Ups and downs

Well, what do you do when staying near two extinct volcanoes? Climb the higher one, that's what. We caught the bus up to the village of Val di Chiesa, found a well-marked path by the church and set off up Monte Fossa delle Felci. It was a much easier and more pleasant walk than I'd expected: the path was fairly wide, not too steep and, most surprisingly, shaded by trees, opening out every now and then onto lovely views through the vegetation to the other volcano, Monte dei Porri and the two small islands of Alicudi and Filicudi in the distance.

I have always been a slower-than-average walker uphill and was taught long ago by my uni hiking club not to walk with 'serious' walkers, but my companions were happy to take it gently. The top is at 962m but at the Rifugio di Monte Rivi, at 800m, where we could sit at a table under the trees, play on a see-saw and look at the much steeper ascent to the top (extra), we decided to turn back.

We made a big mistake coming down, taking what we thought was a scrambly short cut to the next turn of the path and which turned out to be steep scramble from 700m to 180m, just above Malfa. It was hard work and we were very ready for a 4pm lunch by the time we'd made it safely down, then for a much gentler walk through the town to the beach where two of us braved swimming and jumping off rocks.