2014-11-03
Today I took a nice walk up to the pretty little Lago Blu (2220 m). It is towards the glacier, Grande Ghiacciaio di Verra. Starting out from the village of Saint Jacques I walked the first bit up to the old hotel at Fiery. It is a nice 15 minute walk and from there you have already a beautiful view of the valley. It’s not a bad trip to take sandwiches and go there and then turn back.
After a short rest I continued up to the first plateau, Pian di Verra Inferiore (2000 m). From there you see the valley as well as the Monterosa mountains and the glaciers.
The last bit up to the lake is keeping to the left and following the trail up. The lake, Lago Blu, is really beautiful and it is well worth the sweat to come up here. The water is, as the name indicates, totally blue and you have the high mountain terrain and the proximity of the glacier.
There are a lot of animals, alpine Ibex or Steinbock. I didn’t see any but I discovered that 100 meters above Lago Blu I had 3G connectivity –also a great thing.
The way down is a little boring. I took the road and walked slowly and did a bit of thinking.
It was a truly great day, sunny and pretty warm, although not as warm as the last couple of days. The winter is approaching now and maybe it was one of the last great days for trekking 2014. They are forecasting snow now.
2014-11-04
Raining. A lot. It is snowing higher up but Champoluc is at 1600 meters and the snow felt down in the form of rain. At last I could sit down by my computer the entire day. In Champoluc Tuesday is a day of reckoning. Most facilities are closed. Stores, banks, restaurants. In November it is even more true. Everything is closed. Even the bar below my apartment was locked up. When the bars closed in Italy - well everything is closed. The internet kept open fortunately. But man, did I have a great day! Made some great work and had a great dinner!
2014-11-05
Still raining but a little better. I went down to the post office to pay some fines that had appeared in the mail. Actually it was my son’s fines but…. At the post office I had a long talk with the gentlemen working there. It was really nice. I am totally alone here in the village in the low tourist season, but I talk to all these people all the time. A visit at the post office takes maybe 25 minutes, but I got my business done and had a nice chat. After that on to the bank. It was closed but the woman inside opened up and let me in anyway and gave me 15 minutes of service after hours. I can’t imagine this happening in a big town or in any town in Sweden for that matter.
Later on I took a walk to Mascognaz and then over to Crest (1950 m). It’s easy. When you reach Mascognaz, you keep to the left and walk back. You find the trail and follow it. It was snow on the ground a little bit higher up. Wonderful. It took about an hour and a half and when I got home I was really tired.
2014-11-06
Fully occupied with practical stuff. Went to Malpensa again and picked up my fantastic wife. Together we went back into Milan and checked out furniture and kitchen interior. Of course everything is super beautiful and super expensive. Very nice experience. For dinner we found a new place where I haven’t been before – Il Porto. It is located in Viale Papiniano, near the Navigli area. It is a fish restaurant and it was good and it is recommended.
Practical stuff in Valle d’Ayas. Me and Marta had the time to make a short walk from the village of Palouettaz to Mandriou. It is a short walk with about 150 meters of hight difference and the view over Valle d’Ayas is really beautiful.
Time to go back home to Sweden. Bye-bye Italy for this time and thank you for being so beautiful and interesting. See you soon.
(Guest author: Pedro Capetillo)