This was a return to the Return for me - to complete the southern portion of the hike into the Pellice River Valley. Dan Carr was my companion for this trip - our other troops having opted out, albeit all for good reasons.
The southern part of the GRV (Glorioso Rimpatrio dei Valdesi) trail has a number of sites of importance to the Waldensians, and goes through three Waldensian Valleys in the Cottian Alps. For me, the trip had more of a feeling of a pilgrimage than the previous trip. Since then, I looked up and translated parts of Jean Leger's History of the Waldensian Church from 1660.
The 17th century saw some of the most momentous periods for the Waldensians. Leger asserted that the Waldensians (actually he used the term "Vaudois") had a direct lineage from the apostles. On a factual level this is, of course, difficult to buy, but on a mythological level, it resonates and has power. While Leger acted as an ambassador to the outside world in the 17th century, Henri Arnaud inherited the mantle of its military and spiritual guide from Joshua Janavel, who waged a guerilla war against the French and the Duke of Savoy until exile in Geneva. Henri agreed with Leger's assertion of a direct apostolic success, it seems. Arnaud wrote:
"Neither has their church been ever reformed, whence arises its title of Evangelic. The Vaudois are, in fact, descended from those refugees from Italy who, after St. Paul had there preached the gospel, abandoned their beautiful country and fled, like the woman mentioned in the Apocalypse, to these wild mountains, where they have to this day handed down the gospel from father to son in the same purity and simplicity as it was preached by St. Paul"–"The Glorious Recovery by the Vaudois," p. xiv of preface by the Author, translated by Acland. London:1827.
The English poet John Milton also wrote that the Waldensians had a direct connection to the apostles. One can speculate about the motives - in effect, this gave primacy to the Protestants by linking them to a purer version of Christianity than the Catholic Church, given the importance of the concept of apostolic succession in the 17th century. It is of lesser importance in the 21st century, but seen from the perspective of a harried people on the brink of extinction, the mythology could very well have served to buoy their spirits in the face of nearly impossible odds. In his instructions to the soldiers of the glorious return, Janavel wrote, "Que rien ne soit plus que votre foi" - Let nothing be stronger than your faith. Arnaud's sermons were full of references to the Babylonian captivity via the Psalms and the later books of the Old Testament. It is no wonder that the Waldensians have become known as the Israelites of the Alps.
I flew into Geneva on August 8th, and spent some time with my students at CERN. Dan was scheduled to arrive on the morning of August 10th, but ran into major airline problems. His jet out of Dulles had multiple delays. Our original schedule was to meet at the airport in Geneva and train together to the town of Oulx, on the Dora River, and then up to Sauze d'Oulx, a ski resort town near the GRV trail. With a nine hour delay looming, I went on ahead to Oulx.
Sauze d'Oulx sits at an altitude of approximately 5000 feet. The original plan was to spend two nights as Sauze (pronounced "Sauz-ey") to get some acclimatization in. At least two of the passes for the hike are over 8000 feet high - not too bad, but high enough to feel if, if you're coming directly from sea-level.
I trained on down to Oulx, with a layover in Grenoble on the way. Rather than take a cab, I hiked the 1200 feet/3 miles up to Sauze and was rewarded with a magnificent view back into the Dora valley.
View down to Oulx.
The Sauze is lively in the summer, with a lot of hikers and mountain bikers. This was August, after all, and all of western Europe was on vacation. Dan finally landed in Geneva, and arranged to take a train connection via Chambery to Oulx the next day.
Continuing with my conditioning hike workout, I hiked back down to the train station to meet Dan in Oulx, where his train, naturally, was also delayed.
Dan arriving in Oulx.
There was a festival in Sauze that afternoon/evening. Dinner was at a fondue place, which featured something I've never seen before - the meat was cooked in simmering wine and herbs, as opposed to hot oil. In addition to being far safer, it was definitely cleaner tasting, and something I'm going to try in the future.
