Our friends, Cristiano and Bridget, with their 3-year-old daughter, Peggy, invitded us to join them for the weekend at a mountain house they rent in Montfol, in the Italian Alps.  It was an invitation directly from heaven as I had just told Ombra how much I wanted to go hiking one summer; the call came 20 minutes thereafter...  So we drove the one hour up into the mountains on Friday night. And took the 3.5 hour hike to Refugio Alaud on a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon.  Got up front and personal with Mother Nature!

After the last 8-months of seeing only flat flat country-side in South Florida, the mountains rising to the sky and dropping dramatically down to the valley, as well as all of the windy roads and switchbacks were a tonic!  Just exhilarating... As Ombra said, "it is not that we miss the mountains when we are at the Beach, but that we really appreciate seeing the mountains and fields and forests now..."

The Refugio was 1771 meters above sea-level, which meant that we were hiking over one mile altitude and you could definitely feel the thin oxygen. This area around Sauza d'Oulx was established in 1342 and the building construction from hundreds of years ago has been maintained from that time period! Brilliant demonstration of things passing the test of time.

A great day, and a great weekend visiting friends! Loved it!