Day 2: Sennes to Lavarella. 4 3/4 hr.
Breakfast at Sennes, as at all the rifugios, was buffet style and, as at most of them, consisted of cafe au lait, yogurt with either cornflakes or muesli, cheeses and hams, and a variety of breads. Breakfast was at 7:30. We were on the trail by 8:30.
At first we were walking down a wide World War I-era road that stretched upward, |
Margaret on the porch at Sennes, overlooking the WW I road
photo by Diana Coogle |
but we soon turned onto a trail,  |
William on the trail.
Photo by Margaret Della Santina |
then back on the road and back on the trail and back on the road, always descending, until finally we were on a "knee-jarring white dirt road," as guidebook writer Gillian Price calls it, built by the Italian military in the 1960s. It zig-zagged steeply between dramatic, vertical, gray-and-pink cliffs |
| Me and William Photo by Margaret Della Santina |
into a distant valley, where we could see, far below us, the large Rifugio Pederú, set in a parking lot filled with tiny-as-ants cars and buses. The number of vehicles explained the large number of people we met on the trail, who were puffing up this very strenuous road we were coming down. Some were families with small children. I was impressed. What fortitude these people have!
We shunned the busy-ness at the rifugio, but we did stop at the clear-as-glass stream next to it, where I took off my boots and soaked my aching feet in the ice-cold water. From my point of view the descent was more foot-pounding that knee-jarring!
From there the trail took us up the other side of the valley, along with crowds of other people. |
| Photo by Margaret Della Santina |
Many of those hikers passed me as I trudged upward. Margaret and William were far ahead of me but waited from time to time as I kept on with my tortoise-style, slow-and-steady pace which got me to the top without stopping—except, surprise! it wasn't the top, after all, and the trail was still going up and up and up, through a miniature forest of stubby pines and under pink-and-gray striped cliffs and peaks.  |
| Photo by William della Santina |
Big clouds accumulated, separated, came together again.
Finally we came to the turn-off to Rifugio Lavarella, where we were to stay the night. Lavarella is a beautiful rifugio, set under the gray-stone peaks beside a shallow but wide stream with cows musically grazing in the grassy fields. It was lovely. |
| Photo by Diana Coogle |
Lavarella is a family-run rifugio that brews its own beer (a very good brew), makes sausages from farm-raised chamois (also delicious), and offers, among other items on the dinner menu, spinach dumplings with tomato sauce "from Mama's recipe," which is what I had. There was polenta, a staple on every menu, as we were to learn. However, this is the only place where we had beer ice cream for dessert. |
William had polenta for dinner, frequently served at the rifugios
Photo by William della Santina |
My journal notes say that I was in bed at 8:00. And that I slept well.
No comments:
Post a Comment