Tempted by a great deal - Walking holiday in Piedmont & Liguria - Italy

Piedmont and Liguria - part IV!

A big thank you to Secret Escapes....for luring us to Piedmont and Liguria for a fantastic Indian Summer escape from the Mercantour!!  More of the above later.......

Some time out for Jonesy and me, after a successful, if long season - thanks to everyone for their support and friendship this year!!

As much reported, the summer here has been a 'mare of wet, drying out conveniently for the end of September - cheers to the weather gurus!!

Coming over the Col de la Lombarde, which links Isola 2000 in France to Vinadio in Italy, was a fantastic ride under cloudless blue skies, and a perfect opportunity to finalise our proposed route for our 2019 Grande Traversee du Mercantour walking holiday - or holidays - given the level of interest to date!!

Fortified by a cheap and cheerful lunch menu for a tenner, we head towards Montaldo di Mondovi and one of the bestest views that you could possibly wish for - I exaggerate not - a perfect calm venue for 24 hours of reading/chill time!!  Note this IS the main house and not the studio - but assuring you that Monte Viso is in the distance.

Always in the search for authentic and interesting food we alight upon the Trattoria da Franca within a 20 minute drive and are treated to small portions of very tasty locally grown food - a Monday lunchtime - solo guests but served with charm!!  Plenty of time afterwards to explore the splendid town of Mondovi, with plenty of culture and a huge outlet centre on the outskirts, if you really must!!!

There are easy walking routes which allow you to walk right around the town - information is available locally - and the red/white signposts easy to follow.

We did try to get to the Baladin Brewery eating venues in Piozzo - alas - confounded by out- of-season closing.  We did however enjoy a fun lunch in a resto/pizzeria - the Bellagio on the road between Carru and San Giovanni - looks like an abattoir - but lots of laughs and great value dining.

Now, back to the high end element of our break - in the Duchessa Marguerita hotel/rooms in Vicoforte.  Note only is this a splendid place to stay, but is also within spitting distance of a magnificent basilica - which boasts the largest elliptical dome in the world.  Thank you to the lovely Valentina and the team for a great and faultless stay!!!

It is possible to eat in the cloisters, in a room to, well, be in total awe of, although the coach parties of folks, even greyer of hair than us, rather put us off!!  For our second evening, having run the gauntlet of closures and bloody-mindedness we had a simple supper at Don Chisciotte - nothing to write home about.

The Euthalia restaurant looks more interesting at a higher entry level - and the choices around the "mews" facing the edifice are fine.

Alas, moving on, but tempted by a revisit to Rio Rocca Agriturismo, we get to San Lorenzo al Mare and a flat overlooking the sea.  

The lovelies at the Agriturismo were away picking olives for a month but we enjoyed dining in the back country in a bar/resto opened by a dynamic brother and sister team.  

Well, aside from trying to tell me there wasn't mince in the tomato sauce on the second night -  there was! - veggies beware - they will learn not to be aggrieved by such things am sure!!

Fabulous and hot, hot, day out walking with jolly refreshment and great music, provided in the Bar La Colombiera in Pietrabruna. 

All just three hours from our home in the Mercantour!

Liz Lord
www.space-between.co.uk 

Photo Credit - Duchessa Marguerita 

Alas - the italics just won't go away!!



Video credit -  Département des Alpes-Maritimes

Cool walking in the Mercantour, France - a quick escape to Roya in the Tinee!!

Escape from the canicule - or the carnage, after yesterday's tempests - on the French Riviera!

The crazy weather this year has created extra special conditions here - the above picture was taken last year looking down on Vignols on our way over to the Refuge de Longon after a day trailing on the impressive sphinx-like Mount Mounier.

This year - and like an idiot I didn't take the camera - the landscape is just so verdant (much more so than the parched picture above! - and rich with flowers and water pouring every where.

From the Tinee valley, the village of Roya is just a short, if narrow, drive up the valley.  There's not a lot there but there is a welcoming looking gite d'etape - Ma Veille Ecole - which has been run by the same family since 2006.  We'll be giving it a try soon! 

The GR5 takes you down to a river where picnic tables in the shade looked very inviting.  The GR5 winds slowly and non aggressively up through forest so you have plenty of time to catch you breath and enjoy the Alpine flowers. 

You pass an area on the other side of the gurgling water, which is ideal for ice climbing in the winter - although there is now of course the artificial ice tower in Le Boreon in winter months for novices and non novices to have a trial out on before getting into big nature - and also have the security of having a bar next door!!

The path eventually comes out onto an open valley plain where marmot were scampering around giving us their best warning whistles, apparently oblivious to the 100 or so (yes a 100 or so - it's not a typo!) Griffon vultures which were leisurely circling over head.  Straight out of Lord of the Rings.

As it was hot, we only had half a day, and no real fixed agenda we just pottered about admiring the "micro" stuff - the flowers, butterflies, stunning weird insects, scat (including wolf scat), bone remains ...... and eyeing up possible venues for wild swimming.  A delight!!!

The feel of the terrain is so different from the Vesubie, and we at spacebetween are very keen to get some short breaks together so that guests can come an enjoy the mix of some classic GR - Grande Randonnee- walking, some excellent off piste walking and of course the pleasure of being well fed and watered at the end of the day!

This is still - great walking - only an hour and a half from the Cote D'Azur - (and 50 minutes from us in Berthemont) come and de-stress in the mountains. Rejuvination in a flash.

And thanks to Leslie Frasier and friends of Les Chats du Mercantour for the lovely picnic lunch in their field following our wee randonnee.  For cat lovers, Leslie does sterling work for wild cats in the Alpes-Maritimes, running sterlisation schemes and a massive re-homing operation for all sorts of beasties.  She lives in Saint Etienne de Tinee - if you wished to visit, or foster/adopt cats needing a kind owner.

Get in touch for some ideas for day walks or much longer!!!  

Spacebetween - 00 33 493034857 - 00 33 678304929
Accommodation and walking holiday in the Mercantour National Park and beyond!!

Photos - top - Vignols from above - bottom - Mounier in the distance setting out from the Col de Couillole - in 2012 - dry grass!!