The Day I Walked from Italy to France

First, a bit of housekeeping. I fixed my blog settings so that you can comment without having an account/password. Under your comment, select the Name/URL button. Then you can just put your name in (URL optional) and press publish. So now I can get your comments!! Hooray! That will certainly help me write more often because it's hard to write when I don't get feedback. Leave those comments!

So this weekend we took the little pup to the mountains. We decided to go to Limone instead of to Nice. Fabri and I aren't big beach people, and Limone seemed like a good way to beat the heat. And it was. It got chilly at night and I loved it!

Limone is a ski resort town in the alps located at about 1300 meters. Altitude is important here, so pay attention. It is a really sweet little town with very narrow cobblestone streets so there is almost no car traffic. Fabri's parents have had an apartment there for over 20 years. So we grabbed the keys and on Friday I met Fabri at work in Cuneo with the puppy and our bags. We transferred everything to Fabri's car and after a pleasant drive of only 30 minutes, we were in Limone. That's another nice thing, Nice is 2.5 hours, Limone is 30 minutes (from Cuneo, +30 minutes from Saluzzo).

When we arrived we unpacked a little and aired out the house. Unfortunately it started raining, but it was a quick storm. We had planned on walking down to Limone from the house (the house is up the road at an altitude of 1400 meters), but drove instead so as not to arrive in Limone completely muddy. We walked around the town with the pup and had dinner outside. Then we went to an Irish pub (the only Irish beer on tap was Guiness, the rest were Belgium). We met an Italian guy who spent 4 years in England and was looking to possibly travel and teach English. I told him about my experience teaching English around Cuneo.

The next day we woke up early; partly because we wanted to and partly because Olney wanted us to; and headed to the mountain peaks. We decided we wanted to walk part of the old salt road from France to Italy and see some old forts the Italians built on the French border. We drove up to about 1800 meters and parked by a refuge. There are refuges all over the alps for skiers, bikers and hikers. This one was easily accessible by car so it was a pretty nice restaurant and very crowded at lunch time. Anyway, with the pup we hiked from there for about 2 hours up to 1915 meters and around 2 forts. We walked back and forth from France & Italy a few times. It was very windy on the French side. Fabri had thought the forts were built between WWI and WWII in preparation of Italy's invasion of France, but they were actually built in the 1880s.

From Limone Summer Hiking 09

There was a second fort that had a dry moat, but we couldn't explore inside because the bridge had been half removed. That was too bad. We wanted to hike to another fort further in France, but the French side of the peak was very windy and cold. We did see a marmotta there which is basically a big groundhog and the mountains are full of them.

Then we walked back down to the refuge and had a wonderful lunch. The bread was especially good. Fabri explained that the bread from the mountains is so good because they have such clean and fresh water up there. On Sunday we bought a kilo of bread from Limone for our freezer.

From Limone Summer Hiking 09

That evening we did some shopping and hanging out around Limone and then had dinner at this pizzeria we were familiar with. Olney was a bit of a pain though and kept barking during out dinner. He is always hungry and barks when he wants us to give him food. It's harder to ignore it when you're in a restaurant...

Sunday was a beautiful sunny day. We woke up a bit later than usual and I made french toast for breakfast. When we were ready we walked down the old Roman road along the river to Limone. We let Olney go down into the water in a couple places and he loved it. The water was really cold, but it's fresh and we allowed him to drink it (he's not allowed to drink pool water which isn't easy for him to understand).

From Limone Summer Hiking 09

Later that afternoon we headed home to Saluzzo. Now we're all about hiking the alps and on Saturday we have plans to go with a nurse friend of Fabri's, his wife & their dog (Na-na). The two dogs know each other and get along. Well, Na-na just ignores Olney, and Olney follows her around like she's the coolest thing on 4 legs. Eventually we plan to go hiking some of the tunnels dug during WWII. They're supposed to be honeycombed all over the alps connecting several forts. I think this sounds like the perfect excuse to buy a new head lamp! (Yes I'm a dork and I own a crappy $5 head lamp).

There are more photos in my picasa web albums (link to the right). Don't forget to comment!