The following morning we got an early start and met our guide at the Fort at 9am.
In order to fully explore Fortezza di Fenestrelle, you must take a guided tour.
You then have two options... a 3 hour tour where you see a portion of the Fort or you can chose the 8 hour hike that takes you to the top of the Fort.
The adventurous part of me really wanted to do the 8 hour tour. But 8 hours is a long hike and I'm not sure C or S for that matter would have been too excited about it. Plus, S was worried as it was about the 3 hour tour. He felt we weren't dressed properly for the hike. Me, on the other hand I thought we looked fine. Sure suede Converse sneakers are probably not the best footwear for hiking in the Italian Alps but I did the best with what I had. lol! I mean I'm not a hiker, a walker - yes, a hiker - no. So none of us had any of that cool gear like those pants that turn into shorts but I wasn't going to let that stop me from seeing the Fort.
Our tour unfortunately was mainly in Italian. The Italian guide was sick so Kent, our guide & also the B&B owner, took both groups. Which actually made our tour seem longer since everything was being translated into English. Although at times I felt like Bill Murray, in the movie "Lost In Translation". There is a scene in that movie where the Asian director is yelling all sorts of things in Japanese but when the translator translates the information to Bill Murray she basically translates it into 3 words. It's really funny. So that's how I felt. We got the condensed version of the Fortezza di Fenestrelle which was fine. It was informative & very interesting.
The view from the Fenestrelle Fort was beautiful. It's an incredible place to explore.
Once we reached the mid-point we left the group and walked down the trail on our own.
It was actually really nice because we took our time and stopped to take several family photos.
Once we reached the main area of the Fort we ate lunch outside. It was another gorgeous day. As we ate our lunch we made up elaborate stories with a couple of items that were left on our table - a basket of cheesy wheesies and two wine glasses (one half full while the other one was empty). It was a really fun game to play and we got creative and included the snakes Kent mentioned earlier into our story.
After our hiking experience, we went back to the B&B and took a nap. I didn't realize we were so out of shape! lol!
Once we got going again, we drove to a shop/restaurant called "Eataly" a fabulous gourmet shop Kent & Michelle mentioned to us. Inside the store they had a Gelatoria as well as a Coffee shop. Needless to say, we spent quite a bit of time here. We had our priorities straight though and ordered some gelato right away.
The weather was much hotter than I'd expected. I didn't bring any shorts for Lil' C but he improvised and rolled up his jeans. He's really into mixing up his socks; unless he wears a pair of white socks they rarely ever match. I find it very cute how he likes to do this.
Most of the items were a bit pricy so I just bought a few things... fresh pasta, two jars of Gelatina di Aceto Balsamico - this should be delicious on a slice of Parmesan, Rosemary and Sesame breadsticks to snack on, and of course some fresh ricotta to enjoy for breakfast.
That night we ate at a local restaurant and the food again was fabulous. S stayed away from anything too unusual since the previous night he ordered what he thought was carpaccio but instead he received a big plate of what looked like raw beef. Poor thing, he tried his best to eat it all - he didn't want to offend the chef but he just couldn't do it. So on the 2nd night he played it safe. For my first entree I had a plate of assorted sausage and raviolis stuffed with lamb & herbs as my second entree. It was fantastic. Everyone at the restaurant was so nice to us too. They tried their best to translate certain things on the menu for us and they kept calling different people - the chef, waitress', and other customers to see if they knew how to speak English. It was pretty comical.
How funny that C likes to mix and match his socks. He's so creative!
Posted by: GE | 24 June 2010 at 19:33
Your photos are lovely and make me want to go there. However, I have to tell you that carpacio IS raw beef, or in some cases, fish. Don't blame him for not eating it, though!
Posted by: Sunny | 13 July 2010 at 14:47