Great first day in Italy!

We woke up yesterday morning to a clean blue sky, sunshine, and warmer than normal temperatures. It's usually a high of around 16C (61F) at this time of year in Bergamo, and they were calling for a high of 22C (72F).

So it didn't take long for us to decide we were going for a hike up the mountain behind us!

We were overdue for a nice hike, and with the perfect weather and the fantastic scenery, we enthusiastically set off at about 10:05am...

We had to walk through some residential areas to get to the trails.

We're headed up to the top of that hill.

The church in the village of Sorisole.

The side door of the church.

Heading uphill.

Every step of the way.

There's a big cross on the hill we are heading up to.

Starting to get some nice views.

As we made it up to the first ridge, at a place called Canto Basso, I was expecting to see a beautiful view of the Italian Alps. And, we weren't disappointed. I videoed the experience for you to enjoy with us! Turn up your volume...

And of course we took a few still pictures as well.

Wow.

We could live here. Easy.

Yep, this looks like a good spot to sit and have lunch!

It had taken us two hours and twenty minutes to get to the first ridge. But, the climbing wasn't done yet. We had to go further up to get to Canto Alto where the big cross was located. Refreshed from our lunch break, we set off again...

Yep...more uphill.

Almost there!

It was another 45 minutes of climbing to make it to the top, at 1,168 meters (3,800 ft). We had started out at 359 meters (1,177 feet), so we had climbed 809 meters (2,623 feet) in  three hours and twenty minutes. And here is the reward we got for our hard work...

Looking north towards the Italian Alps.

And in the opposite direction.

There were six other people at the top, all relaxing and enjoying the views. There are lots of trails in these hills, and many of them converge at this one spot.

Then, it was time to head down. We took a different route down, and it was steeper so we're glad we came up the way we did.

This cabin has a nice view!

So does this one!

This path is probably hundreds of years old.

Couldn't have asked for a better day.

The trail system reminds us of Slovakia. Lots of markers.

We made it back to the apartment at about 3:45pm. 

We had done 14 kms (8.7 miles) in five and a half hours. What a great day we had.

We put our feet up and relaxed with a glass of wine (or two) for the evening!

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