After two grueling days of hiking, today felt like a breeze. Maybe we are getting conditioned or may be because today was half the climb of yesterday which also meant half the descent.

We again began the day climbing along the side of the mountain protected from sun and in the shelter of the trees.

Our reward for the climb was the working ranch that provides hikers an opportunity to eat fresh farm to mouth food served in a beautiful picnic area.

After a nice relaxing lunch it was time to tackle steep slippery descent. Fortunately it did not last and we finally had an opportunity to walk on flats and take full strides.

We are now settled in the beautiful town of Champonex with a beautiful lake and some gorgeous views of tomorrow’s start in Hôtel Splendide.

Yesterday we were fortunate to take the cable car to the ridge. At the end of the day we had a steep descent.

This morning we started with a 2000+ feet climb. We were hoping for some flats once we were at the ridge but we began descending immediately. In fact today was up and down mostly. If yesterday was grueling, today was even harder. Internet seems to be slow so I am not sure how many pictures I can load but I will try my best.

Just before our picnic lunch we crossed over to Switzerland. Next day and half we hike in Switzerland and then move onto Italy.

There are many ways to do this tour. Sakkar, my sister, did all the research and proposed the guided tour where they arrange all the accommodations, luggage transfers, picnic lunch, and dinner at the hotel.

Thank you Sakkar for all the great research and heavy lifting on planning this trip!

We are a group of 11 people. Nine Americans, 1 Canadian, and 1 Brazilian. Our guide is British who has lived in France for the last 20 years.

It is so nice to get all the logistics taken care of since the hiking is grueling enough, as we found out today! We took a cable car up to begin the gorgeous hike. Below us lay the Chamonix valley and across the valley the beautiful peak of Mont Blanc. The Mont Blanc range is part of the Alps. This Mont Blanc Trek is 100 miles of hiking through 3 countries and will take us 10 days to complete. I will let the pictures do the rest of the story for today.

Paris

Chamonix

Our adventure this year has brought us to Chamonix in France where we will circumnavigate Mont Blanc and in the process travel 100 miles through France, Italy, and Switzerland.

We begin our hike tomorrow so this is just to whet your appetite.

We flew into Paris yesterday and made our way to the ski resort of Chamonix by train today.

We are so fortunate to be able to enjoy the best life has to offer in the last 30 days. The serene walks in the forest, lovely and kind people along the way, great food, beautiful vistas and spiritual vibrations of the nature and the Saints. We end our Camino today in Rieti. We will use the rest of our time here in Italy like typical tourists.

We left Poggio Bustone this morning going downhill. Fortunately we did not go all the way down but stayed in the mountains, walking along the ridges most of the day before ending the walk in the valley.

We came partway down the mountain and then began going from one mountain to another on a beautiful path along the contour.

I thought we were done with climbing only to discover this beautiful town on the way. It was a fun climb to the top of the village.

At the top we were able to discover the secret to great Italian coffee. A patron Saint for Cappuccino!!!

All kidding aside, the best part of the day was when we reached the Santuario La Foresta. St Francis spent 50 days in this sanctuary towards the end of his life. He also performed his miracle of grapes here. A beautiful place with nice peaceful vibrations.

It’s been our joy to share this wonderful journey with you.

ARRIVEDERCI

Since Trevi we have been passing two Americans back and forth. Finally we had chance to spend some time with them as we had our breakfast

George is from Kentucky and Jonathan from NY.

We like to keep our day shorter than 20 km, but unfortunately there was no way to shorten this walk by much. We left to pass by our first town of today’s walk, Labro, some 5 km away. We started climbing and soon left the lake behind.

At this historic town of Labro, we discovered things we had no clue about, courtesy of Susan and Armando.

They own a 500 year old house here and have lived here for 30 years. Susan is American, and her husband is from Chili. He studied at the University of Minnesota, and fortunately they both spoke English with us.

The town has 70 full time residents. It is marked as a historic site, so no new buildings can be built nor can anyone change the exterior. Houses can be remodeled inside. The town is as if frozen in time.

We could see the lake and the town we left behind this morning, as well as the valley of Rieti that we will head towards tomorrow.

We did find a shortcut that may have saved us about 600 feet of climbing, but we still ended up walking over 20 km and climbing 2000 feet.

Our first glimpse of Poggio Bustone where we are spending the night tonight.

Tomorrow we head down the valley to Rieti where there will be quite a few things to see.

It’s amazing to see how quickly the body recovers from a day’s rest and a good meal. For dinner last night we had Ravioli again, this time with amazing spinach, mushroom, and cream sauce. Had to order seconds. On the way out we complimented the chef who turned out to be the owner. Turns out he is from Punjab running an Italian restaurant making this amazing Ravioli.

This morning as we were leaving it was sprinkling. For just a moment we debated calling it a day and taking a bus. Fortunately it was a fleeting thought, because it was a perfect day with varieties of everything, but most especially, of the views. We put on our rain jacket and backpack cover and moved on. The sprinkle did not last long, but it gave us an opportunity to use what we have been carrying for a month!

Our half way point was this gorgeous waterfall (that is what they say since it was not on today!) (Have you ever heard of such a thing?)

Turns out, during the Roman times, they diverted the water away from the Reiti valley over the mountain toward Terni. Over time, they came to a compromise as Terni was flooding. Now they turn the waterfall on only on weekends, so we missed our chance to see it!

The picture above shows where it gushes out when it’s turned on.

We started going down from the dam towards the picturesque town of Piediluco.

We had our lunch looking at our destination for today, about 4 km away.

We are now settled in this beautiful lake town of Piediluco.

We head toward these mountains tomorrow. This is the view from our balcony.

Since I borrowed the title of Dr. Seuss today, I will leave you with a portion of his beautiful views delightful book!

Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

by

Dr. Seuss

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself 
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look ’em over with care.
About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.”
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, 
you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any
you’ll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you’ll head straight out of town.

It’s opener there
in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.

And then things start to happen,
don’t worry. Don’t stew.
Just go right along.
You’ll start happening too.

OH!
THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!

You’ll be on y our way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed.
You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.
Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so
but, sadly, it’s true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump,
you’re not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right…
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind…

We have been moving from one medieval town to another. It’s been long days of – 20 km each. What made these days hard was that half of each day’s walk was flat and on asphalt (never thought we would complain about flat walking). Fortunately the other half of each day was either climbing or descending.

Day from Spello to Trevi.

Above picture is of Trevi as we were climbing toward it.

Trevi.

Walk from Trevi to Spoleto.

Spoleto.

We have taken a rest day today and have jumped forward to Arrone, which is in the mountain.

The above two pictures are from our balcony.

Assisi is a hard city to leave. The vibrations at the St. Francis tomb are unbelievable. The city has energy of its own.

This morning we left for another medieval town called Spello. We walked along the ridge of a mountain full of olive orchards beside us and the beautiful Perugia valley below us. Here are some pictures from today’s journey.