Laghi Gemelli

Yesterday's hike left me with slightly sore legs, which is usual, and prickly eyes because it was a sunny windy day. I went up to the Laghi Gemelli hut from Roncobello, a couple of hours' hike, and like last week, I did it by myself because the friends I met on Friday night were not too keen to join me.

I was all right save one mistake I could have avoided had I been in the company of a friend. In order to walk more comfortably I kept my trainers on, neglecting the possibile presence of snow, which on the contrary started to appear in large patches just over the pass. It was trodden, at least, so there was little risk of sinking, but it made a slippery surface to walk on in treadless shoes, which, additionally, got quite wet because they were not waterproof.

When I got to the cross at the pass I spotted another hiker wearing low shoes and commented to him that we'd made the wrong choice for the day. I can say to my advantage that I felt so much comfortable not walking in stiff boots.

From there the trail starts going down and you catch a glimpse of the lakes barred by the dam. Now the water level is low and you can see the original two lakes (hence the name Laghi Gemelli, or Twin Lakes) joined by an isthmus. Plaques of bluish ice covered the surface of the nearer lake, while the farther, shallower, had already thawed. When the winter is over the reservoir is gradually filled and it all looks like one big lake with the barrage on one end. The dam was built, as the writing states, between 1928 and 1932.

The hut is a pretty building with bright red shutters. I enjoyed the sun sitting on the cement bench outside until I felt sunburned enough and started to hike back.

In the village of Bordogna I spotted a Fascist propaganda slogan on a wall. It's odd how after about 80 years and a lost war that made everything related to Fascism unpronounceable, you can still spot some. I sometimes dream of collecting photos of them. not because I'm a Fascisct, but because I like their historical value, especially now that they're becoming rare and of course nobody would ever think of restoring them.

It had been scraped out in parts but I was able to reconstruct it thanks to the fragment I decyphered and of course a search engine. Here it is: the password cannot but be this: discipline! Mussolini.