Hiking the Friuli Alps with Mario 2012

We thought it would be hard for Mario to equal our incredible trip last year to the western Alps shared with Switzerland and France (as described in our 2011 blog), but these eastern Alps which border Austria and Slovenia were just as amazing and the small villages we visited were almost as charming. The mountain vistas are like nothing in the US.  It seemed to be the beginning of porcini mushroom  season and also this is the big Prosecco producing region of Italy, so we felt obligated to taste lots of porcini, a few shaved truffles and the local Prosecco at each stop across Italy and into Slovenia. We can reliably report that it was all very tasty and refreshing.

Mario and Vittorio are great adapters, and they modified the hikes a bit due to at first very hot, then very wet weather.  The first two days Mario hired a local guide, Lucia, to show us the Treviso Region and provide historical background. (A note on Lucia: Paul had a conversation with her and learned much about the region and about her. She is quite the industrious women: she owns a house in both Treviso and Venice, two B&Bs in Venice,  manages 100 guides, and singlehandedly managed to defeat the powers that be to save a historical site in Treviso. Plus when Paul expressed interest in the fine frescoes, she extended the tour and got us into a monastery in which there were some very fine frescoes of monks published in our blog about Treviso.)

We cut short a long uphill hike due to high temperatures, arriving at the Agriturismo

 in time for a cooling swim in the pool overlooking valleys filled with Prosecco grapes. This was really roughing it. Check out the views from our room.

Considering the heat, part of us was happy to be in a cool relaxing spot, but the other part was saying, "Oh no, with all this food here come the extra pounds."  We try turning the food down, but in Italy we find it tough to say "No" to just a bit of antipasto, delicious house made pasta, tasty meat, and just have a bite or so of this Tiramisu.

The second day we toured a 14th C Abbey

Danice, Laura, Tom, Millie, Vittorio and Mario have cappucinni before the visit to the Abbei

 and climbed a hill through the woods to a Castle in Fillino with Lucia, before a lovely picnic lunch.

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A sample of the elegant grounds

Then we happily served ourselves cold Prosecco in an un-staffed  rustic mountainside Osteria,  leaving the money in a box that no one seems to steal.

Self serve/pay osteria

Fake cows at self serve Osteria

View of terraced Proseco vineyards typical of the region

All the restaurants Mario had sampled were closed that evening so that owners and workers could harvest their grapes before the big rain.  He finally found a good grille run by someone who didn’t seem to own a vineyard. The next day as we set out to hike in the Dolomite Friuli up to a high Bellvedere the sprinkles turned to the downpour the harvesters had anticipated.  As usual Paul, Millie and Mario made the climb all the way to the top,

Not much of the belle in the vedere; Millie came a few minutes later and the  clouds cleared.

but Laura, Jim and Danice turned around when the rain became drenching on the steep slippery downhill trail.  Tom, recovering from recent knee replacement surgery, stayed with Vittorio, the van, and the fixings for our picnic lunch.  Vittorio saw this was no day for a picnic, so brought some wine, salad, cheese and prosciutto along, leading us across a big glacial morain (lots and lots of gravel) to a Refuggio.  Along the way, Jim discovered he had lost his wallet when he had slipped going up to the Belvedere, so he and Vittorio headed back down from the Refugio to go across the morain and then back up the trail to the Belvedere.  Before they got too far, however, Paul, Mario and Millie came along, Paul bearing Jim’s wallet his eagle eyes had spotted coming down the trail.  The three of us who had turned back earlier did not see it on our wet downhill trek, but fortunately Paul set the hiking stick he'd picked up on the trail right next to the wallet and said to himself, “What is that!”

With wine and a picnic in the cozy shelter we were all happy to celebrate that the lost had now been found!.  Mario bought us hot bowls of deliciously flavored Barley/Bean soup  so that we all had more than enough to fill our tummies once again.  Who says a drenching hike can’t be fun?  (when there’s a warm welcoming Refugio nearby.)

The next day we visited a renowned Mosaic and Terrazo school in Spilimbergo claiming students from all over the world; their work was surprisingly creative.

The block of wood in the back ground has a little piece of   sharp  mettle embedded  on the  top the pieces of stone used on the mosaic are cut by the artist using a mallet, just like in the old days.

