Hiking Abruzzo: Castrovalva -> Scanno

After a typical "so la la" breakfast, we bid town goodbye under partly cloudy skies, without a threat of rain. yay! We start with a diversion to make a picture of town corresponding to  Escher's print and then head up on the trail out of town.

Castrovalva and Anversa

The going is pretty good, not too muddy, and we make good progress up, out of the woods, across nice meadows, clouds blowing over and away. We miss the trail for a bit, then catch ourselves and find it again. Onward we go, slowly climbing until we reach the pass l'Immaculata. It's super windy, so we opt to take a break in the shelter of the small chapel and enjoy the last views back.

across nice meadows....

After a couple of minutes, it starts to drizzle (great), so we put on the gore tex and cut our break short. Easy descent to Frattura Vecchia with great views down to Scanno and its lake. We reach town, discover that it is in fact still essentially completely ruined (no sign of the crazy Swedish billionaire's doings), explore a bit, and then head onward. Along the way we get a good combination of place to site, sun, and relative wind still, so we take a quick lunch break. Strengthened, we continue on and up to above Frattura. From here we're on a marked hiking path that we follow along the contour line for quite a while, through meadows, through woods, past horses, keeping suspicious eyes on the very threatening clouds on the other side of the valley.

ruins of Frattura Vecchia

After a while and some very nice hiking, we hit a cross trail and turn downwards. This leads us, steeply at times, parallel to a creek down into the valley. We arrive at the road under Scanno, tramp along the road for a bit, and then take the stairs near the bus parking lot up into town (thanks you Herr Hennig for that one!). At the first piazza we sit for a bit and use the iPhone to find our hotel, navigate our way there, check in, shower, rest, etc. Before all that Andrea tramps back across town to retrieve her sticks from the piazza where she had left them.

Scanno

After our rest we do a bit of tour around town, have some nice local specialty cakes and coffee/tea, do some shopping, get some very good pecorino from the super-friendly cheese lady, walk by a big political gathering, scope out the restaurants, and then head back to the hotel until dinner time. Our first dinner choice is closed, so we end up at a Hennig recommendation and have a very nice meal, though it does get pretty loud. Afterwards, through the light rain back to the hotel.

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