The day is November the 2nd, Commemoratio Omnium Fidelium Defunctorum, commonly known as the day of the dead. The weather has been abysmal for the past five or so days, constant rain, everything is wet and muddy, and this morning there was a thick fog covering most of the valley. But dogs don’t care about bad weather and so out we went.
Aside from its wetness, I enjoy foggy days. There’s something magical about seeing familiar landscapes disappear into a thick wall of grey. Driving around, though? Not as fun. Thankfully, the roads here are all but crowded, and I saw precisely zero cars this morning. One thing I did see was a church. Not because I wanted to go to church—I am not a religious person, I am not even baptised—but because I quite like this place and I wanted to see how it looked this morning with the fog and all that.
This is the church of San Nicolò, and you’ll likely see it again on this newsletter at some point because it’s part of a trail that I do want to walk that is designed to touch 44 votive churches scattered around the valleys. The church itself is nothing special or spectacular. Originally built in 1294, it started out as a small chapel, then expanded in 1450 and subsequently rebuilt in 1525. A few centuries later, a pronao was added, and that’s the structure that has resisted to this day.
