Buongiorno, Teglio

Well I arrived yesterday safe and sound and exhausted! 4 countries 3 days and 16 hours of sleep wasn’t the best idea, but it was worth it! La picked me up from Linate and we drove into Cassano de Adda to grab some lunch (kabobs, I know very italian) un cafe and pick up Luca from school. Then away we went! 2 dramamines and an hour long nap and we were almost to Teglio, the mountainside town where her dad has an apartment. Absolutely gorgeous. As you can see.

We parked just on the edge of town and walked up the old path to the Roman lookout tower and church (Established in the early middle ages)

Then we walked into town and saw an EVEN OLDER church, the first built in the area that they have remarkably preserved. The town we are staying has a long history because of its excellent vantage point. Romans were able to sit atop this part of the mountain and have an excellent view of both sides of the valley (one of the widest valleys in Italy) to make sure the Swiss and Germans would not invade.

All along the mountainsides locals have taken advantage of the excellent soil and grow grapes (excellent local wine) raise sheep, goats (wonderful cheese) even Scottish highland cows. All of the food in the grocery and restaurants is grown locally.

Last night we went to La's favorite restaurant in town and had the local specialty; fried buckwheat balls stuffed with melted local cheese and homemade buckwheat pasta with cheese, fresh pressed olive oil, homemade butter and roasted garlic. Is your mouth watering yet? After finishing our mountainside wine we went home and passed out!

 This morning we had coffee, I mean cappuccino, and drove farther up the side of the mountain. Unfortunately the weather was much cloudier so the view was slightly less epic than the previous day. We parked by a closed ski lodge and walked farther up the hill till it got super foggy and we decided it wouldn’t be the best idea to get lost on a foggy mountain side with a 3 year old. Pick your battles people. Once we got to the car and started our precarious drive down the weather started to clear and we managed to get a couple shots of the view we were looking for.

old empty foggy ski lodge

 

Once we were back in town we grabbed an aperitif then went home for lunch. Pasta with homemade spicy tuscan sausage sauce and local cheeses. Yum. After lunch we napped then went for a cafe and to the playground with Luca. I wandered around the old part of town and had a pleasant evening on my own... as you can see.

This is the house I am going to buy. Its abandoned and probably haunted. (this town has the highest rate of suicide in the valley)

Dinner. Yum.

Our last morning we got ready early got a coffee in town and headed to the lakeside town of Varenna on Lake Como. Absolutely gorgeous.

We had some local lake fish for lunch and continued our way home to Casano D'Adda. We had dinner with La's mom and went to bed.

Monday I slept in then did some research on where I wanted to go... surprisingly stressful. So many places so little time.

I settled on a few days of hiking on the Amalfi Coast then maybe easter weekend on Capri and who knows what after that. Which brings me to now. I'm sitting on the express train to Napoli where I then will catch a local train to Castellammare Di Stabia and then a bus to Agerola San Lazzaro where, tomorrow morning I will be perfectly positioned to hike the Path of the Gods. Super excited.