 Hiking, Walking and Eating your way through Le Marche
Summer is in full swing here in Le Marche, the cherries, plums and pears have been and gone, the first fig harvest has just been devoured (try fig, chilli and marcaspone pasta- sounds weird but its a real pick me up!) and we are now picking an abundance of herbs, salad, rocket tomatoes, squash, aubergine and zucchini for guests at the villa. Much of our time has been spent pickling and bottling the produce into jams, chutneys and pickles.
The weather is hot with just enough of a breeze to make it ideal for a walk or hike into the local Sibillini Mountains, in fact we joined up with CAI (Club Alpini Italiano) last week to do a walk through the awesome Golla del Fiastrone (Fiastrone Gorge)- its an easy 8km circular walk which takes you down marked trails from the village of Monastero to a river that cuts through incredibly dramatic countryside, remember to take some flip flops as the path crosses the river at least 8 times! Info on the 2 CAI walks that are available each week in Summer is available from CAI caisarnano@yahoo.it or on their leaflet at the Sarnano tourist office.
Other lovely recent walks have included a 12km jaunt from Garulla to Capovalle via the refuge at Monte Amandola(more rustic culinary treats on offer here), the walk takes you past some really wonderful scenery above Madonna Del Ambro and there are view across Le Marche to Ascoli Piceno and beyond. Also a 25km trek from the Refuge del Fargno near Pintura, its the highest driveable point in the Sibillinis and a great place to walk the ridges that give you spectacular views across both Le Marche and Umbria- from the refuge we walked up Monte Vettore and Monte Amandola before descending via Pintura and the Valle Tre Santi to Sarnano below.
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