Claro Monastery Hike & Rabadan – Sun 19 Feb 2012 (Milan)
Rabadan, Rabadan, Rabadan, the craziness is less than 4 days away!!!
Protected content
Here is the plan!
Travel Arrangements
Getting There
Milano Centrale 9.10->10.34 Bellinzona
Lugano Centrale 10.12->10.34 Bellinzona
Milanese REMEMBER to buy Swiss and Italian tickets separately to save money(via Chiasso).
There’s 30 minutes (although this train is often late) at the station to group, get swiss francs or any other supplies you need before we take the 11.09 Bus Protected content Bellinzona Piazzale to Gnosca, arriving at 11.22am.
The hike will finish at Castione-Arbedo where we take either the 14.24, 14.52, 14.55, 15.25, 15.52 or 15.55 for a 4 minute train journey back to Bellinzona.
Getting Back
For Milano, Andy has suggested the Bellinzona 21.25->22.50 Milano Centrale or ->23.09 Sesto. There are sensible train links at the following times
17.25->18. Protected content 20.25->22. Protected content 22.25->00.22
For the Luganese it’s a lot more flexible. You can also buy tickets on your phone if you have the SBB app.
Weather Forecast
As of 15 Feb Protected content forecast for 19 Feb Protected content Bellinzona is 8C, some clouds with a 15% chance of <0.1mm of rainfall. Pretty Good :)
Contacts
Phil Jones Protected content
Hike Description
We descend from bus Protected content 11.22am and take a quick look around the church ruins at Gnosca, before locating the footpath and heading towards the small bridge over River Ticino.
Once safely on the other side we head north along the river bank until we are just past the road bridge. Here we follow a path right towards central Claro and find the path towards the monastery.
We ascend the hill and visit the monastery, then come down using the same route.
We take a left on the Path outside Claro that brings us down to the river path we travel South along the route we travelled on earlier but instead of crossing the bridge to Gnosca continue to Castione-Arbedo and find our way to the train station.
The ascent is only 400m. The hike is quite easy and takes around 4 hours. You should bring a sandwich or snack and some water. Trainers/sneakers are fine. We should aim to get on the 14.55 or 15.25 train back into town.
STILL WONDERING WHAT IN THE WORLD RABADAN IS?
If you need more details on this carnival go here (in Italian)
Protected content
or there’s a brief description in English here
Protected content
Cheers and See You Soon,
Phil