On to Salbertrand, where we finished the hike two years before. This is the site of the battle of Salbertrand, where Arnaud's troops fought with the troops in a French garrison on a bridge across the Dora River.
Having descended from the Col du Clapier, the Waldensians on the Glorious Return were pursued by French troops from the fort at Exiles. They approached the bridge over the Dora River, but there was a French garrison of approximately 2000 troops on the other side. As the Waldensian soldiers approached the bridge, the French guards asked "who goes there?" The Waldensians replied, "Friends". The French yelled "kill! kill!" and opened up musket fire on the Waldensians. Arnaud directed his troops to lie flat, but the possibility of being caught on multiple flanks created the necessity of moving forward. Someone yelled "Courage! Le pont est gagne." - Courage! The bridge is won. Whereupon the Waldensians attacked the bridge, losing approximately 20 men, but the French were routed and took flight. Arnaud's troops picked over the booty left by the French and hastened up the mountains.
We hired a taxi (Massimo Gotti - great guy, gottimassimo.ncc@gmail.com) to take us down the the plaza in Salbertrand where we had left off two years before. The bridge was quite obvious.
Courage! Le pont est gagne.
Map of the GRV Salbertrand to Pragelato
The plan for the day was to hike from Slabertrand, to, and even past Pragelato to a refuge near the town of Laval up the Chisone River valley. One issue was that the following day - the hike from Laval to Massello - was fairly long, with challenging uphill and downhill stretches. I wanted to make sure I could shorten the trip as much as possible.
Now, being a student of way finding, here is a curious problem we ran into. If you look at the map above, you can see that the GRV trail, marked in yellow has a big reverse "C" at the beginning. The topographic maps I had (have) indicated that the GRV trail went up the switchback road that cuts the corners of the C. I'd based my timing on this. Now, I did have access to the map above on a website, but I didn't pay close attention to the correspondences between the above map and the trail marked on topographic map.
We started up the trail, and just followed the GRV signs, which has the image of a man with a staff on it. It seemed to be leading in the wrong direction at first, but I just put that down to something minor. After about 30 minutes of hiking, it became apparent that we were on the "wrong" side of the valley that the GRV is marked on the topographic map. I insisted on going back down to the place where the trail forked at the base of the climb. There we ran into a man who was doing a pilgrimage hike in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi. He had an electronic map finding device, but couldn't even properly locate his position. We rechecked the map and the signs, and it indeed looked like the GRV was definitely taking a different trail than what was marked on the topographic map.
The GRV was following, at least for some part, the route of the GTA - Grand Traverse Alpine. We retraced our steps again - basically losing an hour of walking time. By noon we reached a refuge, the Rifugio Arlaud. All of this was a fairly steep uphill stretch through woods.
Rifugio Daniele Arlaud
At the refuge, we asked around, and found the guy who runs the place and was knowledgeable about the trails. He indicated that, indeed, the GRV follows the trail on the map above. The next stretch of trail along the GRV was fairly easy - flat, and mostly following a gravel road. The refuge owner suggested that we could think about following the GTA to the nearest mountain pass, about a couple of hours hike away. Unfortunately, this would take us farther away from the next night's refuge.
By counting up the hours we had left on the trail, it became apparent that we wouldn't make the refuge until about 8 PM. Given that the following day was challenging, this seemed like a bad idea - so what to do? After talking it over, we decided to hike the flat section to the town of Monfol (see map), and then hike over to Sauze along the road, and get a taxi to take us to the next refuge. This would be quite a haul, but even for the price, it would be worth it to get to the refuge at a decent hour.
The hike to Monfol was pleasant, with many day hikers coming from Sauze. We got into Sauze without problems, and managed to get hold of Massimo, who was happy to give us a ride to the refuge at Laval.
As a looking-back analysis, I should have compared the map in the website to my topographic map - had I known about this, I might have broken the one-day hike into two days.
Massimo dropped us off at the end of the road leading into the Troncea Natural Park at the upper end of the Chisone River valley. It was a short hike to the Refuge Mulino Laval (mill at Laval).
