As we look out from our balcony, everything has a special sparkle from last night’s rain.

Each day the menu includes a saying. Here is today’s.

We decide at breakfast to motor east to a town named Selva where we’ll ride a gondola to Ciampinoi.

Once we reach Ciampinoi there is much confusion about where to go. Our multiple maps do not show the same trails. The hotel map shows trail 21 running in opposite directions from the top of the lift. Signs at the trail head show 21 in only one direction. All maps agree that 27 goes down the mountain to town. So we take the only 21 trail we can find.

It leads us to some up-close-and-personal views of Sassolungo’s northeast face. And a little further on, past a herd of cows, we encounter Selladilla, princess of the kingdom of the giants on the Sella massif. Like Cynthia, she’s entranced by flowers.

Unfortunately, the trail basically just heads back down to town so when …

… we reach the not yet open Vallongia Hütte, we take the Piza Pranseies chair lift back to Ciampinoi.

We find a table and pull out all our various maps to search for another hiking place.

Back down the hill to Selves and a drive to Ste Christina where we took a gondola to Col Raiser a few days ago. Today we head up the opposite mountain to Monte Pana and then on up to Mont de Seura.

But first we have to park the car. Our problem is that it is possible to drive to Monte Pana so road signs and Google Maps send us on the mountain road instead of the start of the chair lift. We circle through town a couple of times before a kind man on a bicycle pulls up beside us and asks if we need help. Yes! “The lift is just a few blocks away,” he says. We pass a group of red clay tennis courts and find free parking just behind the lift in a lot that looks like a junk yard.

The chair lift is very long and not particularly scenic but the views from Monte Pana — the halfway point of this excursion — are lovely.

One more lift and we hit Mont Seura.

At the “photo shot spot” we meet an Italian and his multilingual friend. We take each other’s photos.

We hike up until we are ready to head back.

A day with almost as much time riding up and down as walking.

As we begin to end our days hike at the top of the Seura lift, we see Sta Christina as a tiny clustered town.

About a half hour after we return to our hotel and have G&Ts ready to hand, heavy clouds roll in from the east with a sustained, drenching rain. The smell is clean and invigorating. Good timing to be home for the evening.

Dinner, as ALWAYS, is wonderful. We chat with a waitress named Rozela who tells us she came here to be with her boyfriend who is a chef in the hotel and made the ravioli stuffed with carbonara topped with crispy guanciale.

And to bed.