A walk to clear the head

Last night I had a bit of an argument with this new telephone company we've joined earlier in the year over a phone bill. This morning, to my great annoyance, it stopped working all together, i.e. no internet no phone connection. We weren't overdue or anything. Phoning their service line is free from a land line, but not from a mobile, apart from the fact, that we have bad reception in our house anyway and they put you through the usual routine for 10 minutes: "if you are an existing cutomer press one, if your granny wants a new phone line press twentytwoandahalf," etc, etc. So I just went off in a big huff this morning.

We had some business at the local commune in the valley, so we left home on foot to sort that out. Then I said to Susan, I could do with a beer for lunch now, fancy wondering over to our cheap shop on the other side of the river in Albiano. Arriving there I still felt I needed to let off steam, so I said let's explore the hills above Albiano and see what's up there.

Well I can tell you now, we've had a fantastic day! Climbing up the hill opposite our village we came across a signpost towards Stadano Bonaparte. I don't like walks where I return the same way we went, and I knew there's a bridge at Stadano back across the river. Incidentally, you may have guessed, the small village of Stadano Bonaparte is the ancestral home of Napoleon, however, you wouldn't know about it, it's all modern buildings now.

Here's a view towards it:

The best thing was though that the path was not well trodden and absolutely teeming with beautiful mushrooms. To my regret I can not identify many for definite, but one of the most impressive looking and most easily identifiable is the parasol. I put my phone next to this specimen to give you an idea of the size of the bugger!

By the time I had the camera ready the small family of fairies sheltering under it had already disappeared, they don't like having their picture taken. You just have to take my word for it. Oh hang on there was a big fairy peeping out from one...

This is one from above:

and another which hasn't opened yet:

They are great fried with a bit of bacon. The closed ones make good stuffed mushrooms with a sage and onion stuffing. We only picked 2 as we couldn't possibly eat more than that, but I've read in the meantime that they dry well, so we shall return to pick some more.

Soon we found out, why the path wasn't so well trodden, it had eroded away shortly before Stadano and ended in a sheer cliff above the river. So we did have to return the same way we went. Here are some more impressions from our walk:

holly oak

fern on a stone wall

an autumn view of the village of Caprigliola.

And when we returned home, the phone line was ok again, thank god.

Happy Epiphany contd.

On Sunday we went on a long walk with a view of finding a route which incorporates Vezzano Ligure for the guide I’m working on. For unknown reasons we have in the over 4 years we’ve been here so far only fleetingly visited this village although it stares us right in the face from across the valley and we kept saying we must go and see it properly sometime. The only previous visits have once been to a party in the lower part and the second time at night, going out for a meal with friends. Vezzano lies right opposite Ponzano, the upper part slightly higher than us overlooking the confluence of the rivers Magra and Vara. Now so far I have always maintained that our village has one of the best views possibly in all of Italy (and I have seen a few), but now I have to concede that the view from Vezzano is even more spectacular. Not only can you see just as far along the Tuscan coast, you have a less restricted view of the Gulf of La Spezia, the Apuan Alps and the Vara and Magra valleys. It’s breathtaking! Below is the view from the ruins of the castle at the top of Vezzano onto the lower part and beyond towards Ponzano and the Apuan Alps.

There is also plenty to explore within the village. Apart from the castle ruin, there are various interesting churches, a pentagonal tower, like the one in Arcola, and numerous little alleyways with beautifully restored old houses.

Unfortunately, because it is situated at a steep promontory, it is not served by a network of footpaths. We walked up to it from the railway station, which is a narrow winding road with little traffic, first leading through the modern and bland part, but soon climbs steeply through olive groves and some beautiful stone houses. On the way down again we followed a footpath, which appeared to lead in the right direction. As we descended the mountain further and further the path became less and less obvious until it finally fizzled out completely in some bramble thicket only a few yards above the road along the valley. Having just descended some 200 metres and having the road so close we were not about to give up, but instead we proceeded to cut our way through the brambles, which took us a while, but was finally achieved. However, I obviously can’t recommend this path to readers of my book with the advice to bring a machete with them… But I do recommend a visit to anyone in the region. I find it surprising that the council of Vezzano doesn’t make much more of a song and dance about the virtues of their place to attract tourists. Well while they don’t it remains a bit of a secret tip.

