Castelluccio in bloom- my first meet up- july 5, 2021

[Playsky2001]

My first meet up! many times i thought to come and see Castelluccio in bloom. From some point of view it sound strange but I knew it after the bad earthquake that destroyed this village on the Sibillini mountains: a friend of mine organized a photographic exhibition in a town near mine, Belluno and i fell in love with this place. But it was when i made a post on the bloom of narcisi that i was invited to come and see the one in Castelluccio and i decided to come…so i have to thank local guide connect for this chance.

Of course i took a lot of photos but i’m going to show you just some. the week before there was another meet up and @PattyBlack already made a very good report, i just want to add some particular things

So anyway i could meet in person some local guides, first of all @manulele81 that every year organize this meet up and show us this particular place.

it was particular to give a look in this big plan without towns, so interesting to take photos

we also went across the Mergani that are a kind of canals generated from karst phenomenons

The grass inside is so high and it bothered the two daughters of @LuigiZ because it was so difficult to walk. But from my point of view they were interesting to discover because there were many frogs, dragonflies, ladybugs and water flowers in the ponds in the bottom of these canals

after coming our of these canals we started to find spots of violets colors in the meadows

there are many kind of spontaneus flowers here but it’s so interesting to see how they make such coloured bands

and sometimes it’s so difficult to resist to go inside

they are simple flowers but all together they have such a charm anyway i had to take also some close pics

we also found a hole created with the earthquake even if it has a karsic origin too

Then we met @user_not_found that in the last days had woken up early so that day he was a little late but with his cowboy hat he really had the perfect look of the real guide!

And the we crossed the roads that many people run across with cars and motorbikes

the landscape really looked the one of a western movie

then we walked to find other coloured spots of flowers, mainly blue or red but also some yellow

and it was so particular to see the silhouette of Italy made of trees

but i liked a lot to run after wonderful butterflies and other insects even if it was so difficult to take good photos because of course the flied away but i tried the same

and it was interesting also to take photos of some shrubs like wild rose or elder or a kind of wild peas called roveja that is planted here and make beautiful flowers…but i also bought a bag of these particular peas to take home!

so finally we reached castelluccio, we were a bit tired and it was a bit sad to see that it was still destroyed anyway we went to a restaurant and we tasted some good local dishes talking about the next meet up.

[LuigiZ]

Ciao @Playsky2001 ,

beautiful recap or your visit in Castelluccio and very nice photos! It was a great pleasure meeting you and spend the day and the walk together, yes the Mergani was a bit difficult due to the high bush but it was indeed special and very nice to see, especially like you said for the special wild life due to the presence of the water inside the depression.

I see you enjoyed the experience and glad about that, at least, being your first meetup, to discover also that you are not alone and how those crazy Local Guides are looking like in real .

Thank you for sharing your experiences and your photos!

As a small note allow me to give you some hints if you like to share many photos in your post as I see here, this because on Connect there is a photo limit of 1000 photos per user and after that you are forced to delete some before adding new ones. A collage of photos is a very good way to insert multiple photos and save some spaces or otherwise you can link photos directly from your Google Photo making sure there are rights to view the photo, in this way it won’t count any space here. And if you want to share a full album you can make it public always on Google Photo and share the URL in your post . You can take also a look at the following topic for Tips how to upload images within the limits.

[PattyBlack]

@Playsky2001 first of all, congratulations for the detailed summary of your visit to Castelluccio and for the wonderful photos. We both lived this experience for the first time and the sensations were similar and we both already want to return again and again… also because there is an excellent Local Guide @manulele81 to welcome us. I imagine you running after butterflies but in the end you captured beautiful images so it was worth it!

Thank you for posting the photo of the Roveja flowers, I didn’t have the opportunity to identify them during my walk, but I bought more than a bag of those succulent wild peas and on my return from Castelluccio I cooked them for the whole family with " the knife-tip sausage " (this is perhaps more understandable for us Italians… for those who do not know it, it’s a type of sausage made with pork cut with a knife instead of a meat grinder @LuigiZ sicuramente la conosce ); it was a success! ciao, a presto!

