We dropped Grace off at the airport EARLY this morning and then headed up to the mountains to take a short hike.  We were already one with nature by 8 am.  It was a beautiful day but had rained yesterday so I ended up on my ass once and had to catch myself multiple times.  No harm done.  I bounced.  We were in the lower mountains and hiked through hardwood forests where parts of the trail were covered in chestnuts, a prickly, spongy bed.  We collected a bagful for MIL as the old timers still love to boil them and eat them with salt.  Our destination was a log cabin built by the Canadians for the 2006 Winter Olympics.  The cabin was put up in one of the squares here in Torino and was used as the Canadian visitor's center.  When the Olympics were over, it was donated to one of the local Alpine Clubs who then moved it to the top of this low mountain as a base for rock climbers.  The Canadians built the cabin from diseased trees that would have had to come down in any case and then the Italians recycled it into this hut.  Very green.  On the way down GP didn't follow my advise and took a wrong trail turning our 2 hour hike into three.  Tomorrow he takes off for Washington for the week and I'm on my own.  I'll hang with MIL.  xxoo me

November hike near Pinerolo

very slippery rocks!

View from the top

The Canadian Log Cabin

The rock climbers practice rock