"Hike" - the understatement

A bedtime of almost 3 AM last night (this morning, rather) was not the brightest idea in the book.  Somehow I managed to force myself out of bed this morning, despite my incredibly comfortable state.

On the agenda for today: Hike to the top of …. Whatever mountain.  Supposedly it only took 3 hours.  It was warm when we started, but a beautiful day in Umbria.  The sun was shining, a slight breeze giving us a little relief between the shadows of the trees over the road.  The nature was stunning.  The first appetizer for the meal of beauty were the tadpoles in the spontaneous creek running across the road.  There were even a few more mature ones, smack dab in the middle of adolescence – poor guys.

awwwwww cute froggie!  He still has part of his little tadpole tail!

The first course was especially delightful; there was a motorcycle race beginning right as we were passing through the tiny hillside town of Cesi.  I’m pretty sure I was trying to catch my breath from the bikes, not from the hike.  There were SO many of them there!

Yes Please.

The second course was the rocky path from Cesi to the top of the rocky outcropping.  It was full of beautiful wild flowers, which, in turn, were full of bugs.  The lady bug was really cute, but whatever plant gave me that rash was not very cool.  I asked for it though, wearing my shorts on a hike through the woods of Italy.

Bug de Lady

Pretty Wildflowers beside the trail

Awkward bug bite combined with mystery rash is odd....

A palate cleanser – you wouldn’t think that lichen on rocks would really be so incredible.  However, the formations were like paisley printed cotton – so bright, cheery and fun.

So pretty!

 Continuation of the hike was necessary – we had made it more than halfway up the mountain, and the goal was to get to the top and see the monastery up there and meet the monk.  We were about 10 minutes away from the top (we had been hiking for about 4 hours at this point), when it started to drizzle.  We decided to wait it out underneath some giant trees.  Boy oh boy, we had it coming.  A few minutes later, a cloud encompassed the top of the mountain, and suddenly it felt 10 degrees cooler and appeared to be dusk.  It began raining cats and dogs (quite the sight, let me tell you… haha), and lighting split the darkness.  One struck about 100 yards away.  I felt completely helpless.  Here I was, huddled under a trash bag on the top of a mountain in Italy, freezing cold, rivers of water running down the exposed body parts, and lakes collecting in the folds of the plastic.  No one to call to rescue me, no shelter to run to.  And I had blisters larger than quarters on my heels.  It was intense.  Finally the Italian/Romanian group decided to ditch their picnic and leave in their cars.  Long story short, they offered to drive us back to San Gemini, and we took them up on it – all 9 of us.  They were SO nice.  They knew very little English (one of the drivers had just gotten into a motorcycle accident a week before on his Kawasaki Ninja 600 and had a broken collarbone), but were so happy to help us poor Americani out.  They dropped us off in an unfamiliar part of town, so I sheepishly jogged through town, shorts and tank top completely soaked, zip up sweater, shoes, and a single sock in hand. Awkward.  However, I made it home, took my time cleaning up, and ate pretty much the entire pantry.  Then just chill time. 

I think I've seen these before...

Plans for tonight: Gelato and Finding Nemo.  

Fun Facts for Gelato: 1. Less fat content than ice cream.  2. Less air content, making it richer and more intense.   3. Made with fresh fruit puree.  4. Made in smaller batches than ice cream – local, if not made in the gelateria itself.  

Cute little sign

Wildflowers

Um.... I think this is about where we went...