Spot the hikers

What a day! We bade a fond farewell to Marisa, promising to come back, and set off on a roundabout route to our next destination. First stop was the shabby yet handsome town of Penne, built largely of red brick and thus reminding us of Toulouse, with the addition of considerable earthquake damage. We wandered round the town, failed to visit the cathedral, which was closed, and then bought some focaccia for lunch. After that, a long drive to the parking spot for our "easy" walk. I'd got a bit tired walking around Penne and was seriously tempted to give it a miss, but I sternly told myself not to be a wimp. I was glad I didn't chicken out, as it was a lovely walk and not as hard as I expected it to be. We started off in the ubiquitous beech woods before climbing up a steeper and rockier path for a great view of this sheer rock face with constantly moving clouds hiding and revealing it.

Most of us stopped and sat down for lunch,  but S, D and S went rock-hopping up the rubble-filled river bed to see if they could spot any snow (no). Back at the van I was tired but pleased and knocked back an ibuprofen to calm my foot.

From here it was another hour's drive to the town of Castelli which is renowned for its majolica ceramics. Lorenzo had arranged a visit to one of the oldest workshops, and it was absolutely fascinating. The elderly potter was clearly delighted to have an interested audience to watch his demonstration of their centuries-old techniques. We were there for something like an hour and a half, following everything from the use of moulds and wheel to make the pots to painting the decorations. They even make their own slips and pigments using manual techniques.

As usual we were behind schedule. We hadn't got back to the van from our walk till after three, and when we asked Lorenzo what time we were supposed to be at the pottery, he replied, "Italian 3 o'clock" ... we got there at 4:30. We had an Italian hour's drive to Rocca Calascio, crossing the beautiful Campo Imperatore at sunset (no, the photos don't do it justice). We arrived just after seven, so we had time to unpack and have a quick drink before our excellent dinner.

The wifi here is excellent too ... the backlog of backblips starts here, and I have even managed to add loads of photos to my Abruzzo album on Flickr. I took a ton of photos of our action-packed day; click right from here for the highlights.