Monte Tamaro hike

After a great night in Milan we decided we should do something active to fill our Sunday. Monte Tamaro is one of the larger mountain peaks in the area and the hike closes at some point in November for the winter. Some other teachers were going up to do the hike, but we thought 8am may have been a little early after a late night in Milan, so we headed out about 1030am. The timing ended up being perfect because we had to take a gondola up to Monte Tamaro then hike up to the peak, hike across mountain ridges to reach Monte Lema and then from there take a gondola down to another town and a bus back to our car. The bus only left at 510pm, so the fact that we were heading up about 11:30am was perfect. The hike was supposed to take about 4 hours. I kept wonderig how many kilometers it was total, but instead of giving you that information the map tells you the estimated time it will take. Maybe this is just Swiss precision. On the ride up in the gondola, the trees glowed in the fall colors, yellow, orange, red, green. The colors were amazing. Once we hit the tree line there was much less foliage, but no snow on this peak. It was actually really warm, I even got some sun. We met a nice couple from Norway and the Swiss German area on the ride up. They were very knowledgeable about the area and the many mountain peaks of Switzerland. He also told us how the World Mountain Biking Championship was held on the hills of Monte Tamaro. We liked them because they said, " we think you are very slim to be Americans." Guess they were envisioning fast food eating obese Americans. Glad that we could change their opinion. Later in the day, we did see bikers on the mountain bike path. More reason for you to coming visit, Aron! The hike ended up taking about 4 hours and was more strenuous than I had expected. I guess I had envisioned the ridge to be more flat. Instead we were climbing to the peaks of the mountains and then coming down and then going back up. It was a great workout, like a natural stairmaster. We even ran into some goats..the quote of the day was the goat was coming straight at us and Allie said, "well I guess he does have the right of way...?" We were both cracking up. I did manage to roll my ankle pretty badly though. I'm hoping it will heal quickly, because it will really get in the way when I am trying to keep running. :( Tonight some other teachers were getting together to watch Grey's, but I didn't think the walk up the hill with my ankle was a good idea. We were even able to see the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa, which I guess is the highest mountain peak of a mountain that is entirely in Switzerland. The views were definitely impressive. We were overlooking Lake Maggiore too, which is where my mom and I are traveling next week! Can't wait!