Calalzo, Collina, North East Italy

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As we had some distance to cover today, plus a long hike, we left Calalzo at 7.30 to get some breakfast, then lunch for the walk. Collina is also close to the Austrian border turning off at Forni Avoltri and heading into remote country on a steep, narrow, winding road through small villages.
Arriving at a parking place by a restaurant we fuelled up on drinks and headed off up the mountain hiking path. The first part of the track was rubbly but with a relatively easy slope to walk. However, that changed part way up and the latter part was not so easy. Puffing and panting our way to the Pass, we came across more barracks from the 1st WW. It would have been a hard life up there but extremely beautiful out over Austria as the pass looks over the Lake of Volaia at 1951m and the Pass at 2000m. The trenches and gun emplacement buildings still exist and tunnels can still be seen. We walked down around the lake for lunch, then headed back down to the village. The scenery is a beautiful as ever with soaring peaks above of shear rock faces then sloping off down to forest and pastures.
On arriving back at the car we found they had had a hail storm that we had somehow missed. We drove to Tolmezzo and out of the Alps to a location called San Daniele where we had a fantastic thunderstorm - rain, hail, thunder and lightening. A good excuse to have a glass of wine and wait out the storm. We then visited a Poschuitto cafe or bar which this town is famous for. Look up the town of San Daniele - it is full of prosciutto processing houses with the bars in the town specialising in the food. We ordered a plate for the three of us to savour with pickles, melon and cheese. Wonderful.
Then back to Portogruaro and another Piero special for dinner. We were absolutely tired after 2 days of Pass hiking, so an early night.

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Photos

Lake Volaia
The lake of Volaia on the Austrian side of the Pass

Proscuitto at San Daniele
Our platter of proscuitto at a bar in San Daniele. Karilyn would have loved this!