[LuigiZ]

Intendi per caso “a punta di coltello” @PattyBlack ? Beh sicuramente e’ una mera traduzione letterale ed in effetti e’ una cosa tipicamente italiana, molto tipica del sud ma oramai presenti anche in molte altre regioni dove si fa buon uso di carne come anche qui in Toscana.

Tra l’altro e’ anche quella che preferisco probabilmente per una questione di abitudine da piccolo, e quella toscana anche e’ molto buona .

[PattyBlack]

@LuigiZ si è vero certe cose non si possono tradurre se non alla lettera e comunque non rendono l’idea. La salsiccia a punta di coltello è anche la mia preferita e per fortuna da qualche anno si trova anche qui ed è immancabile quando preparo il ragù napoletano e le zuppe o minestre tipiche del sud ma ci sta bene anche con la polenta. Sai che mi sta venendo una mezza idea di organizzare un meetup culinario? Dovrei trovare un posto abbastanza grande da permetterci di cucinare tutti insieme ognuno le sue specialità. Devo informarmi se è ancora attivo un centro che affittava un salone con cucina tavoli e sedie, penso sarebbe molto divertente e dopo aver consumato il pasto si potrebbe andare su alla torre del Baradello per smaltire le calorie! Covid permettendo si potrebbe fare che ne pensi? @Playsky2001 che ne pensi? Saresti pronto a sfidare me e Luigi in cucina?

[Sophia_Cambodia]

Those are lovely photos @Playsky2001 they looks professional. Thanks for sharing them here!

[Playsky2001]

Ciao @PattyBlack interessante l’idea del meet up culinario! Potrebbe avere successo. Non so se io sono pronto per una sfida, con tutti i programmi di cucina che si vedono sembra che tutti siano diventati cuochi di alto livello…io no. E per certi versi preferisco ancora i piatti semplici, ultimamente poi sono abbastanza pigro in cucina, sarà che mi preoccupo principalmente che mangino i miei figli, di cui uno piccolo… ma l’idea ha del buono e si può studiare!

[Playsky2001]

Hi! Thank you so much for appreciating my photos. Yes i have a reflex camera and i like to take a lot of pics but sometimes they aren’t so good as i’d like. It’s also a bit difficult to focus little little insects moving anyway i try the same to catch both little particulars and landscapes. Happy that you liked! Bye

[LuigiZ]

Mi stai facendo venire fame @PattyBlack , e’ quasi ora dell’aperitivo .

Comunque idea interessante quella del meetup, poi quando mettiamo in mezzo cibo e vino sta sicura che e’ impossibile dire di no . Io ci sto, sia per cucinare ma soprattutto per mangiare e bere … ovviamente situazione sanitaria ed impegni permettendo!

[PattyBlack]

@Playsky2001 no dai “sfida” era per ridere, la mia idea di meetup culinario è di stare tutti insieme ai fornelli a fare cose buone da mangiare poi tutti insieme, una condivisione di ricette e segreti che ognuno di noi ha, sicuramente anche tu quando prepari anche solo due uova ci metti un tocco personale! E comunque al massimo ti arruolo a pelare le patate scherzi a parte @LuigiZ @Playsky2001 il posto che conoscevo io non c’è più, sto cercando, ma a Como chiedono cifre improponibili e comunque nel pacchetto sono compresi gli chef che a noi non interessano, quindi chiedendo ad amiche sembra che ci sono degli oratori che mettono a disposizione sale con cucina inclusa per cifre modiche, sto aspettando informazioni più dettagliate. Io comunque continuo a cercare ma fatelo anche voi, se riuscite a trovare un posto adatto ci si sposta non è un problema. Intanto cerchiamo di capire come andranno le cose con l’avanzare della maledetta variante poi magari intervistiamo anche altri LG a sentire se l’idea piace intanto iniziate a decidere cosa preferite che vi cucini tra: pizzoccheri della Valtellina, in onore della mia attuale residenza e paccheri con ragù napoletano (quello che pippea per due giorni prima di essere pronto), in onore alle mia terra di origine; una bella lotta…