Italy: Grande Traversata delle Alpi

I will have to take some time to read it but it caught my attention because on day 4 you crossed the valley where I grew up (Val Bognanco) . You had lunch at the Rifugio Gattascosa there.

in winter

Great report.

Ah, the food …
And we agree about the towns on the Med coastline …
Cheers

Great trip report! Thank you for posting about it.

Franco – we think it’s very cool that you grew up there. It’s a wonderful area. We were at Rifugio Gattascosa on a Saturday morning and they were cooking an enormous caldron of polenta for the crowds of day hikers who were hiking up the hill for lunch. We suspect you might have enjoyed polenta there a few times!

Roger – we have shared your opinion about European hiking for years, particular the great food and wine!

Amy and James

Fantastico, ti ringrazio tanto!

Thanks for sharing.

A dream trip is to hike the Alps then connect to the  Grande Escursione Appeninca and then work my way down the rest of that range to the toe of the boot.   The ancestral village (where I visited) is in the foothills of the Apennines.

Someday!

Amy and James thank you for sharing this and many other trips on doingmiles.com. You’ve done a beautiful job with the site. Very detailed helpful and interesting text which gives readers a great sense of place plus beautiful photos. My wife and I especially appreciate how you’ve compared different walks and listed favorites.

I see you’ve traded in the REI Quarter Dome T2 for a BA Copper Spur HV – UL 2 or 3? How do you like it? The fly color looks great for stealth camping.

Thanks for the kind words. Building the site was a lot of effort, but we are pleased with it. We have about 20 more trip reports in our queue, but it’s time consuming so we’ll keep trickling them out over the next year or so.

Ethan – it’s funny you should ask about the tent. I have a draft of a new article for DoingMiles.com about our Big Three gear items. In that article I describe our requirements for a shelter. We have indeed switched from the old REI Quarter Dome T2 to the BA Copper Spur HV UL2. Our old Quarter Dome wore out and I was delighted to find the BA SP HV UL2 available in stealth color. Sadly, the redesigned Quarter Dome is not as good for us as the older design. So far we’re extremely happy with the BA CS HV UL2, however we have not yet had it in a windy+rainy situation, so the jury is still out. The roof vent seems susceptible to getting rain splash if there is a strong wind from the wrong direction. Other than that, it’s a terrific tent. With 6 stakes it weighs a hair less than 3 pounds; very nearly a pound less than the old quarter dome, which is nothing to sneeze at.