Winter has failed to make a graceful exit here in northern Italy.  Anytime the sun made an appearance the rain clouds would bully it right out of the sky.  The unrelenting gloom and doom was starting to make me feel like hibernating for the rest of 2011, until today.  Today was the first day that started and ended with clear skies and warm temperatures, and I spent this beautiful day outside doing a great hike.

Some friends and I decided to hike the trails in Lumignano, a tiny town known for the sheer rock walls that make it a destination for rock climbers.  There are several crosses erected in the hills around Lumignano and several trails of varying difficulty leading to the crosses.  Today we decided to take the long route to get to one of the crosses.  You can see one of the crosses at the top of the cliff.  It looks tiny in the picture but up close it is much bigger.

The trail was very muddy from all of the rain from the past few weeks, but I got a chance to break in my new hiking boots and only slipped once.  It took us about 3 hours to do the whole hike and we didnt make it to the second (and larger) cross this time.

This building looks like it was built at the opening of a cave, and apparently it is open to the public on the first Sunday of every month, so I will be heading back there soon.

I got a lot of great pictures today in spite of the fact that I almost destroyed my camera when I slipped on a particularly muddy part of the trail.  I think that was a sign that I need a new camera, so I have a feeling the easter bunny is going to be leaving me a shiny gift this year!

There are some fantastic hiking trails around here so I am going to try to make the most of this spring/summer to do some hiking.

Ciao for now!