Le Marche

The weather’s really picked up over the last few days from the start of April and the mercury is regularly hitting 20 plus. We’re in the impossibly scenic Le Marche in the Appenine mountain range, surrounded by mountain top medieval towns and snow capped peaks. We’re staying in an apartment in a restored villa about 2 kms from Sarnano, just such a medieval town famed for its thermal baths which attract hordes of visitors year round.

The villa has been restored by an English couple, Damien and Sharon, from south London who upped sticks a couple of years ago and moved here with their two children. They’ve done a fantastic job of renovating the property and live here in one of the apartments and let out the other three. Needless to say, we are the only guests at the moment. Is there a recession going on? The sitting is idyllic with jaw dropping views towards Sarnano framed by the mountains behind.

We’ve mostly been walking through the hills following a few trails that Damien has ripped off from other guide books and has left with loads of other useful information in the apartment. The scenery is just beautiful with a mixture of woodland, small farms, ancient villages with terracotta roofs and the mountain range dominating the skyline. This does mean that we are getting a little more exercise than usual but we are trying to balance this out with the fantastic food and wine, just to ensure we keep our perfectly honed figures.

One of our walks ended up being a little moiré challenging than usual as we headed off upwards in the car just past the skiing resort of Salletto nearby. Our walk started following a stream up river at the bottom of a ravine, which was OK although we had to cross the stream a number of times which included getting a bit wet. The problems started when we got a little higher where the ravine opened out. Here, we were supposed to follow a track left an upwards, the only problem being that the track was completely covered in snow and ice. There was a small copse to our left, and I had the brilliant idea that if we scrambled through that then we should be able to pick up the track further on. This, unbelievably, actually worked and we were soon back on course. Trouble was, things got distinctly tougher from here and the path was regularly covered in snow often mixed in with earth and rubble from winter avalanches. After and a few kilometers the path disappeared completely and it was snow and ice all the way and we had to guess which way to go. Mags was having a sense of humor failure by then and I may have lost a few points. Still, we made it in the end without too many alarms.

During our stay here the earth moved, literally. We were about 30 kilometers away from the earthquake in L’Aquilla and were woken on the night with the house shaking. We wee of course unaware how bad it was and only found out the next morning. The after shocks continued for the rest of our stay with at least one a day but none as severe as the first.

We had a day out truffle hunting which Damien organized. A local chap and his dog roamed through a small copse for around half an hour looking for the little white orbs, finding one or two, so not particularly exiting but then we were cooked a spectacular meal including spaghetti with said truffles back at a nearby villa overlooking the valley, basking in the sunshine – pure bliss.