Esino Essentials

There are lots of these so I have provided links.

Sporting Clays at Ortanella, June 2004

Ortanella is about an hour walk from the house.  You can see it across the valley.  One Saturday in early June I heard a "pom-pom" noise from Ortanella but knew it was not hunting season.  Later in the day we saw a small sign, "Tiro piantello" or plate shooting.  Sunday morning at 9 I heard the shooting again and went over to check it out.  Above Ortanello, overlooking the valley and lake, a local hunting club was holding a sporting clays competition with 5 different launchers and the different types of targets: birds, ducks, and rabbits.  Unfortunately, they used the same sized clays for all the targets.

The backgrounds for the shooting were spectacular: snow-capped Swiss alps in the distance, deep green valleys, Lake Como near Bellagio, Tremezzo.

Below is a picture of Ortanella and the shooting area from our house, then the first shooting station, the "rabbit" running, the station shooting over the lake, and Bellagio with Lake Como behind and Lake Lecco to the lower left.

Alpe di Lierna, 4 June 2004

On the walk to Ortanella just out of town I noticed a sign to "Alpe di Lierna".  I followed it the next day.  It is a nice marked (blue stripe) hike with signs along the way.  Near the end there is a farm with access from some other road.  It's about 3 hours up and back. Along the way is a monument that looks like a sword driven into a stone.

Cainallo, 14 June 2004

I left the house at 1600 and returned at 2030.  Cainallo is a local ski slope.  The days are long so I went all the way to the top of the ski lift and mountain, accompanied by a goat who came running to greet me on the way up but left an hour later on the way down for better begging opportunities when I wouldn't give him my water bottle and he saw a car with 2 likely prey.