Leaping

We got a bit more than we bargained for today. We started out gently enough with a climb through beautiful green beech woods. Up and up we went, and then all of a sudden there was old, packed snow on the ground. We emerged into a clearing with a view of massive snowy peaks. Here, a vixen calmly trotted up to us, clearly hoping we had sandwiches. We did, but we weren't giving them away.

Lorenzo expertly guided us across and around the snow patches, stamping footsteps for us to follow. Soon we saw a chamois on the horizon, and later a whole group bounding across the snow (blip). Terrible photo as they were so far away, but it's representative of the day.

It was a hard slog up to the crest where we stopped for lunch, but the view was tremendous and we saw another group of grazing chamois quite close by. See extras ...

Completing the planned circular  walk would have involved climbing a steep, snow-covered slope, so we had to return by the same route. This would have been fine if we hadn't been hit by a hailstorm and torrential rain. We ended up rushing as fast as we could down a steep path of slippery, ankle-breaking stones. Nobody did break their ankle though, and when we got to the bar for restorative hot drinks it promptly stopped raining.

We'd had a long drive in the morning, setting off late due to a late bread delivery. When we left he bar, Lorenzo told us the drive to the agriturismo was "about an hour". It took over two hours, and would have been longer if he hadn't ignored the "road closed" signs. We got there at nearly nine, absolutely exhausted, and then there was a mixup about rooms which would have ended up with me sleeping on a child-sized sofa in a corridor if Andrew and Lorenzo hadn't given me their room. Still, everything was better after food and wine.