Hiking the 52 tunnels

So when we woke up on Labor Day and thanked the gods for an extra day off work, we pretty much had no plans to do much of anything. We just got back the day before from Croatia, and lounging around the house always seems like a good idea to me after a road trip.

But lo, it was not not be.

Susan's friend told her about a hiking path not far from our place that was really cool. The Italians call it the Strada della Gallerie, or the "path of the tunnels". It is a winding path that goes up into the Alps. Along the way there are 52 tunnels that were built by the Italian military back in World War 1. They were used to supply the Italian mountain troops, the Alpini.

So off we went. As was to be expected, the drive there is always an adventure. The road to get to the trailhead was pretty much the narrowest possible road you could ever imagine... even for one car. So when we rounded a corner and almost got crushed by a huge truck carrying a huge trailer of lumber, we thought we had made a bad choice!

But we pressed on...

And then it happened again...

And still we pressed on.

We miraculously made it to the trailhead without our car getting crushed and started up the path. Being a monday, we were about the only hikers on the trail. It was about a 20 minute trek up a gravel path until we saw the first tunnel.



The tunnels were all different lengths. Some were only a few meters long and others took a good 5 minutes to walk through. All of them were pitch black. Luckily we were warned about this so we both had flashlights. Without flashlights, there would be a serious risk of broken ankles!!!


Every tunnel was numbered and named. Most of them were named after Italian cities or important Italian people, I'm guessing they were WW1 generals.

It was not an easy hike. The path had a good incline. Before we knew it we were in the clouds, and soon after we emerged above the clouds. The peaks of the Alps poked through.



Unfortunately, we had gotten off to a late start, so it was approaching 1600, (4pm for you non-military types) and we'd only made it through 27 tunnels. It had taken us 2 hours to get to that point, so we decided it would be a good idea to turn around and head back to the car before it got dark and cold.

Our leg muscles nicely worked and tired, we drove down the road of terror again, this time with no oncoming giant trucks, and made it back down to town. We were hungry so we stopped at a little pizzeria in a little town called Schio. What a little gem this place was! As a pizza tasting expert, I would have to say that this place had one of the top 5 pizzas I've had in all of Italy. No better way to end a trip!

Maybe someday we'll head back up there and try to make it through all 52 tunnels. If anyone out there wants to join us, I'll buy the pizza on the way back home!

Labor Day Weekend in... Croatia???

Right, probably not exactly the first place you'd think of to spend Labor Day weekend. I'm sure some of you might have thought, "Croatia? Aren't they still at war?"

Well they're not at war. And it happens to be a very cool and beautiful country. Many Europeans know this and the little islands that run along the Croatian coast and span out into the Adriatic Sea are popular tourist destinations in the summertime.

This was our second time to Croatia, the last time being a year ago when we went to the Istrian penninsula. This time we went a little further south onto the island of Losinj.


The island of Losinj is long and narrow and only has about 4 or 5 little villages on it. There's pretty much only one road that winds its way lengthwise up and around the mountainous terrain from the north ferry landing to the southern tip of the island.

The drive was as always one of my favorite parts of the trip. Winding roads, cliffs that drop off to the sea, and of course...

The unique and risque advertising that Eastern Europe is famous for!




This trip was really just about getting away to somewhere different to relax and enjoy a place we don't get to visit very often. This little cove was right outside from the backdoor of our hotel. I swam for little while here (the water was FREEEEEEZING!!!!!!). We spent most of the day on a sandy beach just chilling, reading, and snorkelling.



The sun set on our vacation on Sunday. We drove back up the island, crossed back over to the mainland, up through Slovenia and across into Italy. The whole trip home took us about 5 hours. We woke up Monday morning with another full day to kill. Should we just stay home and relax?

To be continued...

Lake Barcis

Lake Barcis is a tiny little lake tucked away in a mountain valley. It takes about 30 minutes to drive there from our house. There's a little village by the same name that sits on its shores. A lot of people go to Barcis for day trips, picnics, hiking, and sometimes boat races.

I took a trip up there this summer to kill a few hours in the afternoon.

Enjoy the pics. Isn't that blue water unreal?