty nice, covered in leaves but someone has always done stonework creating steps and an easy trail to follow. At first you can see a mountain off to the left, covered in snow which is just the other side of the Otro, as you get in a little farther you realize that not only are you bordered on the left my a giant, rocky, snow covered mountain, you are also bordered staright ahead by a giant, rocky, snow covered mountain. But then you walk up five more minutes and you come to a beautiful green pasture that looks more like an old west prairie homestead then the Alps. This is Otro, but like Alagna there are different frazione's in Otro. So you pass three or four frazione's, and then you approach Weng (Veng), which is the frazione where Lucca takes the goats for the summer. There he grazes the goats, bakes bread in the community oven, grows potatoes and rye and salad with his uncles and select other friends and family who also make the journey. Rather than cultivate any ground yesterday picnic was the only thing on our agenda. Elena brought a three course meal including mortadella, salame, and prosciutto, a loaf of homemade rye bread, cheese, dark and light chocolate, una birra, and coffee to top it off. While we were sitting enjoying our food the sound of a huge thunderstrom came across the valley and off in the distance you could see snow tumbling off the cliffs. Then Zabeth and Elana picked some nettles for dinner, and we soaked up the rest of the mid afternoon sun before walking down the still snowy banks of the Otro back home.
pictures forhtcoming