Celano Mountain Climbing 04-07-10

A relatively early start this morning after a very late night. Zio Nino took myself and the four kids on a walk up into the mountains behind Celano. Nino was an expert on the various plants to be found and the history of the area. The walk took us up the steep slopes and to a spring fountain. Lovely green views with the bright colours of yellow, pink, cream and orange flowers everywhere. At the top of the steep rocky slope was a large gentle sloping green meadow. There to my delight we found a variety of edible mushrooms and collected them under Nino's guidence. The views down to Celano were magnificent and really showed the design of the castle's defences. The views of the whole valley were also impresive even if they were a little hazy. This large flat farming area, surrounded very tall mountainstall mountains, was once the third largest lake in Italy. The Roman emperor Nero drained it thousands of years ago to make the land usable for agriculture. They drained it by digging a tunnel through the mountains.

Bush Tucker Celano Style:

A selection of herbs and mushrooms found on the steep slopes of our mountain trek.

This herb looks and smells almost the same as rosemary. It grows every where on the rock faces of the mountain and is a little more lemon tasting then rosemary. Zio Nino says it is great with eggs.

Ginespro - the major ingredient in making gin. Thinking of all my camping happy hour buddies when we found this bush. Incredibly spiky leaves protect the berries that have a definte gin taste to them.

Snails are found in abundance and make there way into specialist recipes. The Rose of Canina (Right)- not yet ripe.

Various types of mushrooms found on the green meadow section of the mountain. Truffles are found up round the rocks as well but are very difficult to locate and dogs are used to them out.

Lunch with Zia Loreta: Several days ago I asked Zia Loreta if she would show me her favourite pasta recipe and together we could prepare it. After her initial bemusement which I think related to the fact that a man might be intertested in such things, she kindly agreed to show me her canollini. It was good fun. Adri interpreted when we needed it as she doesn't speak any english but that didn't stop us having some good banter. She has a good sense of humour. Today the prepartaions from the last two days were served at lunch for us at her place. Buonissimo!

Kailin's Word: This morning we got up early to walk up one of the mountains that surround the little town of celano with my great-uncle, Nino. After about fifty minutes of hiking, we arrived at the top. Wading through knee-high grass, we avoided prickles and searched for the wild mushrooms that you could find there. Dad was very impressed with these berries that tasted of gin, and apparently are used to make gin. We arrived at a fountain of fresh mountain water, and had a bite to eat. Then we filled up our water bottles, and started the descent.

P.S. Did I mention the views were amazing?

Kailin.

Genevieve's Word: When we went mountain climbing we saw the most amazing views ever and Zio Nino told us a story about a man that lived on the mountain in 14th century. There was a stream that he drank from and he slept in a cave. The reason they know this is because he left a painting on the rock face. In the painting it had the man on a horse with a spear killing a dragon. We saw this painting and his cave but the stream was not there any more.

Genevieve!