Refugio Mulino Laval
We got to the refuge by 4:30 PM - much more civilized than the 8 PM estimate if we'd hiked the entire trail. Although this cut out a section, it was the right thing to do.
The Refuge is run by a man named Pierluigi. As was typical for most of the trip, very few people spoke English, but it was fairly straightforward to converse in French. Pierluigi said that the next day's trek shouldn't be too difficult and certainly had no dangerous sections - something I was a bit concerned about, as there was a very steep descent indicated on the topographic map. This was also coupled with a concern about the accuracy of the depiction of the trail on the map.
Pierluigi also said that Waldensians once inhabited the upper part of the Chisone River Valley. This was an ancient route between the French province of Dauphine' and the Piedmont via the Pass at Mont-Genevre. Dauphine' had at one time a large Waldensian population. There was a tug-of-war over the dominion of the the upper Chisone Valley between France and the Duke of Savoy. At one point, in roughly 1715, the French won out, and deported the Waldensians to Germany, where they came under Lutheran protection.
Dan and genepy at Rifugio Mulino Laval.
The food at the refuge was amazing, as it was on most of the trip. The heavy cheese emphasis of the Savoyard cooking was slowly giving way to a leaner approach. Pierluigi served up a light lasagna with a bit of cheese, but pork, venison, and turkey as filling - fantastic. After dinner, we had some genepy, which is a classic digestif on that part of the world - an herb found in those parts is used to infuse a strong alcohol mixture, and is quite flavorful, but should be drunk in moderation.
We got up early the next morning, as the day had a 4000 foot climb and descent to/from a 8200 ft high pass, and about 15 miles of hiking.
View up the upper Val Chisone
After crossing the Chisone River, we hiked along a switch-backing road past the town of Laval, and the almost-ghost town of Joussaud.
Joussaud
We worked our way up the hillside toward the Colle del Pis.
Map of the GRV trail from Pragelato to Balsiglia.
Again, being in the mood to document way finding confusion, here's one. If you look at the map above closely, you can see ski chair-lifts indicated as dark grey lines with little dots terminating them, starting in the vicinity of Joussaud. We were hiking along the road/trail and at the junction of two chair lifts, things became confused with multiple roads and trails leading everywhere. Two sets of hikers in front of us became quite confused. At some point, I came across two people who I asked about where we were. They asked us if we were from Club Med, whereupon we saw a hoard of people with day-packs working their way up the hill. This gave us added impetus to press on. Pretty soon, I was able to refind the trail near the junction of the two chair lifts, and we walked on to stay ahead of the Club Med group.
The ascent to the Colle del Pis.
At some point in the hike up to the pass, we seem to have lost the hoard and had the trail to ourselves. The final stretch to the pass was well above the tree line and nearly devoid of even Alpine plants - just very low scrub and rocks. There's a sense in the high passes of the potential danger of being caught up high in a storm. Our time at the pass we very pleasant - some wind blowing through that cooled us, warm sun shining down - but a sense of the latent power of nature nonetheless.
Colle del Pis
We stopped for lunch just below the pass. There was a herd of sheep on the far mountainside, and cattle in glacial basin just below.
Shepard tending his flocks in the mountains near the Colle del Pis.
We started the descent into the Massello/Balsiglia valley. At first it had an easy slope, but eventually we reached a steep drop off. On the way, we encountered a French couple. The woman was horrified at the US political situation, wagging her finger, saying "Pas de Trump! Pas de Trump!"
As we hit the big drop, we got a view of the Cascata del Pis and the forest in the valley down below.
Cascata del Pis.
View down towards Massello and Balsiglia.
Alpine tundra gave way to a confer forest and then deciduous during the hike to Balsiglia and Massello. Balsiglia was the site of the last stand of Arnaud's troops in May 1690. More on this in a bit. This valley is part of a larger complex of valleys known collectively as Val Germanasca - one of the traditional Waldensian valleys, and the northernmost one that is still home to Waldensians.
