{"id":14481,"date":"2023-05-27T13:23:19","date_gmt":"2023-05-27T13:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cncadventures.com\/?p=14481"},"modified":"2023-07-24T13:46:20","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T13:46:20","slug":"a-walk-in-the-woods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cncadventures.com\/?p=14481","title":{"rendered":"A Walk in the Woods"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Saturday May 27, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n

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Sanctuary of Saints Capitanio and Gerosa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We sleep in today as we do not have a lot of things on our plate. After breakfast we go out and walk to the Sanctuary of Saints Capitanio and Gerosa. The Sanctuary was built in the 1930s and is dedicated to the nuns Bartolomea Capitanio and Vincenzo Gerosa. They were the foundresses of the congregation of the Sisters of Mary Child and the Institute of the Sisters of Charity in 1832. Both were canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1950. Their charitable work was inspired by St Vincent de Paul and was part of the Lombard social Catholicism of the 19th century. A chapel was created in the Gaia house in 1835. The Chapel of origins later contained the remains of Capitanio and Gerosa. In 1926 on the beatification of Capitanio, it was decided to build a new church next to the Gaia house. Consecration took place in 1938. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Mosaic Columns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The inside of the sanctuary church is stunning. The theme of virginity chosen for the kingdom of God is prevalent throughout. The four columns that hold up the cross vault have beautiful mosaic work that represents the parable of the ten virgins. The ceiling is beautifully painted and decorated. The walls on both sides are two long processions of virgins and martyrs who hold in hand the symbol of their steadfast love for Christ. In the central apse, the two Saints of Lovere are crowned by Christ. There are phenomenal stained glass windows which illustrate the patron saints of the Institutes provinces, the provinces names listed below them in the glass. The two side apses are venerated with the relics of the saints, Saint Capitanio on the left and Saint Gerosa on the right. We spend quite a bit of time admiring the different works of art and trying to understand their meaning.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Leaving the Sanctuary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When we leave, we decide to walk to Convento Frati Cappuccini as we see a sign pointing the way. We follow a road and then there are no more signs but the map I have seems to indicate a way on the road to the right of us. We head that way and the road seems to suddenly end. There is a long set of stairs to the right in the general direction but we are not sure we want to climb them blindly. We have already climbed quite a bit from the Sanctuary. Fortune plays into our hands as a girl comes down the steps so I ask if the Capuccini Convent is up the stairs and she says yes. So up we go and there it is. Was it worth it? We go inside a small church and the answer is no, not if this is all there is to it. We do not see a way to get inside the cloisters and the convent from here so we sit on a bench outside. On the bright side, we have climbed high enough for a great view of the lake and town below. Some Germans who drove up here sit and chat with us for a while. They have been touring the lake area in a caravan, the equivalent of a small motor home. We have a nice chat and they are a bit older and basically tell us to keep doing what we are doing while we can as long as our health stays good. We look over things and see a castle or church way up on a hill.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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View on our Hike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The challenge is right in front of our eyes so we look at the map and think we find a way to walk to it. We follow the nearby road climbing at first and then descending a bit before we see a set of stairs going up where the map shows the road. Why not take them. Because they are freaking steep, that\u2019s why not. The Go back, little voice does not win and we climb up. This leads us past some old castle ruins which are pretty cool even though it is mostly walls. The stairs turn into a dirt path at the old castle and we follow it in the general direction of the castle or church we saw up on the hill. We follow the trail and we get into some nice woods. We are still climbing so guess we are going right but there are no signs anywhere and we do not have any maps of the area. The forest obscures the views so it gets hard to judge where we are in relation to our intended destination. Things get more complicated as we come to a fork, with the left trail switchbacking uphill. We take it for a while hoping we might come to a small clearing where we can see but this does not happen. It does not feel like as well a traveled path as the one we were on so we decide to turn back and take the right fork.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Santa Maria in Valvendra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We continue for a while and cross a small dirt road where some cars are parked. We ponder going down it figuring it will lead to a road to town. We decide to continue on the trail for a while longer. It is a pleasant walk and we are enjoying the feel of hiking again. Not only that but the dirt path is a lot easier on our feet than the last month and a half of cobblestones, roads, and concrete paths. We finally come to a clearing and know we have overshot the possible path to the top. We see a paved path\/road just below us and decide to take it down. In a short bit, we run across a lady and her dog walking in the opposite direction. We stop to talk and learn she is Australian but has property here. She tells us that the US needs to get its act together as the rest of the world needs us to help with Russia and China. It is not the first time on this trip, that we have heard about unhappiness with our current president and leaders. It is the first time out of all our trips here that we have heard complaints about our country. Not a good sign for our position as world leader. Anyway, she tells us where to take a right to get back to the town and we part ways. We continue, the road starts getting steeper and then a steady descent until we finally get back to town. <\/p>\n\n\n

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In the Basilica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On the way back to our place, we stop at the Basilica of St Marys in Valvendra. The Basilica was built in 1473 in the bed of a stream, the Valvendra which had to be diverted to construct the church. The church was commissioned by families of the village who had enriched themselves in the cloth trade. There are nine chapels closed by iron gates from the 16th century. It is a nice church but we are a little tired from our hike and hear an Aperitivo calling.\u00a0We stop in our place to freshen up and then heed the call we heard. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Who is Happy Now?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We return to the same place as yesterday and do a repeat of our spitzes along with a slightly different tray of niblets. We get the standard olives, foccacia pizza, finger sandwiches, a little mini calzone which has mushroom in it, tiny pizza rounds, and let\u2019s not forget the potato chips. After our drinks, we go the grocery store that is right across from our place to buy items for our next three days as there is not a store where we are going. Mission accomplished we relax until dinner time. I go out to pick up something called a paposceri which is like a pizza dough that is baked and filled with different ingredients but not closed off like a calzone. That is how we end our day as we have a fairly early ferry to catch tomorrow. See you then.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expenses Aperitivos at Il D.O.C. Pancaffe 20E Dinner from Paposceri San Giorgio 15E Groceries from Iperal Market 22.52E ML Rooms 66.51E Walked 8.6 Miles Climbed 74 Flights<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Saturday May 27, 2023 We sleep in today as we do not have a lot of things on our plate. After breakfast we go out and walk to the Sanctuary of Saints Capitanio and Gerosa. The Sanctuary was built in the 1930s and is dedicated to the nuns Bartolomea Capitanio and Vincenzo Gerosa. They were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-italy-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cncadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cncadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cncadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cncadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cncadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cncadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14482,"href":"https:\/\/www.cncadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14481\/revisions\/14482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cncadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cncadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cncadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}