Abruzzo national parks

Marilena - with fleece.

Tuesday 10th September
We travelled down from Ancona to a remote campsite in the Gran Sasso National Park, Abruzzo. It's a simple site at an elevation of around 5000ft located in the centre of a large forest. We set up camp as usual but by 7pm mist settled around us and the temperature dropped like a stone; a far cry from the balmy Adriatic coast. We shivered in our fleeces.

In the morning we ventured out on two excursions in the van; fortunately by now the mist had cleared and the weather was fine. The first visit was to the interior of the surrounding forest where we parked the van and went for a five kilometre walk in search of a locally well known waterfall. It's the mushroom picking season here and from time to time we saw men hunting for fungi (with baskets on their backs). Walking in this silent, ancient woodland (no birdsong) reminded me of the descriptions in Bill Bryson's book, "A Walk in the Woods." The environment was straight tall trees after tall trees after . . . and only rarely did the sun break through to ground level. It was an intriguing landscape but claustrophic too. I was frankly glad when the walk came to an end and we could escape from the gloom and those never-ending trees.

For the next outing we took an unmetalled (and seriously bouncy) road to the top of the adjacent mountain. What a contrast this was to the walk in the woods! Here was all open, sunny and the views on every side were of fabulous mountains.

Back for lunch cooked by Marilena: reheated tagliatelle in a mushroom sauce then grilled Italian sausages (utterly delicious - a quality of flavour I never yet encountered back home), salad and sauteed potatoes; all accompanied by a red Sardinian Cannonau. Splendid.

In the evening we took a stroll before the cold set in and we came across a large memorial dedicated to local partisans who fell during WWII. It was fitting of course that they were remembered but the momorial was in poor condition. I read recently that many Italian partisans lost their lives in combat and that there is a strong commitment to honouring them in this part of Italy. Perhaps the state of the memorial then is a sign of Italy's current economic condition - rather than forgetfulness of its fallen heroes?