Alps 2016 (pic heavy)

[Buzzard]

Fabulous TR and such great photos Kaiser.

 

[UP4014]

Nice stuff, enjoying the photos. And the MrsKaiser faceless pics which added to the interest of the photo journal! (but at least one slipped through)

Matt

 

[Boca68]

Great TR Kaiser.

Wonderful pics!

I see that you understand the concept of 'grocery shopping' . Wine and cheese... and maybe some parma.

 

[Kaiser]

Our 3 days in Parma had us well acquainted with all sorts of fermented goodness - next stop Cinque Terre. Not normally a place that we'd choose to go to due to the massive crowds - but it's one of those places that has crowds for a good reason. We stayed in Riomaggiore which is the first town from La Spezia if you're travelling by train. AirBnB came through with the goods (again) and we had an place with a cute little kitchen open to the sea - the views were to die for. We spent 2 days doing some hikes up into the hills beyond the terraced vineyards - the more popular and paid walking paths that hug the coastline were partially closed and quite crowded. The routes we took we only passed a few other walkers and runners. The paths were quite steep and precarious in places - which I used as an excuse to justify post hike gelato.

Train line has some prime real estate

Lots of climbing..

Almost there

Each of the five towns is connected by rail if you don't want to walk between each (Corniglia still involves quite a few stairs from the train platform up to the town centre. This is not the destination for roller luggage - stairs almost everywhere - some steep enough they border on being called ladders.

By nightfall a lot of the day trippers had left and Riomaggiore took on a much more relaxed mood.

Our seaside kitchen

Nothing like making some pasta, enjoying a bottle of Lambrusco and watching the sun set.

 

[Kaiser]

Great TR Kaiser.

Wonderful pics!

I see that you understand the concept of 'grocery shopping' . Wine and cheese... and maybe some parma.

This was pretty much our diet for the entire trip:

 

[Kaiser]

Lemons were in season

Maranola

Perfect weather

 

[scaredeycat]

Beautiful pics. Looks like you had a fantastic time.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Great pics and my type of travelling.

We loved the Cinque Terra when we did it in April several years back and like you found the inland walks a lot less crowded. The steepness of the climbs putting off most people.

It looks like an Osprey Backpack in the pics and the same one as my wife and I used in Nepal in Dec 15. Great backpack and probably the most comfortable hiking packs we have ever used.

 

[Kaiser]

The Osprey packs are great, super lightweight which helps when you're carry-on only type of traveller.

 

[kermatu]

Terrific report. Some amazing pics - great eye! Thanks for posting.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

The Osprey packs are great, super lightweight which helps when you're carry-on only type of traveller.

For serious hiking we also loved the water bladder pocket as we had not used bladders before but are now converts. In Nepal we also used walking poles (some Karrimor carbon fibre telescopic ones) for the first time (and yes once you know how to use them they make a huge difference on the steep trails there) and the Osprey's stow on the fly pole system was veryt easy and convenient to use.

The Osprey packs are extremelely well thought through with a bunch of very practical features.

 

[Milboo]

Enjoying this! Your photos are awesome too.

 

[Kaiser]

Before too long it was once again time to board the train - this time taking us north east, into the heart of the Emilia Romagna region - the food bowl of Italy. Bologna was our choice and it did not dissappoint. Being the largest university town in Italy - you can't help but notice the upbeat, youthful vibe of the city. Whilst Parma was smooth and sophisticated and dare I say slightly reserved (if such a thing is possible for Italians) - Bologna shows a hint of the boisterous, colourful personality more akin to Naples (although not quite as chaotic). Many of the building feature porticos, providing sheltered sidewalks - making Bologna a wonderful walking city no matter what the weather is doing. We took a walk up to Santuario di Madonna di San Luca - the whole walk is completely covered - the first part containing an endless number of cafes, delis - before starting the gradual ascent up to the Sanctuary. Whilst not especially steep, the incline is relentless and includes many steps. This wasn't to deter anyone though as we spotted everyone from toddlers to people well into their 80s going for their morning stroll.

Bologna is well known for amazing cuisine - I couldn't help but try the typical tagliatelle a la ragu - just to see how it compared to my "spaghetti bolognaise". A great place for this dish is Osteria Dell'Orsa - where 6 euros will get you a big bowl of the stuff. It was the best comfort food.
It's best to do some research to mark out some places you'd like to eat, because there certainly are some sub-par places around that we came across. The SD card in my camera got corrupted so I lost a lot of our Bologna photos - although I found my self taking less photos here, not because it wasn't beautiful, but becuase it was one of those places where you just wanted to stroll around a take it all in.

 

[Kaiser]

Heading further east/north east, the train took us to Udine, in the Friuli Venezia Guila region of Italy. An area well known for its excellent wines and cuisine with an interesting mix of Austro-Hungarian and Slavic influences. We picked up our rental car at this point and chose to spend two nights near Cormons, a town right in the midst of the wine producers. We stayed on a working dairy farm which was fantastic. Full breakfast made up of fresh dairy products and we were given an inside look into their cheese making process. Cormons itself was a 20min bike ride or 5 min drive away and had a number of great restaurants. The enoteca in Cormons was a great place to sample the local wines, starting from 1.50euro per glass.

Making mozzarella

Surrounds of the farm

 

[levelnine]

Thanks for a great TR.

I see from another thread that you took a Ricoh GR on this trip. Is that correct? Did you apply any PP to these photos? They look terrific!

 

[Kaiser]

It was time to jump in the car and make the long and arduous journey over into Slovenia....all of 15 minutes away. There were a lot of locations that I wanted to see in this south western area of Slovenia - and Kobarid was to be our base for the next 2 nights. Before we made it there, however, we stopped for a walk through the Tolmin Gorge - sure glad we did. I'll let the pictures do the talking - but fair to say it was one of the most stunning scenes we were lucky enough to see on our trip. This area and the surrounding towns were part of the Soca Front - one of the bloodiest battle fronts of WWI. It was hard to imagine that such a peaceful place had once been the last place for tens of thousands of soldiers. It was a pretty sobering experience.

 

[Kaiser]

Thanks for a great TR.

I see from another thread that you took a Ricoh GR on this trip. Is that correct? Did you apply any PP to these photos? They look terrific!

Some photos are straight jpegs from the camera, others have minor PP.
I ended up taking a Nikon D750 with an 18-35 wide zoom, the Ricoh GR and Samsung Galaxy S7 phone. Used the S7 more than I thought and the DSLR the least (although it was still responsible for my favourite shots).

 

[auriga]

Very nice pictures! Enjoying the report a lot! Thank you for sharing.

 

[mmchow]

What a beautiful trip with oh so beautiful photos. Showed this to my partner and agreed to make plans for this trip next year. May need to get some details of the places you visited too. Thanks for sharing!!

 

[VPS]

Great TR and some of those photos are magnificent - thanks