The Year's End

Well here we are, 30th December, and only part one of the  c2c written up.  I have got a list of excuses, but never mind I promise to try harder to complete parts two and three.  Part two will  cover the section from Shap to Ingleby Cross and part three will be about crossing the North York Moors, each part will be on a separate page.
Having nursed a heavy cold which turned to 'flu and then to bronchitis over the last four weeks I can take some optimism from the fact that at least it was during the hunting season here in Tuscany, when it isn't safe to venture out in the woods - only another month then I should be able to roam wherever I want and get back to some sort of fitness.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

How time flies!

There I was thinking that it shouldn't take too long to knock off the account of my Coast to Coast walk.  At the rate I'm going it will take longer to blog than walk it!!

Only a few weeks ago the hills around this part of Tuscany had a bright red, gold and green overlay as Autumn was at its best.  The tree-lined road around our village was covered in crisp golden leaves, laying in drifts at the side of the road - it was wonderful to walk through kicking up the leaves, like being a child again.  The blue skies and warm days were starting to get an edge as the sharper nights set in for two or three weeks.  Then we had two days of rain and walking along the side of the road was like walking through a soggy bowl of cornflakes!!  Well the rain has gone and the  glorious colours are still there, and so is the account of my walk.

I have only managed to get as far as Stonethwaite in Borrowdale published, so still another 14 days to go - click the link on the right  'c2c Sept 2011 - What really happened, Part1 the Lake District' .  Please have patience.

My Coast to Coast walk, September 2011

Nearly eight weeks after completing my c2c, I have finally got around to writing about how it really happened.  I think I have been suffering withdrawal symptoms from 16 days walking through such beautiful and awesome countryside - incomparable!  The 'How it really happened' page is no longer showing on the blog at the moment as it is in draft form, and I have only written about our attempt to get to St Bees!   Hopefully, I will have the first four days of the walk, with photos, written up this weekend (20th Nov.).

Ancient pathways around Valleriana

When walking along the high trails around Valleriana, one can only marvel at the achievements of the inhabitants of former times. These high trails formed the major arterial routes for travel between the habitations across the numerous valleys of northern Tuscany.  The routes generally followed contours around the valley to minimise sudden changes of elevation, unlike their modern equivalent of hairpin bends every 200metres, and tracks descend to the villages, as opposed to today's roads up from the valley floor.
What also impresses me is the number, and size, of buildings en-route, principally churches, chapels, refuges and farmhouses.  Examples taken from the trails, as if walking from Pescia or Collodi  along the ridge to M. Battifolle, then to the Croce a Veglia and on to Lignana and Sorana are shown below:-

Chiesa S. Anna (about 7km from Pescia) above Pietrabuona

Capella della Mura, about 2km north of S. Anna - above Medicina

Madonna del Tamburrino on the slopes of M. Battifolle - above San Quirico

The refuge hut at Croce a Veglia - above Pontito

Maddonna delle Grazie, church above Pontito

Church on Lignana, also on the site of a medieval village - above Sorana

In the woods something stirred

Walking through the woods above the village where I live, could sometimes be a weird experience - a feeling of being watched!  Figures flitting silently between trees, momentarily concealing themselves behind the broad trunk of one the numerous leafy chestnut trees - only  to appear, nonchalantly on the trail some hundred metres ahead. As we pass I am greeted with a smile and 'Buongiorno' , ten seconds later they have disappeared.  A figment of my imagination?  No, they are funghi hunters searching for a particular mushroom, the' porcini'.  A secretive world.  Porcini pickers each have their favourite spots amongst shady glades of the chestnut trees, so secret that it is rumoured they will not reveal them to members of their own family!  Now I am accepted as just a 'crazy Englishman' who walks for hours just because he likes walking through the woods and they quite often show me what they have gathered, secure in the knowledge that I will not know where to look for their porcini.  If they realised that the 'rather large watch' on my wrist was a GPS trail recording device on which I could record their location - it would be a different matter.  They are safe, I have no intention of spoiling a centuries old tradition of secrecy, and if I do find any porcini it will be the traditional way - poking around the leaf covered roots of the chestnut tree - and not with the aid of technology!

Winter 'Games' in Tuscany

Rambling through the woods has been restricted during the winter months, November to the end of January, due to the risk of being shot at!
Hunters, men playing at soldiers in their jeeps travelling in convoy, spread out in military style charging through villages which still bear the scars of World War II - lest we forget,  Where are they going?   Into the woods to hunt families of cinghiali, wild boar, some of whom were put into the wild earlier in the year.
Macho drivers in camouflage clothing so that so that they cannot be seen in pursuit of the cinghiale but also it 'looks good'.  Once in the woods they wear orange fluorescent over jackets, so that they don't shoot each other - pity!  Sometimes  they strap the largest of their 'conquests' to the 'roo bars on the lead vehicle.
Where do these great white hunters go for the rest of the year?  They are the quiet inoffensive guys that you see sat in the bars and cafes in any village piazza.
Hopefully it should be all clear now.