Crossing the Alps from Briançon in France to Turin in Italy we found a nice hike in Foresto. The weather was still not good but we made the best out of it.
We had found a parking at park4night where a hike of 2,5 hours was mentioned. But nobody had mentioned that entering the little village from the west (Susa) is not a good idea with a big caravan – we nearly got stuck!!! Very slowly and with the mirrows pulled in we managed the bottle neck between old little houses. The farmer we had met a minute before for sure had his opinion about stupid caravan drivers. The parking also was not huge but as the school was closed, there were no other cars. (45.140638, 7.115335)
The Sentiero dei Ginepri starts from this parking and is well signed. It leads up on an ancient path which the villagers surely use since centuries and which led to lime kilns and pastures.
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| The first part leads steep up the mountain |
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| Foresto from above |
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| We could see our caravan parked down there |
Once we took the wrong path and added 1/2 hours of climbing further into the hills to our tour. If we would have looked more carefully we would have read the sings right, but more excercise doesn’t hurt.
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| What they want to say is: Don’t dare and eat me |
The vegetation was incredible. I haven’t seen such a variety of plants for a long time. Everywhere little flowers were blooming and doing this tour again with my makro lense (and better weather) would be great. But of course we were in a rush again, having to return to Vienna soon.
Ruins of former farm houses, now all down in the valley or maybe of the people working the lime kilns dotted the hillside. What was special was the way the roofs were covered with large black slate slabs. We had seen this kind of roofing in the village and also on these old houses.
The rain wasn’t too heavy but the grass was high and dripping wet, which soaked our pants and shoes. Soon we were dripping wet ourselves, but we didn’t really mind.
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| Finally the path leads down into the valley again |
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| Raindrops everywhere |
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| Flower of the Day |