We made it to the next stop - the Hotel Foresteria in Massello. As was typical for most of the trip, there were few people who could speak English, so I had to improvise with French and rough Italian. The head cook at the hotel, Andrea, could speak reasonable English and he was quite friendly. Taking off the boots and letting the feet air out while enjoying cold beer was very welcome.
The food was amazing - all on the house menu.
The next day was a rest day - we put on our day packs and walked back up to the museum in Balsiglia commemorating the famous battle there.
By September 1689, Arnaud and his troops made it to Bobbio Pellice, but encountered resistance in Villar and had to retreat. In his parting instructions to the troops, Joshua Janavel recommended a mountain ridge at Balsiglia as a defendable redobut. With only 400 troops, Arnaud retreated there in October. The French attempted an attack, but were repulsed, and left the Waldensians alone for the winter. The Catholics who had taken over the valley from the Waldensians fled, leaving Arnaud's troops the chance to fortify the ridge. They found grain left in the fields by the Catholics, dug up some old mill stones, left from before the exile, to grind flour.
In May, the French troops, numbering 22,000, under the command of Lieutenant General de Catinat returned to lay siege. A first attack was repulsed. Catinat then had artillery pieces moved up into position and pounded the Waldensian position. Then, the French troops attacked on four sides. Arnaud had to give up a lower position, called "The Castle" and retreated to a rocky crag, the Pan di Zucchero (Sugarloaf). At nightfall, it became clear that the Waldensians were surrounded, and the situation dire. It appeared to be the end near sunset.
Then, a semi-miracle occurred - a large cloud bank closed in just at dusk. The Waldensians could see the fires of the French encampments blazing. A Capitan Poulat came to Arnaud. Poulat grew up in the valleys and suggested a breakout strategy. They lit fires to distract the French and then climbed silently and single file through the fog past the French pickets over the crags, and then up the next ridge toward the town of Salza. They slipped through the grasp of the French.
During this period, Victor Amadeus II, the Duke of Savoy, had engaged in secret negotiations with the British, Germans, and Dutch, and formally switched allegiances away from the French at about the time of the Waldensian escape. Realizing that Arnaud's troops could now guard his frontier against the French, he sent out an envoy to make peace with the Waldensians.
Although this was ostensibly the end of the period of the Glorious Return, the Duke of Savoy weaseled his way between various alliances, but relied on the Waldensian troops in numerous battles. Having moved from a non-violent philosophy to the guerrilla tactics of Janavel, to a full-out fight for survival, the Waldensians became ferocious fighters, prompting one non-Waldensian commander to remark, "I don't know if they fight to live or live to fight."
The Waldensian Museum in Balsiglia is devoted to the story of the Glorious Return and the battle itself.
Reconstructed mill outside of Massello.
In the museum in Balsiglia: a stained glass portrait of Captain Poulat, hero of the battle.
Mass dial in Balsiglia.
We hiked back down to Massello, and visited the Waldensian Church there - perched up on a hillside.
The plan for the next day presented a minor challenge. Nominally, we were to hike the next stretch to the town of Ghigo di Prali, but in Ghigo I struck out on making reservations - every place was full on account of a festival there for that day. So, I worked with the owner of Foresteria, a woman named Lory, to get the services of a driver to pick us up in Ghigo that afternoon, take us back to Foresteria, and then bring us to Ghigo in the early morning of the following day. Complicated, but at least a path forward.
That day, August 15th was a major holiday - Ferragosto. At first the hike followed the road up to Salza, but then darted up a hillside through the woods to two minor passes.
Massello to Ghigo di Prali.
Colle di Serrevecchio.
The next town was Rodoretto, which was in full holiday mode, with racks of ribs being barbecued in the local restaurant. After another hike over another ridge, we got a magnificent view toward Prali and Ghigo di Prali. We found more and more wild raspberry bushes along the trailside, with ripe berries there for the picking. This recalled to me my Great-Aunts who emigrated from the Waldensian Valleys. My father would take me to visit them every Sunday morning. Honestly, I dreaded the visits. Still, my Aunt Cecile would encourage me to go out in the back and pick raspberries in the bushes behind the garage. The sight of these bushes conjured up the memory of Cecile, and made me wonder whether the bushes she grew didn't remind her of her childhood.
