My Girl wants to be the first female Eagle Scout in Rome and she is close. She needed to finish up the cooking merit badge which involves planning and preparing meals for backpacking which must then be eaten on a hike or backpacking trip. We didn't have any backpacking adventures planned so we went with the hiking option. I've wanted to go to Civitta Bagnoregio for awhile. The pictures are pretty cool. So off we went for our somewhat urban hike.
The lower town where we parked is still a viable town, but the old town, the civita vechia, is dying, with just a handful of residents remaining. It is kept alive by day tripping tourists eating lunch in local restaurants. It started as an Etruscan town and was quite prosperous in its day. In the late 17th century the bishop and the municipal government moved out of the old town after an earthquake and by the 19th century erosion was impacting access. Today the old donkey trails are replaced by a modern bridge while the cliffs continue to crumble away. The bridge is mostly for pedestrians, but residents and, I assume, business owners can get a permit to drive a vespa or mini truck up the hill.
It was a beautiful day, perfect for hiking. We took our backpacking lunch and nibbled at it on the steps of the church, then found a restaurant where we ate some really delicious food, parpadelle with chigiale ragu and pasta with pistachio pesto. That's Italian hiking.
Later that week we packed up our little stove and took another urban-ish hike to Cafarella park for another merit badge meal. We cooked our backpacking meal and identified birds and bird songs with the Merlin app.
Another great day for our non-ski ski week. My girl was just getting back from a week at the DODEA European basketball tournament and I had been out and about traveling while she was gone, so a week relaxing at home and catching up was nice.
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