A Walk in the Woods

by Matt Fantinel
14 Oct 2025 - 3 min read
Picture of the woods, with sparse tall trees and the ground covered by brown leaves

Last Sunday I went to a small town in the foot of the italian Alps called Civiasco, with my wife and my brother. Last week we saw a poster for an event that was going to happen there while going out for a walk, and it looked interesting. It was called "Colma D'Autunno", which in my understanding means "Peak of Autumn".

Event poster for "Colma d'Autunno" dated October 12, 2025, featuring circular image of pastoral scene with sheep, mounted on outdoor bulletin board.

My wife and I always loved autumn, but the yellow and red leaves were not that common back in Brazil, so we never experienced the autumn aesthetic in real life. It was only an hour away from where we are so we figured it'd be cool.

As we arrived there, they were serving polenta with cheese and a sauce with donkey meat (!) called Tapelucco, which I'd never had before. The polenta and cheese were good as always, but I didn't enjoy the meat that much. Sadly, I forgot to take a pic of the plate, but the portion was very generous.

After lunch, we went for a guided tour around the woods, going up the mountain a bit. Even though it took a while (the "guided" part was mostly a biology class on plants), it was fun to walk around in that environment. It's the kind of woods we've always seen in movies but had never been to before.

Ground view of autumn leaves covering forest floor with five feet in sneakers visible from above.
We did not have proper gear for hiking (or even for the cold), but we survived.

Crowd of people gathered outdoors facing mountain village nestled in valley, with layered mountain ranges and overcast sky in background.
That little town in the background is the scenic Civiasco.

Large tree with golden autumn foliage standing on grassy hillside, with forested mountains and overcast sky in background.
This tree is a stunner.

One of the most common trees in these woods is the Castagno, or Chestnut tree. Which means the ground was full of chestnuts! We had a couple of them raw (which I only later learned you shouldn't eat raw...), and after the walk they started serving Castagnata (roasted chestnuts) for free for everyone. We had it with some Vin Brulé.

Hand holding 9 chestnus
The taste is not bad, but I didn't like the texture.

After the walk, we stayed for around 40min for a concert by a guy named Nick Hart, from the UK. He sang old English folksongs and it was a pretty cool experience!

Musician Nick Hart performing with acoustic guitar at outdoor mountain venue, with forested hillside in background and small audience seated below.
Live music with the Alps and a valley in the background. Not bad, huh?

Written by

Matt Fantinel

I’m a web developer trying to figure out this weird thing called the internet. I write about development, the web, games, music, and whatever else I feel like writing about!

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