Wild raspberry bushes in Val Germanasca.
Prali and Ghigo di Prali (more distant).
After descending into Ghigo, we enjoyed the festival, having lunch, visiting the displays of cheese and salamis, watching a bocce tournament, and even a bluegrass band.
Cheeses on display in Ghigo.
Who would think? Ass salami.
Our ride showed up in the late afternoon and carried us back to Foresteria. The driver spoke French and seemed to be an expert on Waldensians. When I spoke of the Glorioso Rimpatrio, he corrected me to the Glorieuse Rentree - which seemed a bit much. We had a great dinner, again. By this third evening, the folks at the hotel were quite friendly, even comping us with a glass of grappa.
Lory (owner), Dan, and Andrea (Chef) at Foresteria.
At 8 AM the next morning, our driver was there and took us up to Ghigo for the next phase of the hike - over the Colle Giulian and into Bobbio Pellice - the end of the GRV.
Ghigo to Bobbio Pellice
Dan on the hike up from Ghigo di Prali.
It was a fairly steep hike of a 3500 ft ascent to the pass, up through the conifers into the alpine tundra. At the start of the hike, the air was quite dry, but moisture moved in and there was a lot of vertical convection of clouds - one good reason to get over the pass early - to avoid lightning strikes.
Supposedly, Arnaud's troops encountered a picket of the Savoyards at the pass, who said "Halt, we are 3000". But Arnaud persisted and the Savoyards quickly vanished.
Me at the Colle Giulian.
When we gained the height of the pass, we saw a large cloud clinging to the southern slope - probably from the sunlight shining and heating up the slope. We hiked down and had lunch. During this stretch, the GRV and the GTA used the same trail until a milking pen/sheep shearing pen, where the two diverged, and the GTA continues on to Villanova, but the GRV diverts to Bobbio. The GRV from the shearing pen downhill was definitely not highly maintained. It took a fair amount of reconaissance to find the trail in places, particularly in the cloud bank.
Dan finding the trail on the descent from Colle Giulian.
After a steep descent, the trail contoured along a slope. The footing was difficult as grass covered the trail, and you couldn't tell whether you were stepping on a pointy rock or into a deep hole. Eventually we came to some small borgatas (collections of houses). Where the trail was tough to follow up on the mountain, we saw too many trail signs, which generated more confusion. Then, a thunderstorm opened up on us, pouring rain.
We stuck to the gravel road on descent into Bobbio, and finally followed an old stone track down.
Bobbio Pellice from the GRV trail.
Before long, we came to the monument of Sibaud. In the story of the Glorious Return, when Arnaud and the soldiers reached Bobbio, he gathered them together at a sacred rock, Sibaud, and swore an oath of solidarity. A monument erected there marks the official end of the Glorious Return Trail.
Monument of Sibaud.
From there, we hiked through Bobbio to Borgata Garnier - one of the off-shoot villages between Bobbio and Villar Pellice. I made reservations at a B+B called Ai Fontana. One of the guys running Ai Fontana, Gabriel Rimbaud, was nice enough to act as a taxi driver and took us to a great restaurant in Bobbio, Cacciatori - which features local cuisine. I had a mushroom pasta followed by braised rabbit.
The next day was a family visit. My cousin, Cinzia Janavel, was on holiday and was happy to drive us around. I wanted to revisit the museum in Torre Pellice, as I'd gotten deeper into Waldensian history. My last visit was three years prior, when I saw the house where my grandmother was raised, and the home of Joshua Janavel, among others.
The museum in Torre didn't open until 4 PM, so Cinzia got the name of a new feature, the College of the Barba at the top of the Angrogna River valley in the hamlet of Pra da Torno.
