I'm once again at Arturo's house. No, I haven't hurt myself, I am not in for another week of work and the weather isn't bad either. It is just another change of plans, this time because Maurizio has - very spontaneously - been able to get away for some days to go walking with me. We have decided to do a piece of my walking I wasn't able to do in June because of the snow. We will meet at Cadenazzo near Locarno tomorrow morning early and drive up to Dangio in his car. From there we will walk up to Adula hut, where I have been some years ago, but didn't sleep. From there we plan to walk to Zapporthütte over the Passo di Cadabi, then to Läntahütte, then to Scaradra di Sopra and back to Dangio passing Lago di Luzzone. More or less what I had planned for the end of June, just the other way round.

We will see if that works, the weather forecast isn't bad, so that's a good start. And hopefully tomorrow I will feel less tired. I suppose that almost nine-hour walk after all that resting was a bit too much. I am quite exhausted. So I wasn't really unhappy about not walking today. Even though I am a little sad I couldn't go up to capanna Alzasca. It is supposed to be a very beautiful place. I will just have to come back next year and go up. I saw the path driving through Cerentino today. Dino took me all the way to Arturo's place in Lodano in his car. He had to go down to fetch bread and other stuff and offered me a ride. He also offered me a job. Another job offer! He would like me to come and work for him from autumn on. His rifugio is open all year round and he lives there. Who knows how things will evolve. For now I'm happy to carry on with my journey and have company for a couple of days.

The inside of La Reggia and where I will going in a minute. It was terribly hot again today, but once the sun is gone it gets cold quite quickly. And it is almost time for dinner. Potatoes with rosemary, tomato salad and lots of cheese for me. Meat for the others. There is Martin from Freiburg, a local family who have come up only to eat and two Italians from Torino.

Dino with one of his happy chicken.

The hut is located just above Cimalmotto, a village that isn't really a village anymore, but a conglomeration of holiday homes.

This is Rifugio La Reggia, it is a perfect place to be. Small, cosy and particular, my thanks go to Fiorenzo, who suggested I come here to sleep. I had planned to go to Campo, but was told that the only pension that existed had closed. So I had to change plans again. But this is a very good alternative. Hidden between trees it isn't easy to find, but once you get there you feel at home immediately. The capannaro Dino is a very friendly man, there are dogs and cats and chicken, running around freely. They serve vegetables from Dino's own small garden and bake their own bread. I got here early and have already met a lot of locals who dropped in. Have been offered wine and good company and information about the region.

My walk today was very short, but that dosen't matter, my body is quite tired from the walk yesterday. I walked very slowly for less than four hours from Grossalp to Rifugio La Reggia, climbed 400m and went down 800m, Passo Quadrella was the highest point at 2137m. This is the view from the pass back to where I came down yesterday. The pass you can see on the right side of the signpost is Bocchetta Formazzöö.

Dear Lilly, happy birthday and a big fat sloppy kiss from Nona. There are not too many things appropriate for a birthday I could take a photo of, so I settled on Edelweiß, a typical mountain flower you don't always find easily. I sent an sms but I'm not sure you got it. I hope you had a wonderful day, love you, Nona