An Alpine passeggiatta: Sestriere high life

Neville and Rosella introduced us to the Italian evening stroll, the passeggiatta, back in 2008 in Umbria. Here we are in the Italian Alps, Sestriere high life indeed, definitely not pubs and clubs but rather walking  above 2000m! 

Our passeggiatta has taken us into the alpine forest, past slate roof stone houses bunkered into the ground, marmots playing in the open glades, cows with bells tinkling, late summer flowers and even a farm stall where we bought cheese, milk, yogurt, eggs and panne cotta.

Majestic Monte Chaberton, 3131m

Fred perched on the Balcone Trail

And then when you look up from the path, the views are completely magnificent. The scale is hard to capture. The peaks loom large even though they float in the background and they are already lightly snow dusted after some early precipitation recently.

Views from Sestriere across to Punta Ramiere, 3303m

Provisioning for cheese, yogurt, milk, eggs and panne cotta straight from the farm

A memory: Groentemarktbrug, Lijnbaansgracht, Amsterdam

Fred tells a story from his days as a little lad in Amsterdam; his father would give him a few coins and send him to the market over the Lijnbaansgracht from their flat. He remembers running past the police station and into the fresh produce market place to buy a handful of eels still squirming in their bucket. He would ask the time of the merchant and then run back with both the eels and the time for his father!

Doing our wandering along the canal in the Jordaan, trying to connect a decades old story with the busyness of the new, I noticed this sign on the bridge 'Groentemarktbrug', vegetable market bridge, the market is now a parking garage and petrol station but the sign on the bridge has not changed!

 

Views along the canals of Fred's youth growing up in Amsterdam.