![\"img_0640\"](\"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/img_0640-1.jpg\")
Snow-capped Bisalta and the town of Chiusa Pesio.<\/p><\/div> Wild Primrose…spring is on the way.<\/p><\/div> Mount Viso from Mount Cavanero<\/p><\/div> Filippo with what’s left…Castel Rut…<\/em>truly broken!<\/p><\/div> Emanuele, which way shall we go?<\/p><\/div> A fixer-upper…<\/p><\/div> Drainage…a terracotta tube ran through the walls of the tower and exited at the base (not visible).<\/p><\/div> Looking up you can see where the stairs used to run up the tower.<\/p><\/div> Chestnut Trees<\/p><\/div> Forest Litter<\/p><\/div> Sunday is the only day of the week that is completely free since the kids are in school Monday through Saturday and even then, there is usually homework to be done. \u00a0Needless to say, weekend escapes are pretty much impossible during the school year. \u00a0Fortunately we have some great places to escape close to home, … Continue reading Sunday Escapes<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5471,"href":"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3226\/revisions\/5471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSunday is the only day of the week that is completely free since the kids are in school Monday through Saturday and even then, there is usually homework to be done. \u00a0Needless to say, weekend escapes are pretty much impossible during the school year. \u00a0Fortunately we have some great places to escape close to home, one of which we visited last Sunday.
\nPiemonte literally translates to “foot of the mountains.” Piedi\u00a0<\/em>= foot and monte..<\/em>you get it! The Maritime Alps that divide the region of Piemonte from Liguria are visibile from our home and the Occidental Alps that divide Italy and France are within spitting distance too. Walking a few minutes out into the countryside in the right direction, we see them too.
\n![\"img_0659\"](\"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/img_0659-1.jpg\")
\nLast Sunday felt like spring and we wanted to take a short afternoon hike but one look at the mountains tells us it’s not spring yet, \u00a0There is still lots of snow in some of our favorite places and lacking snow shoes, or the desire to rent them, we decided to pick something closer to home, lower but still \u00a0mountainous. \u00a0Chiusa Pesio is a small town that acts as a gateway to the mountains with a ruined castle, Castel Rut,<\/em>\u00a0on the flank of Mount Cavanero.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0It\u00a0 gives us sweeping views near and far. \u00a0On Sunday we could see\u00a0the beautiful Bisalta<\/em>, just across the valley. \u00a0Farther afield across the plains, Mt. Viso, at 12,601 feet, majestically guards the French Border and is the source of the Po River that flows across the top Italy and drains into the Adriatic to the south of Venice.
\n![\"img_0641\"](\"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/img_0641-1.jpg\")
\nWe know from archaeological evidence that there have been people living near the castle long before it was ever conceived. \u00a0The earliest remains date back to the XI century B.C. so this was certainly a desirable place to live. \u00a0An abundant water supply, easy access to the plains,\u00a0(domestication of plants and animals was rapidly diffusing) surrounding forests that could supple wild plants and game, and\u00a0a great view so you could see your enemies coming.
\nThe ancient \u00a0Romans settled here too. \u00a0Historians think it was manned by legionnaires controlling traffic on the roads coming over the Maritime Alps from Liguria. \u00a0They found 18 funerary urns still containing ash and bone fragments, lots of Roman coins and a stone carving dedicated to Diana, goddess of the hunt.
\nThe Castle’s name when built was\u00a0Mirabello<\/em>, but\u00a0Castel Rut<\/i>\u00a0is the local name. It means broken castle, very praticale. It was built by the last Marquis of Ceva and fuedal lord of Ceva, Agamennone III, between 1569-1583. \u00a0Never heard of him? \u00a0Don’t worry, this is local history and while it affected the locals back in the day, only the elementary school students in Chiusa Pesio learn this history. \u00a0Two towns over…no!
\nAt some point during it’s history the castle was abandoned and between storms, and a strong earthquake in 1887 not much remained. \u00a0One of it’s last standing walls was damaged by the Germans in 1943 as their colonel fired cannons in an attempt to scare the residents in the town below.
\n![\"img_0630\"](\"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/img_0630-1.jpg\")
\nThere are also some ruins of an old Borgo<\/em>\u00a0(a group of houses)\u00a0<\/em>that haven’t been\u00a0abandoned all that long…maybe 100 years ago? \u00a0 One of the buildings has been worked on relatively recently >20 years, but the restructuring stopped. \u00a0Who knows \u00a0if the money ran out or perhaps it was being done abusively and the owners were forced to stop. \u00a0Most of the land up here is privately owned and easements allow public access. \u00a0 At the corner of one of these old houses are trail markers.
\n![\"img_0621\"](\"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/img_0621-1.jpg\")
\n![\"img_0629\"](\"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/img_0629-1.jpg\")
\nWhat we love most about days like these is taking everything at a leisurely pace and taking a good look around. \u00a0Filippo likes poking around and snapping pictures for his Instagram page, Ippostyle<\/a>. \u00a0He has a good eye and a great sense of style and I hang back with him. Emanuele and Mauro are already at the ruins by the time we get there and Emi calls me over to share their discoveries…see the pictures below.
\n![\"img_0644\"](\"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/img_0644-1.jpg\")
\n![\"img_0645\"](\"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/img_0645-1.jpg\")
\nOnce we have taken in the view we decide to continue our walk into the woods. \u00a0There is supposed to be a fountain nearby but it’s not well marked and we take the wrong path at a fork in the road. \u00a0We never found the fountain…What we do find is peace in a forest dominated by chestnut trees that inhabitants here have eaten as a staple for thousands of years. \u00a0If we are lucky we’ll come back here in a few months and finds Porcini mushrooms and Chanterelles popping up through the leaf litter. \u00a0The last couple of years have not been good for mushrooming so we are due!
\n![\"img_0654\"](\"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/img_0654-1.jpg\")
\n![\"img_0646\"](\"https:\/\/lisasdolceitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/img_0646-1.jpg\")
\nWe end up making a partial loop around the top of the mountain before heading back down the way we came. \u00a0We have meandered for the better part of 2 hours since leaving home. \u00a0Just enough to stretch our legs and breath a little fresh air…a perfect mini Sunday escape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"