romantic walk in Mezzano. August, Sunday 11th

another day in Trentino: a lovely sunday spent with my family wandering around the stunning Primiero Valley. anna, giovanni, marco and i took a morning walk surrounded by sunny Dolomites.

then, our afternoon gently passed in the exploration of Mezzano, a tiny village wonderfully still devoted to agriculture and handicraft work rather than tourism. 

Mezzano is quiet, beautiful. its people have experienced joy, love, pain, hard work, loss, hunger, as you can read by the old stone walls. not just metaphorically speaking. there are many stories and facts well narrated on small boards hung on the outer walls of houses. it's as if the village is directly speaking to its guests.

a path called Mezzano romantica {romantic Mezzano} follows the most peculiar and beautiful rural signs to
a deeper understanding of the territory, showing and explaining buildings, old water harvesting system, traditions and daily life.

woodpiles are the most distinctive features of the village.
the long winters have always forced the Dolomiti inhabitants to make copious stock of firewood to heat their homes. so, neat and towering woodpiles are everywhere. in the local language they are called canzèi, and every canzèl is a small masterpiece of care, skill and parsimony, that also colors the streets of a vivid palette of warm shades.

in addition to that,a group of artists has been asked to reinterpret the woodpiles concept to create artworks, so now you can find some beautiful and weird canzèi near to the ordinary ones.

 ,,

p.s. my sister and i are cat people. always been, always will. but we love dogs, too. and now we have a dog! you can take a peek at him in some pictures. his name is oreste.

{nikon f-801 + fujicolor 200}

desmontegada. September, Sunday 23rd

 

the Desmontegada {the Transhumance Fair} of Primiero Valley is an event that we look forward to see every year. the transhumance is the seasonal movement of the livestock from winter to summer pastures. the fair is aimed to traditionally celebrate the end of the summer mountain pastures, and the cows coming back to the valley, where the herders have their permanent home.

Anna's boyfriend Giovanni has a cozy maso in the Primiero Valley, in Trentino region (where I would like to live happily ever after) and his family got a farm, so they take part in this parade where all the local farms and families show their animals around the town's tiny streets.

it's a wonderful example of Trentino's local folklore, and we love it. (One of Giovanni's cow walked into a cafè, too! That was adorable)
Tosela, beans, luganega, polenta... i'm still dreaming about the food we had in Tonadico. too bad I don't have photos of that (next time, I promise), but you can enjoy all the parade details I loved the most.

 

 
on our way back home we took the Passo Cereda direction instead of the usual road, to enjoy the amazing -but sometimes spooky- panorama of the Val del Mis (I was so frightened by the unlit rock tunnels!).

i know we look overdressed but believe me it was cold on the road.  

i'm not posting any analogue photos lately, my Nikon EM is under repair!