I'm Walking

Just a quick update. The weather has continued to be pretty ropey. Rome and Venice are under water and already December’s precipitation has exceeded all previous records all over Italy and the month is only half finished. This and the fact that I pulled a muscle in my back while attempting to lift a gas bottle, made last week fairly uneventful. We were invited to a lovely meal by friends of Pam and John in Calice on Sunday involving wild boar and goat, the kitten has become more trusting and my pair of boots have packed it in. They were only 4 years old, but I bought them cheap on a market. Now I have had to get my old walking boots back out of their retirement.

Yesterday the weather picked up a bit again and today we went on a long walk, working on the guide.

Volunteers Wanted!

The weather slowly has improved again. Thursday and Friday were quite mixed days with showers always threatening. So we used those two days to do some research. I have decided to write a book. Babette and Paul said they would help me with the printing and I have got it pretty much planned. It is to be a guide to walks around the Lunigiana, whereby I use the geographic term in it’s loosest definition as the provinces of La Spezia (Liguria) and Massa / Carrara (northern tip of Tuscany). The desire to write this guide was born from a frustration of the inaccuracies of even the most detailed maps of the area as well as of the general sign posting. I intend to include at least one walk for each ‘comune’ of those two provinces, give info on any sights along each walk, notes on history and nature, recommendations for places to eat and drink, public transport links, annual events, alongside detailed descriptions of the actual walks themselves with correct maps. I envisage including some 50 walks in the book and to put one day a week aside to research another for the next 12 months.

Now this is where I would like some help by anyone reading this who either lives nearby or is planning a holiday in the region. I need some people to try out the walks to see if my garbled directions make sense to them, before I launch the guide onto the unsuspecting public. Please send me an e-mail or leave a comment below. The above photo was taken on the walk we tried out this week. It’s a 5 ½ hour walk starting from the medieval centre of Santo Stefano di Magra, through quiet woodlands up to Ponzano Superiore with it’s narrow alleyways and sweeping views, down to the valley again past a Victorian style ceramics factory and back to Santo Stefano via the Regional Nature Park along the river Magra with it’s varied birdlife. Herons, storks and even flamingos are amongst the visitors during migration times.

Today the weather turned bright again, but with a strong wind blowing. I had planned on picking my olives today, but with the high winds I decided not climb the top of a 10 foot ladder. Instead we took down the tomato and bean plants, which have finally finished for the year. Mind you I still picked a good kilo of beans today! We also planted onions today, about 100 each of brown and red ones. In previous years I unsuccessfully tried to grow them from seed, now I just planted small bulbs to grow them to bigger ones. Whilst this is marginally more expensive then buying seeds, I’m hoping the results will be better. I also bought a dozen Brussel sprout plants. Last year’s grown from seed didn’t do to well either and were mostly eaten by some nasty bright red bug with a ferocious appetite. We also picked the first kaki of the year, so I shall make some of my famous ‘I can’t believe it’s not mago chutney’ chutney tomorrow. For the recipe look up this blog 6 December last year.

Boscofesta

Later in the afternoon the sky had cleared up a bit and there was another festa on in Santo Stefano, a forest festa. The excuse this time was a more secular one, the opening of a new footpath from Santo Stefano to Ponzano Superiore. To be precise the footpath S5 had long existed and we had walked before, however it led partially over private land and it involved opening and shutting gates to keep grazing animals restricted. Now this path bypasses this and new fresh red and white signs by the CAI (Club Alpini Italiani) have been put up as well as the undergrowth cleared. The festa took place at a agriturismo at the foot of the path and featured Anchefunky, an Afro-Brazilian (almost) all female percussion group. A lot of fun was had by all especially the kids as you can see. Check them out on http://www.anchefunky.net/. We did walk back on the path spotting snakes and a badger. It leads through lovely leafy woods, which smell just lovely with all that rain we’ve been having. It’s not the shortest pedestrian route between Santo Stefano and Ponzano Superiore, but during the heat of the summer it offers great protection from the sun and a quiet get-away from the hubhub of the valley.