Today started with an hour and a half drive to our next adventure, a “walk” up to a church on a hill. I’m not sure any of us really knew what to expect. We had all packed our hiking poles, but when we got to the parking lot where we were starting out, Jo said we probably should take them. I’m glad she did! I could have done it, but it would have been a lot more difficult.

So, the walk turned out to be an actual hike of about an hour. In the first picture of a beautiful bright-colored house, you might see our destination in the background on the right in the distance. The second picture is from just a short ways up the path.

A few of us had some misadventures getting started. First, there was no bathroom and some folks needed one, so it was into the bushes for them. I wanted to get started, so I asked Jo if the path was obvious. She said it was, and to follow the signs and at forks to choose the path that went up. Well, I made the first turn OK, but at the next junction, I chose the path that was slightly more uphill, but that turned out to be the wrong one.

I had expected the others to catch up to me, but no one was coming along so about 10-15 minutes on, when the road seemed to not ever turn towards the church but was leading away from it, I decided to backtrack to the first fork.

After standing at the first fork for a while, a fellow came along in a truck. I flagged him down and, since he spoke only Italian, I pointed to the church and did my best to ask the right path to take. He pointed back the way I had just come down, so I started back that way. This time, at the second fork, I took the turn to the right, and that turned out to be correct.

I had been hearing someone yelling for a while, but with the mountin and forest, it was hard to tell where it was coming from, so I didn’t answer. After walking on the correct path for a while, I saw Trish. She had been on three different detours, but finally came back to the same area where I was, so we continued on together.

We began seeing more signs, so were reassured we were on the right trail. It was now looking more like a trail, too, and not just a road. So with this evidence, we got a move on up the hill.

It was a beautiful hike, and not too strenuous. Uphill, yes, and with some steps, but mostly just a stone and earth pathway. I like this kind of hiking!

I had thought there might be some nice views on the way up, so I had opted to just sling my camera instead of taking the backpack. That was a mistake. The path was mostly in forest so there wasn’t much to see. And hiking with that camera, which is quite heavy, is pretty awkward. It’s heavy enough to affect my balance, especially when hiking up steps. After a while, I tried to move it around so it was hanging on my backside. That was pretty successful and made for better hiking.

Since I didn’t have my pack, I didn’t have any water. So I was glad to see one of those great trail fountains about (I’m guessing) halfway up. Trish and I stopped there to rest and get some water. Pretty shortly I decided to continue. Trish was still getting water and getting things organized, so I ended going on ahead. The next picture you see is close to the top at a clearing. The building on the left is part of the church and Lake Orta (I think!) is laid out below. Beautiful!

Next picture is something entirely different. 🙂 I wanted to get a picture of what to look for as a public bathroom in these parts. If you look close, you can see the “WC” sign on the left of the doorway. That stands for “water closet.” This particular one didn’t have any toilet paper, but it did have soap at the sink, so it all worked out.

The church is the Santuario Madonna Del Sasso. It’s just a few buildings at the top of this massive rock, and what great views! I got some nice shots from here, including the view down to the little island which was our next destination.

We had a picnic lunch up here which was fabulous. Wonderful bread, cold cuts, cheese, fruit. Perfect.

Then we went down to the port where we were going to catch the boat and had dessert here–gelato, what else? The picture with the gray building on the left and the sorter red one joining it on the right is where we got our sweet treat this afternoon.

While we were enjoying dessert, Andrea arranged for our boat ride to the island where the Monastero Benedettino is. It’s a few buildings around a monastery and is very picturesque. Perhaps a 10-minute walk around the entire island if you were walking fast. Of course, I wasn’t walking fast–I was taking pictures! Plus, there were so many tourists walking around that it often took much patience to wait for that split second when I could take a shot without a bunch of people in it!

But this was a swim opportunity, so most everyone jumped in. I took my socks and shoes off to dangle my feet in the water, after putting my big camera well out of the way. Kim asked me to take a picture of her diving in, which I did, then put her phone in my back pocket.

Unfortunately, while I was sitting beside the pier, a boat wake came by and bounced everthing around, including me! I got splashed pretty good, and in the process of trying to get out of the way of the waves, I noticed Kim’s phone going into the water. Eek! I was still wearing my purse, so had to get that off. Then I started to dive in to get her phone and suddenly remembered that my phone was in my pocket, so I had to get that out before getting any further into the water. But I retrieved her phone.

Upshot is, both our phones got wet, but hers actually went swimming. I managed to turn mine off to wait for it to dry out. Once we got into the town where we’ll be staying the next two nights, we bought a bag of rice and for tonight, both of our phones are smothered in rice, which is hopefully absorbing the moisture.

I’m going to try turning mine on in the morning. It’s kayak day tomorrow, and I brought a special waterproof case for the phone, so that’s the only camera I plan to have for this portion of the journey. I hope it’s OK!

After our visit on the island, we boarded another boat and headed across the lake to another picturesque town, Albergo Orta. You’ll see a picture of the town square, which is really beautiful. I got a shot of a building that Kim liked, and the last picture is of her as we were heading up to our hotel–a short drive away. Andrea had not come with us but had driven around the lake with all our luggage. So he picked us up and we checked into our new home for the next couple of nights.

After a bit of a rest and clean up, we went back to town for dinner, which lasted about 3 hours! Italian dining, huh? Finally we made it back to the hotel. It’s now almost midnight here and I’m finishing up with the blog while sitting on my bed (no desk in the room at the last place or here). WiFi is only available in the lobby, so I’m planning to upload this in the morning. We’re not heading out until about 9 AM, so I should be able to do that before we go. That means that I’m now heading for bed. It’s been a good day, but I’m ready for a good night’s sleep.

Different wardrobe tomorrow–bathing suits! ‘Til tomorrow, g’night.