To try to get some of the detail of this piece the scale is lost ; it is about  5 feet in diameter and weights about 1000 lbs.

Then we drove on to a Prosciutto Producer in San Danielle where we had a delicious Prosciutto Polenta and Cheese based lunch with fresh warm Apple Cake.

Lorenzo made the delicious warm apple cake and he was quite  the  personality.

The prosciutto curing process was fascinating; we saw a room filled with piggy legs

Notice the hooves, that's how you tell a San Danielle ham from a  Parma

kept at 18C degrees with 65% humidity for years before the aged product is shipped to restaurants all over the world.

Our subsequent hikes were sunny or partly cloudy and the scenery grew more spectacular as we moved north and east.

Our longest hike was about 14km, but the most challenging was in the Giulia Alps following a Pilgrim’s Path (they were atoning for their sins; we were doing this for fun?) up Mount Lassaro, a  3000 ft altitude gain to a beautiful little village built where some shepherds reported not one but two apparitions of the Madonna centuries ago.  We stopped along the uphill route at a Malgra where a shepherd family makes cheese from their cattle grazing at high pastures,

One of the cows that gave the milk

And our cheese maker making it the old fashioned way. she was a kick.

Note the 2011 hiking blog featured a pretty young cheese-maker... This one has likely been at it for 40-50 years longer.

Then we got back on the uphill trail to finally reach the summit.

The restaurant  at the top supplemented the picnic Vittorio and Tom had brought up on  the Funicular and the views  from the top in all directions were really magnificent.

Mario and Jim demonstrated for us the Italian way of relaxing after a climb and a full lunch

Moving on to Slovenia we hiked a few scenic lakes and  up to the lovely Savica water fall, visited a farm house museum that showed a very simple life, unaided by conveniences, farmers lived several hundred years ago.  And we had our last two wonderful picnics thanks to Mario and Vittorio.

 In Bled, a resort town in northern Slovenia, we walked around Lake Bled

Church on island in Lake Bled

and up a big hill to the castle.

View From Bled Castle

Gate to Castle

The Castle itself

Mario booked us into a plush four star hotel that Tito had used for a summer home.  Despite the attentive staff, Danice didn't like it at all as the price of Prosecco went from 2E  per glass in Italy to 9E at Tito's former residence.  But there were these terrific murals from Tito's era:

Mario took us to a nearby village to sample authentic Slovenian food.  Danice had a Farmers Plate of sausages, kraut, polenta mush and other tasty local items; Paul had something nobody wanted to share, liver. Our native Slovenian guide Ana told us Bled's economy is based primarily on the tourist trade; unfortunately it felt like a tourist town.

Our final hike was wonderful.  We took a cable car and ski lift to the top of a mountain where shepherds have built dozens of  houses of a particular style to inhabit in summer while their cattle graze on the rich high mountain grasses.  The houses have a main circular core for the shepherd and the roof is built almost to the ground. A second wall is added to complete an outer circle, providing a barn like shelter for the cows. Such eye-pleasing natural architecture!

Most had taken their cattle back down for winter grazing, but a few were still up high and the weather was mild.  The houses are very simple with no water, toilet or electricity, except, we assume, for those with solar panels. The beautiful green hillside scattered with these authentic structures and cattle was too picturesque for words...

We hiked for a couple of hours with our Slovenian guide Ana, up and around slightly steep  slopes; 

then we met Mario and Vittorio at a mountain Refugio where they had prepared the best prosciutto, ham, cheese, tomato, onion Panini like EVER,  with  fruit and cookies and the requisite bottles of local wine.  A wonderful outdoor mountain meal.  We then tuned up and sang our hosts an appreciative, loving song Millie, with zingers from Tom, had written to the tune of  La Donna e Mobile from Rigoletto, while Jim played the lilting flute background. It's a melody everyone knows and Millie's lyrics let Mario and Vittorio know how much we appreciate them and cannot bear the idea that they might retire, even as we all grow old together.   At the end, everyone was wiping away tears, even our young guide Ana whom we had met only two days before.  (Regrettably, no photos, everyone was singing, flute-playing or listening.)
Then down the mountain (Mario singing operas on the ski lift), into the van and off to our hotel in Ljubljana and our farewell dinner.