28.10.2020-Abruzzo in Autumn

28.10.2020

Dear friends,

this area is just as beautiful as South Tyrol, but different.

Once again, much too early (a stupid dog barked for ten minutes and I couldn't fall back asleep), we set off from our high valley. With three degrees Celsius at our altitude of 1200 meters, we were already freezing, but the view of the mountains more than made up for it. In the deepest valley, mist hangs like cotton candy and the autumn-colored slopes are gently illuminated by the morning sun. In calm waves, our road winds further and further down until we too are swallowed by the fog. The visibility wouldn't have even allowed me to see a leaf I threw to the ground, and when the road started going downhill, we were completely surprised - we hadn't even reached the lowest point yet.

Arriving in Stiffe, the morning fog slowly began to lift and the temperatures rose sharply due to the sudden sun. We walked up to the entrance of the cave, but that was harder than expected, because the road seemed to endlessly curve, only to make a snake-like line at the next bend and go even higher. It was a torture. Once we reached the top, it turned out we were still too early, because the cave didn't open until ten. After much back and forth, because the turnstile had no barrier and we could simply walk in, we waited until the opening. Therefore, we sunbathed and relaxed in a sunny spot until a car arrived two minutes before ten. I had almost given up hope, but everything turned out fine and we weren't buried inside.

During our personal tour of the Batman cave, we not only saw bats but also stalagmites and stalactites that had formed in huge collapsed caves or twelve-meter-high waterfalls and crystal-clear pools of water that had gained an incredible variety of colors due to the different deposits on the sides. After an hour in the cave and being amazed by an underground river that hadn't seen sunlight until the exit and bizarre rock formations, we made our way back down. Going down wasn't half as exhausting and we were able to explore the tiny village, which still had a waterfall for us.

After a small snack break, we headed to L'Aquila, a city that had seen better days. The fact that it was cozy warm in the car and still cold outside, despite the sun, didn't make me a big fan of the city from the start, but after a short consideration, we set off. It offered a castle with a cute park and various fountains, as well as a beautiful cathedral that shone in high gloss in contrast to many other buildings that had to be held up by steel scaffolding or were already half collapsed. And it had a soccer stadium, I mustn't forget the most important thing.

We then continued to a not too distant high lake, Lake Campotosto. The road took us through beautiful valleys and rust-red forests, past cows grazing right next to the road, with about half a meter of space between the guardrail and the abyss, and of course breathtaking views. The lake itself didn't have a natural outlet and just sat there at an altitude of 1350 meters, truly beautiful. I really fell in love with the surroundings with small houses and a few larger towns, and the originality with which the area greeted us delighted me from the first moment. Unfortunately, the temperatures didn't invite jumps of joy, so we set off again to get out of the mountains. The landscape was characterized by pastureland and working shepherds until the slopes became steeper again and we lost meters of altitude at an incredible speed. Now we have reached 200 meters above sea level and the last part of the sunset that we were able to experience was divinely beautiful, just like the soon-to-be full moon that kept hiding behind the last mountain peaks.

See you soon and luckily it's warmer here again.