Bruto Tempo

It’s the journey, not the destination. That’s our philosophy after this weekend.
After lost hormone cream, passports left behind, missed trains and bus connections, last minute bookings for new places to stay made in stilted Italian and a long day of travel we made it to Madonna di Campilio. It is a tiny resort town in northern Italy where we hoped for a 3 day trek in the Brenta Dolomites staying at rifugios (mountain huts) for much less than hotels.

We saw beautiful sunlit snippets of mountains from the bus on the way in and were super excited. (see picture of crooked mountain taken on bus)
The next morning we woke to new snow half way down the slopes and fog obscuring the peaks we knew were under the clouds.

We were exactly one week too early for most things to be open. No chair lift to take us to the top of what was supposed to be an easy downhill hike. No bus to take us to the bottom of what was to be a more difficult hike. We walked the 5km to the base of the more difficult hike and began the ascent to Rifugio Casinei. (stopping at lovely Cascata Mezzo pictured here) We hoped to make it farther that day, but no other rifugio was open.

We spent the afternoon chatting with the kind proprietors, playing cards and drying our clothing. (mine were especially drenched as the hormones are CRAZY… I’ll cry if I tell you about the lost hormone cream and 3 weeks left without it… please just keep praying for me)
The next morning we were super excited by sun and blue sky. (see picture of hut, blue sky) By the time we left it was already cloudy. We hiked a steep trek to the Tuckett and Sella rifugios (picture included here… hut next to big cliffs) It is supposed to be one of the most spectacular views in the Brenta group, but it was tightly socked in. In fact, by the time we were rested it was snowing and blowing and we couldn’t even find the trail we wanted to continue on. We decided to return the way we had come up. A wet wet descent that was actually quite pretty (pics of foggy heather and Emily walking)

We spent another night playing cards at Casinei rifugio (we were the only ones in a place that sleeps 70! ). By the time we left we were fast friends with the 3rd generation owners who gave us a very nice discount on our bill.
In spite of working really hard (physically in my case anyway) we saw very little of the Brenta group, but still had a really great time.
A fast talking Italian man gave us a ride the 5km back into Campiglio after our descent from the rifugio. We were grateful for the ride but paid a small price.
He spoke no English and us no Italian. In spite of this he managed to buy us lemon tea (confused why we didn’t take coffee) slap Emily a few times, and comment that I must eat too much. (true on both accounts!)

Long bus and train ride back to Orvieto. Happy to shower and get ready to plan and prepare another trip that will turn out completely different than we plan anyway!!
Looking forward to having Karen along for the next journey!
(Other pictures are of the churches in Assisi and Perugia. Nice day trip last week)