So I arrived at the airport, and she came to greet me and together I came to visit her place. To my surprise, she is currently staying in a hotel! she didn’t go into much details, but she said that she has often to move through the whole region of Alberta, so she showed me a small book saying that is her “personal bible” about all the best Calgary Hotels Canada (forgot to say that we met in Calgary).

I found the city very attractive, even if of course during winter must be a bit worse, because of the rigid climate. But during summer it was really wonderful, with lots of green areas, flowers, and so on. I would love to go working abroad too one day, if I was sure to end in such wonderful places…!

We started early in the morning since was a sunny day, to avoid traffic. It wasn’t enough unfortunately thanks to italian very insufficient highway system, we had to wait 3h before arriving there (usually we can drive there without any traffic, in 1h and 30min!).

There was so many people, and the shops were open even if was Sunday, as often happens. We stopped by a nearby ice-cream shop to get a ice-cream cup, since we remember that they make very good one, and indeed! was delicious…!

We went a bit to the seaside even if was still too cold to swim, but still we engaged with some people in a beach-volley match. In the late evening we came back, because we ran out of money to spend so we decided to go back home and have a dinner in-house, rather than going out in one of those restaurant which serve tasteful fish food…. sigh ;-(

Overall though, was a very nice trip and a good way to spend our last sunny sunday.

Indeed, as soon as I arrived there and parked my car in the spacious parking place in the “Rifugio Lagdei” (one of the many starting points for excursions), I was completely astonished. The park is located in the south of Parma, about 50-60km from it. The best way to reach it in my opinion is to take the highway of the “Cisa” (Highway A15 Parma-La Spezia) , but you can take a look for complete directions here.

this is the view you get on your arrival to Lagdei

a curious fountain made with a giant rock with a small lizard carved into the stone

On Lagdei there is a big wooden bridge that goes all around the perimeter of the starting point, which is really huge. Along the path there are various signs explaining the historical events that leads to the creation of this place. It is both relaxing and very interesting.

the wooden path

If you don’t mind a short walking, about 1h, you can climb up from Lagdei to the lake called “Lago Santo” (Holy Lake) which offers really a spectacular sight, just take a look at the picture below:

wonderful, isn’t it? another option, is to start from the point of Lagoni, and take a different path that leads you up to 1400m on sea level, until you reach another lake called “Lago Scuro” (Dark Lake). This one is longer, but offers more possibilities to explore several places in one trip.

this curious hole was in a big rock nearby the path

here it is, the Lago Scuro in all its splendour!

The latest 2 pictures below are taken from the starting point of Lagoni. The cool thing is that both Lagdei and Lagoni are easily reachable with car, even during winter, so you can start walking straight into the park.

a beautiful view of Lagoni

another picture of Lagoni

All in all, I really recommend to visit this natural park if you have the chance. It will be a travel to remember for sure! Ah, was about to forget: inside the park there are over 150km of cycling paths for mountain-bikes, all well-signaled. So if you like trekking, this is a very good place!

So, this is the first sight of the path that leads down to the lighthouse… naturally you can’t get there by car, so if you’re a bit lazy… better give up!

you can notice once again the wonderful flowers all around the sides of the path. Really amazing!

this old stone bridge is something unique. Old-looking but still robust, with small grass bushes growing here and there, it was giving to this place an almost “fantasy” atmosphere! maybe also because that day the sky was cloudy, with a grey typical of the scottish/celtic movie settings!

Once past the lighthouse, you could reach the southern extremity of the island, climbing down to the sea with this funny ladder carved into the stone that you can see in the picture above.

Another funny but really wonderful spot to do a pic-nic, or even just a moment of relax, a break from the mundane frenetic life, that seems to be so distant from the chaos you can see in the modern towns… I love that picture pastel colors!

from the wooden table you can see the lighthouse on the distance. As you can see you have to walk for some more meters to get into the “pic-nic” spot, but it is really worth it!

At last, here is a picture of the ladder that climbs down directly into the sea. That day it was really rough (even if doesn’t seem so from the picture above) and it was a bit scary honestly!

If I had to choose an emblem, a symbol for that holiday, for sure I’d pick the photo above, even if it doesn’t represent a beautiful shore, a sunset, or other. Why? because it represent the flowers and the nature, indiscussed stars of that travel. A small bunch of coloured flowers inside a vase, in front of a window enlightened from the bright daylight that comes from outside. Yes, that is the pictures that best represents that moment.

A pity I couldn’t also capture those excellent scents!