Project Runaway

Yesterday the boys and I went canyoning. Today I am hungover, bruised, and can’t turn my head. But let me explain how I got there….

You know the saying ‘The devil makes work for idle hands’. This is especially true of some, if not most, teenagers. As Luc has ADHD this places him at the top of the ‘most likely’ list. Now to cut him slack, I will admit that no teenager gets that excited about going to museums or in every church in Italy. Even Dwayne has put his foot down and said he is not likely to be dragged into anymore either. (Even though they both loved the Duomo in Milano, snicker, snicker, cleverly coerced I must say)

As most of you know or have ascertained by now, Dwayne has a hobby. Ladies, it is CRUCIAL that men have a hobby. Please refer to ‘The Secret Lives of Litterbugs’, and you will understand. But, I digress. When he is not being dragged to something by me, he is off on his bike. This fills his days and nights with planning routes and playing with his bike. This leaves Luc and I to figure out how to fill our days in this quiet town.

I decided to go online and see what sort of adventure tours were offered in the area. Lucca is just below the Garfagnana region which falls between the Apuan Alps and the Apennines. In this region you can trek, ski, bike, fish, and yes, do canyoning.

Canyoning is the sport of travelling down beautiful river canyons and waterfalls using a variety of techniques including walking, scrambling, climbing, jumping, and rappelling. It sounded challenging. I was intrigued, so I ran it past the boys. They both definitely wanted to try it.

When the day arrived, we waited at the Piazza Verdi for our guides to pick us. A black Range Rover comes flying up to us with who we think at first is David Lee Roth (when he had the long hair). This is Carlo. He jumps out wearing a t-shirt and jeans so ripped up and worn that I am not sure they qualified as pants. He speaks little English, but his partner, speaks fairly OK English, so we figured that we should be good. I must mention that none of us can remember his partner’s name. It was beautiful and complicated and we all forgot it immediately so that if we wanted his attention we had to wait until he was looking at us. For this blog, let’s just call him ‘Alex’.

The drive up to the Garfagnana is fantastic and reminds us a bit of northern Vanouver Island. After climbing up and up into the hills, we stop at an ancient ruin of a villa to change into our wetsuits. This was a funny affair. Imagine 3 grown men trying to shove a skinny 15 year old into a wetsuit by the side of the road, pulling and tugging and bouncing him up and down, like getting a gangly pillow into a too small pillow case.

Then we got back into another vehicle and again drove up and up and up. At the very top we go through a tiny village clinging to the side of the mountain. The men of the town are sitting in the small main square looking solemnly at the crazy people driving past. Then after a bit more of, you guessed it, up and up, we stop by an ancient cemetary and get out. As we are fitted up with our climbing gear a car pulls up and a man and his ancient mother get out to visit the cemetary. She looks at us and says something in rapid Italian. No one needed to translate for us. She thought we were nuts. She even had a few’ Mama mias’ thrown in there. I hoped she wasn’t right.

We then trekked into the trail and the start of our descent. As I indicated earlier, we then jumped, slid, scrambled, swam, and rappelled our way down 22 falls. The bigger and more dangerous the fall, then you had to rappel down it. There were times when I seriously didn’t think I could do the next insane task they asked of me, mainly because I would get frozen over a height issue, but I did. And I loved it. it was hard, it was physical, but it was not out of the realm of possibility for most people with a bit of a fitness level.

Luc was in his element. He was a natural, rappelling down gracefully most times and impressing his parents, who were not so graceful, and the guides. You have to remember that Carlo spoke really no English and he was the main lead so he was teaching us to rappel in Italian. Dwayne had taught them the B.C. Salmon handshake, taught to him by our friend Dennis Chopko. They loved it and did it all day long, laughing long and hard each time, and exclaiming ‘Salome, Salome!’

After 3 hours in the most beautiful canyons and ravines, we then reached the bottom. The feeling of accomplishment was great and we were now hungry enough to eat a cinghiale (wild boar).

The excursion included a Tuscan lunch which we assumed we would eat at the ruins as we could see it in the back of the vehicle. But instead Carlo suggested that we go back to his place and have a swim and a shower, relax and eat. OK by us!

He then drove to a hilltop town called Ghivizzano, where he took us to his own home. His house is on a beautiful piece of land overlooking the valley and the hills on the other side. The views were stunning, and here is where I apologise as we did not bring a camera, thinking water and cliffs not conducive to cameras. He has a pool and lovely gardens and many fruit trees, and he is apparently a celibe, or bachelor, and owns this B&B.

He then disappeared into the kitchen were he and ‘Alex’ came out with plate after plate of food. Rings of 3 0r 4 types of local Salame, olives, fresh tomatoes, 3 kinds of hard cheese, bread, marinated artichokes, onions, zucchini, and eggplant, Cacciucco alla Livornese (a traditional fish stew), sauteed breaded eggplant stuffed with cheese and pancetta and topped with a piece of sage, a minced onion salad with a heap of anchovies in the center, sliced cantaloupe, and to wash it all down, white wine and red wine, blood orange juice, and Coca Cola. Then after we thought we had no room for more, he brought out a type of dessert bread with glasses of Il Santo, a dessert wine. Next came his homemade 80% proof Grappa, and his delicious homemade Limoncello. As we ate and ate, and drank and drank, the conversation flowed and we laughed and managed to get past all the language barriers, sometimes with the help of the dictionary. Carlo is well travelled and has had a diverse career and ‘Alex’ is a home town boy who is sweet and trains a very successful swim team of kids.

Their hospitality was of a kind we had never seen. To me it seemed like the essence of Italy, and I truly felt like I was a part of it not a tourist. It was a truly memorable day. So that leads me to being hungover, bruised, and unable to turn my head, but…also very happy with our day in the Garfagnana.