St. Ulrich to Trieste, Day 10 - doing something dumb - Villa Santina to Cesclans

Tuesday June 30, Villa Santina to Cesclans

Today we did one very smart thing and one very dumb thing. 

The smart thing: boxing up our hiking boots, jackets, mittens (seriously, we've hiked in the Alps four summers in a row and have yet to not encounter sleet or snow), extra first-aid kit, map, etc., and shipping them back to Germany. 15 lbs less weight between the two of us made hiking in the heat more bearable. 

But first, breakfast. It was spectacular--all homemade by our host, with artistic flourishes, pastries, fresh fruit and veggies, and the best breakfast of our entire trip. What a delight, too, to be clearly past the realm of sweet empty-carb breakfasts. 

When our host learned of our plan to shed weight in Tolmezzo, she found a box for us, and some packing tape, and cheered us on as we packed. We were thus able to ship the box from the post office a block away in Villa Santina. 

Our goal for the day was Cesclans. Knowing the town lacked both a grocery store and an open restaurant, I had replanned our route to go through Tolmezzo, so we could pick up food for dinner and spend the hottest part of the day in a museum and at the community swimming pool. 

This meant paralleling the Tagliamente River, which still looked pretty dry outside of Villa Santina. 

We followed the Carnia Ciclovia (Carnia bike path) most of the way to Tolmezzo, appreciating the shady spots. 

High up on the hill, an Italian flag, in case anyone wondered where they were

Stone wall with built-in stairs... 

When we arrived in Tolmezzo, we learned that although we were now past all six Alta Via routes, there were still more north-south routes to see. We were now on the Romea Strata, a pilgrimage route that runs all the way from Latvia to Rome.

In Tolmezzo, we visited the Museum of Carnic Folk Art. The collection included pottery, masks with and without goiters, St. Agatha holding her breasts on a plate, a machine for tuning accordions, Carly the Travel Chicken's cousins (some of whom were ocarinas!), and much more. 

Elsewhere in town, gnomes lurked.

During lunch, we began our big dumb thing for the day. S doesn't care for nice, cooling swimming pools, so he suggested, while sitting in the shade enjoying pizza and a cool seltzer, that we go ahead and walk to our endpoint of the day, Cesclans. 

After he made this dumb suggestion, I did the even dumber thing and agreed.

But first, we headed back to the Altstadt for groceries. I took a dozen photos of this staircase near the store, because that's how I operate.

Here's a photo taken while we crossed another bridge over the Tagliamente--with water in it!--in the blazing heat. We thought the temp was ~93°F, but the recorded high for today was near 97°. We did not keel over that afternoon, but the walk was often without shade and supremely uncomfortable, and I was pretty pissed at both of us once I realized how risky this was. Don't be as dumb as us. 

The penultimate stretch was uphill through woods... 

6.5 stinking hot miles and one electrolyte-filled Pink Lady apple past Tolmezzo, we arrived at the outskirts of Cesclans, where it was a smidge cooler.

The first thing we did when we reached our un-air-conditioned inn (where our host gave us a look and said, more or less, "you hiked here? What were you thinking?") was to take cooling showers and declare ourselves idiots. Then we ate snacks and drank a ton of water for dinner.

Afterward, we walked up the hill to the church of San Stefano. The oldest parts of the church date from the 8th c., with its modern form dating from the 18th c. 

From the wall behind the church, we looked out at the end of the Alps.

It was only after looking up the history of the church that we learned about the devastating earthquake of May 6, 1976. The quake destroyed large swaths of buildings in Villa Santina (which probably accounts for why that town had looked more bleakly utilitarian than quaint), Tolmezzo, Cesclans, Gemona, and many other Friulian towns. That first wave--another series of earthquakes would follow in September--killed 990 people, injured over 3,000, and displaced over 157,000. The church of San Stefano was left with only tower standing; its rebuild and related archeological research weren't completed until 1996.

Ta da? 13.75 miles, 900' up, 1,030' down. Pretty dumb, but we didn't die.

Villa Santina to Tolmezzo

Tolmezzo to Cesclans