Selleries Rifugio Outing

Just up the hill to Sellleries Rifugio

Recently, we were able to go out for a walk in the upper Chisone mountains. For me that is always a high water mark of the summer. I have spent a lot of time hiking in a variety of mountains over the years and find it invigorating and restorative, soothes my soul and mind. There is nothing quite like sweeping mountain vistas, wild alpine flowers, tumbling water, crisp air and a destination that offers a satisfying lunch that I don't have to prepare. Don't get me wrong, picnics are very enjoyable, but having hiked in the Colorado rockies and well actually, any of the mountains in the US, you need to make sure you have brought along plenty of fuel on your back in order to keep the body and mind going. Walking, or hiking as we Americans like to call it, and was promptly corrected when I worked for the British tour company that I would scare off my potential walking guests if I called it hiking, as it connotated serious mountaineering, with just water to a mountain rifugio is quite the treat. Oh, well then, walking it is. It didn't take me long to then be rebuked by my walking guests with, "I thought you said this was an easy walk". It is, it is an easy walk, it's just in the mountains, not on the flats or rolling hills. Mountains are mountains.  Enough about that and on with the spectacular walk from Villaretto/ Selleraut to Rifugio Selleries.

View of Val Chisone from Selleries Rifugio with their small chapel 

The day was gorgeous, not too hot  with a slight breeze, blue sky, great company and not a care in the world. The walk was pretty straight forward after we made our way up in the car around many narrow hairpin turns till we found a shaded parking spot and away we went.

Path from Selleraut to Selleries Rifugio

The path not only was well marked, it was well worn and I found myself wondering as I often do, what it must have been like back so many years ago to live in these hills and not venture too far from the old homestead, except for supplies and perhaps to sell or trade some of your cheese and such for other goods  that stored well and added some interest to an other wise simple meal. I'm thinking in particular about salted anchovies. I've always found it most peculiar how important they are to the Piemontese cuisine. It made a bit more sense to me when it was explained how they not only stored well and added a bit of zip to the soup, they also brought along precious salt at a lower than usual price due to the anchovies being packed in the salt and the bottom of the barrel seem to have more salt than anchovies and the salt tax was lower on anchovies than salt, which, in those days was quite dear. Learning that that the word salt or sale in Italian is the latin derivative of salary, which gives the old saying of worth your weight in salt, a whole new meaning. But I digress yet again, as I am wont to do....

Val Chisone

Anyway, we arrived on the top of our Alpi Cozie walk up to the Selleries Rifugio and stopped in to visit our friends the Agu cheese making family of Villar Perosa, in their summer time digs high above us all. what a gorgeous place to spend the summer. The cows have plenty of roaming range and wildflowers to munch on. I can attest to some delicious cheese is made up in these alps, and I was looking forward to it by the time we arrived.

Alpine Dairy building

Cow bell 2009 prize

We were rewarded for our effort with not only spectacular views and perfect weather, we ran into one of our friends who produces polenta who had ridden his bike up and joined us for some genuine mountain fare. You can always count on simply prepared and high quality food at Selleries, and we weren't disappointed. Smoked prosciutto crudo, pancetta, aged plaisentif and fresh ricotta, all made by the neighbors, Agu and certainlytook care of the hunger spot. The polenta with sausage helped Ben keep up his strength for the trip back down the hill. 

All in all a great day in the mountains. Good food, drink, friends in a wonderful setting in the Italian alps.

We hope you'll come visit and discover what this area has to offer.

It certainly doesn't lack in natural beauty, do you think?

Refugio Selleries Birthday Outing

Flourless chocolate bomb with fresh red currants
My idea of a birthday cake, several small ones!

I have a lot of posts that I just can't seem to get quite caught up on, so I think I'll just skip to today's most topical post and tell and show you what we did for my birthday. Today is my actual b-day, but as Fabrizio is off today to work his part time summer job at the local swimming park, where he manages their food kiosk for a good friend, we had a wonderful outing yesterday in upper Val Chisone. This is our busy time of the year and often difficult to get away. As it turned out, yesterday, we were free to take a drive up to the upper valley and drive up into a remote spot literally just over the back of our mountains, not so far away as the crow flies.
It was a glorious sunny day and although I would have enjoyed walking in, we didn't have the time to be able to do that and so in true Italian fashion we motored in up and back into a bumpy dirt mountain road taking it nice and slow, making it easy to take in the breathtaking views of our valley. Monviso and Ghinivert peaks along the French border made their presence known poking up along the skyline and occasionally disappearing with the swirl of cotton ball clouds dotted along the borderline.

Rifugio Selleries in the autumn

Arriving at Rifugio Selleries, after bumping along this high narrow mountain road, coming round yet another corner and to our delight there it was nestled in the lap of some very dramatically beautiful peaks. To my amazement on a Monday, there quite a few cars there and a number of people enjoying the excellent selection of local Piemontese wines, under the bluest of skies with the gentle sounds of the cow bells as they topped up their tans. Inside we met the latest folks to breath new life into this old hotel, Massimo and his wife, Silvie and their darling little boy. They were busy, as this too is their busy season, but they took the time to offer us something to drink, a chat, and a tour of their recently refurbished facilities and a genuine welcome. They really are a charming forward thinking couple that I think will be making this stop in the Alps a very sought after place along the GTA. There were some other interesting folks there for a days outing also, who had to hurry back to milk their cows. Massimo introduced us to half of the owners of Casa Scaparone and Bottega Scaparon, an agrotourismo and makers of Piemontese wines and other spirits, in nearby Alba. The Refugio has their wines on offer and I am looking forward to sampling it some time. Sounds like another opportunity for a days outing to Alba is in order? The fathers and children had been hiking and were just about to depart to get the evening chores done. They are also traditional folk musicians as well and have some lovely traditional songs on their site featuring their children singing as well.

The Region of Piemonte purchased the Rifugio a few years back and refurbished it before entrusting it into these very capable hands. It was a hotel way back when but closed down in 2002. Massimo and family took over 2 years ago and have been going full speed ahead to bring it back from the missing. I've been in a number of mountain Rifugios over the years and this one did have a freshness and cleanliness that was as refreshing as the mountain air. Certainly not luxurious accommodations, but clean and charming with fantastic views of the surrounding mountains. Their simple menu offered local specialties with some very nice touches often lacking in most Rifugios. The selection of wines and local beer was impressive and quite a welcome sight when you arrive indoors after a long drive or trek in. The bergeria next door is not to be missed either and of course, we took home some berge and seirass cheese along with some butter, the likes of, you don't find in the store. It was another restored series of old buildings that were charming and extremely clean. The young boy that waited on us was so friendly and accommodating to have a few samples of the goods before making our selections. We're still enjoying them along with our guests.
I have some friends that are interested in doing some trekking from hut to hut here in the Alps and I feel like I now have some good suggestions for an itinerary or two. Of course, I think a perfect ending to a perfect high mountain trek would be a few days relaxing with us here at Bella Baita, and perhaps a few "Cooking Together" courses to finish off the trip, or maybe even a acclimatization stay before heading up. Either way, I think it it would be a great way to get out and about in the Italian Alps.

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