Two Forts & A Tower (05/09/2012)

Since I was now an experienced stick shift driver, I made my way into Colico on Wednesday to do some exploring.  I had seen signs for a tower in town, and my guide book said there were also two forts in the Colico area.  I decided to try for the tower first, since I had seen signs for it near where I usually park at the tourist office.

I set off on foot up the hill that the majority of Colico is built on.  Basically the town is built up into the mountains that surround the lake, starting from the boardwalk up into the foothills.  The signs I was following said I was going to the "torre fontanedo" (Fontanedo Tower).  On my way I came across a couple churches I stopped to take photos of.

Church #1

 

Church #2

 

I probably went up the hill about a mile before the signs ran out.  Without any signs to direct me I wandered about for a little while before giving up and heading back down the hill to go in search of the forts.  The guide book said there was both a Forte Montecchio and a Forte di Fuentes in Colico.  I had seen signs for them heading out of town, so I started walking that way.  I actually found the Forte Montecchio relatively quickly, but unfortunately it was closed...

I don't think they want me in there.

At the Fort Montecchio there was this handy dandy sign saying the Forte di Fuentes was only a kilometer away (at least I think that what it was suppose to be indicating).  Buoyed by my success at finding Fort Montecchio, I figured a kilometer more to Forte di Fuentes was totally manageable.

Only 1 kilometer to Forte di Fuentes!

The path started out pretty good, almost as wide as a road with interesting things along the way.

 

They had these nice trail markers for me to make sure I was on the right path

Occasionally there would also be these signs to tell me how much further I had to go.  Only 0.30 kilometers left!

After the first half a kilometer the path began deteriorating rather dramatically.  Somehow this one kilometer walk seemed to be taking a lot longer than I had anticipated.

Is this still a trail?

Yay! Almost there, only 0.30 kilometers left...wait isn't that what the last sign said... hmmm

I'm probably about 45 minutes into the supposed 1 km walk at this point, and this is the part of the trail where I walked through a farm.... 

Chickens!

Could it be?  Yes it is!  Baby goats frolicking!  Love, love, love it!

Daddy goat

Frolicking

Cow, mooo!

Horses

Staring contest.  The horse won.

And this is where the path ended.  Hmm, where is the fort?  Where are the signs?  And that's where I got stuck.  No more signs, no more path, and once again I had to turn around and go back without finding what I was looking for.

 

So maybe I couldn't find the tower, or the second fort, and yes the one fort I did manage to find was closed..... but I did find this sign!  Torrette means little tower... does anyone see a little tower in this picture?  Hmmm, maybe they meant the telephone pole?

Later in the day, once I picked Derrick up from work, we were actually able to find the torre fontanedo about 5 km further up the hill than where I had given up.  And no, there were not any signs along the way.  We only found it accidentally by following some people in an SUV up a path that we thought was a nature trail.  Here's some pictures of our (mostly Derrick's) successful discovery of the Fontanedo (medieval) Tower.

 

 

Victory!