#appennines

[motocrunch]

[elliovein]

•°▪︎When I die, search for me in the womb of the Apennines.▪︎°•

[thebestinphotography]

Distorted Dreams

[toughlondon]

Mountains over Rapallo, May 2018.

[il-viaggiatore-senza-meta]

Mono-no-aware

Una panoramica sulla Val Baganza, un susseguirsi scenografico di crinali sui quali incombe la mole massiccia del Monte Barigazzo (in fondo a destra).

L'empatia verso tutte le cose

La bellezza della natura e del paesaggio sono sempre fonte di ispirazione, di contemplazione e di pienezza. Visti dal vivo, questi paesaggi, queste grafie, queste luci si ha la sensazione di respirarle, di assimilarle, di ammalgamarle al proprio spirito, alla propria essenza, fino a diventarne parte, come in uno specchio dell'anima, delle emozioni e dell'armonia.

Mono-no-aware è un termine giapponese che esprime proprio un concetto di questo genere, un'empatia verso tutte le cose, in particolare verso la bellezza e l'armonia delle forme dela natura e del paesaggio. Questo popolo dalla particolarissima cultura e fantasia, ha sviluppato un'estra sensibilità verso le forme della natura, del paesaggio e di tutti i suoi incessanti cambiamenti, tanto che ogni aspetto del mondo naturale entra in modo vitale e potente in tutto lo spirito religioso, poetico e mitico di questo lontano paese.

Ad ogni istante il paesaggio ci mostra i suoi cambiamenti, nelle stagioni, nelle condizioni atmosferiche e nel movimento del nostro astro, ed i fotografi ben lo sanno come tutto possa cambiare in pochi istanti. Per lo spirito giapponese tutto il bello è transitorio, come la vita stessa in tutte le sue forme, tutto è destinato a corrompersi e per questo motivo ogni singolo istante è unico e prezioso, un grande tesoro che ci viene offerto.

Forse noi occidentali dovremmo rivalutare il nostro modo di vedere il mondo, la natura viene da noi vista troppo spesso in termini agonistici, sportivi, ricreativi o utilitaristici, ben pochi vanno per sentieri per meditare, per conteplare forme, luci e colori, per vedere in una pietra, un albero, un fiore o un animale selvatico uno specchio di sé. Molti vedno nella natura una distrazione, mentre essa dovrebbe essere una concentrazione, un luogo, uno spazio sacro dove poterci raccogliere, o meglio ancora poterci aprire, per ritrovare il proprio centro e scambiare energie e conoscenze in modo empatico con il cosmo intero, il quale ci parla attraverso il linguaggio della bellezza.

Anche la nostra cultura occidentale ha saputo esprimere delle profondità contemplative ed empatiche straordinarie con il mondo della natura e le sue magiche forze, ma dobbiamo scavare molto nel passato per ritrovarne le tracce, dovremmo finanche scavare nella cenere, dove sono state mandate al rogo le anime che nella natura vedevano uno specchio di sè.

[onlyangrybeargram]

2.1.22 - Salse di Nirano

(https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riserva_naturale_regionale_delle_Salse_di_Nirano#:~:text=La%20riserva%20naturale%20Salse%20di%20Nirano%20%C3%A8%20un%27,prima%20riserva%20regionale%20ad%20essere%20istituita%20in%20Emilia-Romagna.)

[followingliz]

Hiking in The Apennines [Part 1]

For Alex’s birthday at the beginning of September we decided the best way to celebrate was to get out of the apartment and to get as far away from buildings, cities, and people as we could reasonably do in a day trip.

Alex wanted panoramas, views and nature. So we headed to the Appenino Tosco-Emiliano National Park.

The Tuscan-Emilia Apennines are just an hour and half west of us making it an easy day trip with a friends car. Now, like all other Italian hiking trails, there is little-to-no useful information online about the hiking trails in these mountains. There is a bit more than usual if you go to the parcoappenino website they give you some information about what’s available. However, their Italian and English versions of the websites are actually completely different with different trails! And while I was looking for a short-ish, manageable hike on the Italian version I had trouble finding anything. When I switched to the English version of the site, lo-and-behold I found exactly what I was looking for...

 Anyway there’s a this lovely little loop from Lago Calamone up to the top of Monte Ventasso and down again only 5k should take about 3hrs! After doing a few more very specific google searches and finding a couple of blog posts I decided this was the loop for us! So we headed with our friends Alyssa and Raffaella to Lago Calamone.

Upon arriving at the lake you’ll actually park about half a mile away in the parking lot of the hotel/restaurant. The walk to the lake is along a gravel road that’s very easy and pleasant and then you arrive at the lake itself.

It’s an incredibly peaceful sight and immediately I knew we made the right decision. Once you reach the lake you’ll have the choice of going left or right.

Since the trail is a loop it technically doesn’t matter. But heading to the right will take you up a fairly steep path straight to the top of the mountain. Heading to the left will take you on a more windey path around the other side of the mountain. Not wanting to repeat our stair-climbing hiking adventure in Liguria we headed to the left on trail 663 towards Bivacco S. Maria Maddalena. Just as we left the lake we did have to climb quite a steep cobbled hill.

Following the signs for we entered a beautifully green, lush forest.

With huge trees, incredibly quiet and peaceful and no other people around it was really nourishing to walk along the soft trail.

The trail climbs a little bit and at the top of the hill you are met with a sign post. It points to the left with two names we hadn’t heard of in our research. Very helpfully someone wrote “No Bivacco S. Maria” in sharpie.

We knew we were heading to the Bivacco and so turned to go in the opposite direction. There was a sign indicating that the trail might be closed and dangerous. But the sign was posted in 2015 and the trail wasn’t blocked off in any way so we decided to proceed with caution and if it seemed dangerous we could always turn back.  As we left the forest and were spat out on a steep-ish hillside we were met with spectacular views.

We also found out why the trail had been closed. There had clearly been a rockslide.But since there were four of us and the slide wasn’t very unstable or steep, we carefully made our way across.

Easily reaching the other side we continued to marvel at the valley below and walk along the hill

until we finally reached Bivacco San Maria Maddalena. A refuge and church it is thought to have been the destination of an ancient woman’s pilgrimage taking place at the end of July.

Now it is a small church overlooking the valley and hills beyond.

We paused here (2k into the trip) to admire the scenery, and drink some water before our real climb up trail 661 and to the top of Mt. Ventasso began.

[hometreehome]

A treehouse in Acquaria

A treehouse in Acquaria

This summer I received many pictures of treehouses and all from Italy. It’s amazing to see how people are getting involved in this topic and how they are start thinking to a better way of building. Eco solution for treehouses and normal houses. But also a new way to give their kids fun without videogames or smartphones! (more…)

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