Alpine Logistics

Something local that wouldn’t involve sitting in the car for too long…we scanned the map for new ideas on where to go…some paths we’ve already walked several times. Here was a small dashed line indicating a secondary foot path, perhaps less trodden which departed from the village of Rosazza.

We left behind the castles and higgledy piggledy assortment of houses and plunged into the forest on a well-layed stone footpath. The shade was welcome as the sun was already beating down hard.

The path became gradually narrower as it rose steeply into the mountains along Pragnette valley. After about a kilometre the trees thinned out until we were walking through long grass, flowers, small bushes and sections of scree. The path had all but disappeared and we were only able to pick it out thanks to someone who had gone to the trouble of building a dry stone wall on which the path still runs. Probably some farmer investing in his herd of sheep many years ago. Now it’s completely overgrown.

It was clear that not many people ventured here for their week-end walk…the valley seems to have been forgotten. It was beautifully peaceful and it felt wild; hard to believe we were so close to home. I thought of the wilderness I experienced in Canada some years ago and expected to see a bear groping around in the undergrowth at every corner.

There were no bears, just the odd snake taking in the sun or a dear grazing in the higher parts of the valley. Eventually we came to a junction; footpath signs had resumed. Under the one we wanted to take was written “sentiero disagevole� (uncomfortable path). It traversed the steep grassy hillside for about a kilometre before reaching Colle d’Irogna (2092m). From here we descended through bushes and along boulders into the neighbouring valley.

This we soon discovered to be equally wild and unfrequented. It was carpeted with pink mountain rhododendrons…a spectacular sight. To our delight we discovered that lower down the hillside was also lined with blue berry bushes! We stopped several times and ate them by the handful.

We reached the bottom of the valley and the first signs of civilisation; some old stone houses which didn’t look as though anyone had lived there for a long time. A field full of sheep and goats was being carefully surveyed by a dog but there was no sign of the farmer.

We soon arrived at Piedicavallo, the village at the end of the road in Valle Cervo, and walked the last few kilometres back to the car satisfied that we had discovered a new piece of the Piemonte Alps