In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church suppressed Waldensian activities through the Inquisition- burning practitioners at the stake. The practice of religion was done in secret. Traveling ministers would disguise themselves as trade-folk, and would minister in secret. These were called 'barba' - patois for 'uncle'. Since the practice of religion by the Waldensians was punishable by death, the training of the barba had to be done in secret. This was accomplished at a clandestine "college of the barba" at the head of the Angronga River valley.
The Angronga River meets the Pellice (historically called the Luscerna) River a little to the west of Torre Pellice. Unlike the broad Pellice valley, the Angrogna valley is very steep walled, and very difficult to travel through. It was the scene of many retreats and was easily defended. At the top end of the valley, Pra del Torno is a remote and rocky place, difficult to get to. Here was the college to train the barba. The Waldensian Society recently completed a construction of a museum, the College of the Barba that shows the conditions where the barba lived and studied during the middle ages.
College of the Barba - Stefano Gignous-Janavel waving.
Cinzia drove us up the winding road up the Angrongna valley to Pra del Torno. We parked and hiked farther uphill to the College of the Barba. Who did we see there, but Stefano Gignous-Janavel. In my ancestry, I also have a Gignous-Janavel relative back there in the 18th century. Stefano is something of a Facebook ambassador for the Waldensian Church - a very friendly guy.
Cinzia, me, Stefano Gignous-Janavel, and Stefano's daughter at the College of the Barba.
We also visited the Church in Pra del Torno. In contrast to many other religions, there is a distinct absence of any kind of iconography in the Waldensian Churches - really called "Temples" - e.g. Tempio Valdese.
Waldensian church in Pra del Torno.
I signed myself into the register in front of the lectern. In perusing the pages, I was horrified to see that an American who signed himself in wrote "Make America great again." I felt compelled to counter this image, writing "Que rien ne soit plus que votre foi," and "peace and love to ALL". Oh well.
We then made our way to the museum in Torre. I gobbled down the history on those wonderful walls. Perhaps most notable is the collection of machetes. When the Waldensians made the transition to warriors, the beidana went from being brush-working implements to weapons. In keep with the theme of US politics, I raised the machete, in my mind, to be a symbol of the resistance to the zombies.
Display of beidana in the museum in Torre Pellice.
After the museum, we went back up to Villar for an early dinner - called in those parts a merenda sinoira. It starts early and you share plates of various kinds with others. In the photo below, taken by Dan, you can see, starting at the left and going clockwise: Enzo, Paola, Cinzia, Arianna, Anna, Massimo, Adrianna, Tiziano (partly hidden), Antonella, and myself. One of my cousins, Alessandra, couldn't make it, as she had to attend to her duties at the hospital where she worked.
Family at the merenda sinoira.
Although Arianna and Antonella spoke some English, everyone seemed more comfortable in French. I translated back-and-forth for Dan. It worked surprisingly well.
Cheese course - cheeses from Bobbio on left, Villar on right.
After many courses, the cheese and salami course came out. In some ways, I wish we'd had this earlier as all the cheeses and salamis were local, coming from either Villar or Bobbio. Anna said she was from Bobbio, and I kept wanting to say that the particular cheese I was sampling from Bobbio was 'the best', but I kept getting it wrong. Finally, Enzo broke out the genepy, and we all enjoyed a nice sip of the local favorite.
Enzo uncorks the genepy.
I didn't want the visit to end, but work was calling. We had a 7:30 AM train out of Turino, and Cinzia helped us secure a cab from the Ai Fontana bed and breakfast that was to arrive at 5:45 the next morning. I remember being waken up by roosters crowing in the valley as the sky just began to get light. Soon we were back in the city, boarding a train, then another, then Geneva, then Amsterdam, then Boston. Boom.
But, I received a gift - history, mixed with mythology, family, place, and spirituality - touching the soul across the eons.
Rich heritage. Let us remember the Waldenses and the other 50 million who were murdered for owning a Bible and individually seeking out the truth for themselves and how they fought with sticks and stones and strategy.
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