After looking across the valley at the village of Barga for three days we succeeded today in walking there and back and found it to be a delightful place.
We felt sure our "guide dog" would turn up and show us the way but there was no sign of him and we really needed his help. After twenty minutes walking through the forest we arrived at the tiny settlement of Albiano, which has a cafe called the Terraces.
We followed the instruction sheet prepared by the resort up to the point where we turned around on Tuesday but soon found a sign "Private Property" which persuaded us to come down the main road, but we found the track again not long after. We arrived after a total of one hour walking. There were family vaults and Madonna shrines along the way.
We headed straight towards the old part of town, which was up a steep hill that had dozens of narrow alleys and step ways leading to the Duomo.
At the church of St Christopher located at the base of the final steps up to the Duomo, we heard a small orchestra tuning up and when we came back we were able to record 30 seconds of their playing, which was probably from Handel's opera Catina which was due to commence tomorrow.
The Duomo was impressive for such a small town and featured a statue of the saint from the twelfth century.
From the grounds of the cathedral we had a great view of the valley and we could see the Il Ciocco resort (the large building). Our room is the last balcony on the right under the roof. Possibly the one with the best view.
We had morning tea at a cafe nearby and it consisted of a cappuccino, a hot milk and a slice of almond tart. They charged us four euros 20 and we said that could not be right so they checked the bill and said yes it is, so we left one euro on the table.
We rambled around for another hour, passing through Garibaldi Square where this plaque seemed to indicate that one of Garibaldi's close associates was being honoured on the occasion of the two hundredth anniversary of his birth.
We are still not sure whether the statue in the square was actually Garibaldi.
We found a high section of the original town wall.
In a shop window there were several model houses and this one was made with short logs and reminded us of the cordwood walls of our house.
All the services seem to be catered for in this town, including physiotherapy.
We bumped into our Chef from last night's class, Alessandro Manfredini, nearby and he told us he was going to a job interview. Tonight at dinner he came out to talk to us again and told us he was sad because he was not successful. He treated us like old friends and gave us special attention. We were honoured.
After an ice cream, we walked back to the resort, trying another way, but we still missed the correct path at halfway. Still no guide dog; we hope he is all right as his eyes looked really bad.
There are many houses for sale, some in poor repair, that would be a real building challenge; but you would end up with a very unique and large home.
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