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| Panorama from the parking near the refuge |
About 1 hour of driving from the city of Torino (Turin) Italy, you can visit a mountain refuge with fantastic vistas, nearby climbing and mountaineering routes, room and board.
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| StringGirl posing with the rifugio in the background |
I did not know exactly what to expect when friends offered to take me up to a mountain shelter just outside the city of Torino on a recent work visit to the "Motown of Italy".
Rifugio Selleries is a Hotel and Restaurant located on the grounds of the Piemontese Regional Park of the Hautes Alpes (Regione Piemonte Ente di gestione delle
Aree Protette delle Alpi Cozie).
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| The trek in on car is 5km of single lane dirt/rock road with some at some dizzying heights |
When Fabrizio mentioned that we could drive to the refuge (his wife is 9 months pregnant and due the day after we visited), I figured that we would drive up to some tame little visitor center with ample parking and well provisioned roads leading to the refuge. Completely mistaken. Instead he took his Alfa Romeo up roads that I am sure my wife would not like us taking our Subaru up. At times the road is just over one car width and has almost no railings to speak of. It is a two way road so at times one or the other would back up a few hundred feet to find a place to allow other cars to go past.
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| Battista and Fabrizio at the beginning of our "little" hike to the neighboring lakes |
After a pretty bumpy 5km ride in, my expectations for what this shelter would be like slid lower and lower. However, the 3 story hotel and gourmet restaurant where we had lunch completely blew that expectation out of the water.
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| The lake is just over this rise.... (note the farm house in center for scale) |
We did end up hiking up one of the simpler ascents from the site of the hotel around 1945 meters above see level to a non-technical peak nearby closer to 2100 meters.
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| Some really massive boulders... |
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| Our view from very near the top of our hike. The lakes we were promised are still over the "next-next" rise. |
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| Local fauna |
We ordered the local food "menu" for two (there were 4 of us and it was plenty of food) which features the local mountain fare as opposed to the very cosmopolitan Italian fare we had been having all week. Polenta prepared two different ways, Venison stewed in a chocolate based sauce (something like an italian Mole' or Berebere), Sausages, and a Gorgonzola creme sauce.
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| Antipasto for starters- uncured ham, asparagus creme, and Asparagus mouse with Gorgonzola cream |
The food was exemplary. And quite a stretch from what many people probably envision when they think Italian food. I was very glad to have had my horizons stretched as well as my stomach. Well worth the drive or a hike if you choose to park further down and want to hike the 5km instead of driving.
Reservations are suggested. The place is hopping.
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| Two types of Polenta, Venison in a chocolate sauce, Sausages in roma tomato sauce, gorgonzola cream |
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| Bonet alla Piemontese |
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| Inside the restaurant of the Shelter/Refuge (StringGirl left a calling card hidden inside on of the books in the library) |
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| Another calling card left behind under a rock "cairn" on the mountain (From one Motown to another) |
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