Panorama Photo

The Maiella is the second highest and second largest massif in the Appennino. Why it is locally called "montagna madre", mother mountain, a sort of Chomolungma of the Abruzzi, can be understood for example thinking that in the past Christmas days it was the unique place in the whole of Italy where people could ski on natural snow.
Among all the skiers crowding Passo Lanciano (hidden), Rifugio Panorama and Rifugio Mamma Rosa (visible) there was a single cyclist ascending to the Maielletta, along a road which is, together with the one climbing to the top of Campo Imperatore, the highest of the Appennino. After Rifugio Pomilio (hidden here behind the summit of the Maielletta, full of skilifts and antennas) the asphalted road becomes very narrow, and remains closed in winter. It reaches a Madonnina from where it is straightforward to reach the wide summit of the Blockhaus, of which I am stay at the northern end.
It is curious to find the name Blockhaus in this region, but it comes from a big building which was built around 1880 to host chosen military troops, with men coming even from Austria, hired to fight the brigands that plagued the region.
Actually, the Betrachter needs to consider that in the Italy of those times brigands carried out their existence on secluded mountains - whereas nowadays their eke out their living on the most comfortable and best rewarded seats, I mean, those of the Parliament, the Government, the Universities a.s.o. - this is the result of a process generally called Progress or Civilization. As a net result of such a process, the Blockhaus building is now ruined, and the surroundings totally deserted, as can be seen here, with the exception of sporadic cyclists...
Concerning cyclists. In the 2009 Giro d'Italia the long awaited stage Chieti-Blockhaus was shortened due to the late snowfalls - remember how snow we had that spring, also in the Alps. The arrival was thus fixed lower down at the Hotel Panorama; it is useless to recall the names of the winners, since most of them were going to be disqualified due to doping issues, including the "local" hero Danilo di Luca, in whose town (Spoltore) I would have been some days after, shooting panoramas of the Maiella and of the Gran Sasso from the distance. To understand the size of the doping involved, consider that even Lance Armstrong - doped as he was - arrived with a two-minutes delay from the winner!
Well far from these heroes, for the ascent to the Maielletta via the wonderful town of Pretoro I doped myself with a pill of Polase, having discovered that my box expires in January 2016 and is still nearly untouched, perhaps because, shooting too many photos, almost always I forget the doping duties.
Since I added several significant names that are not to be found on Udeuschle, should there turn out to exist more than three interested people (which, however, for a mountain group outside the Mittelgebirge, and for a work by me, is already a non-negligible result) I would add a systematic commentary like, say, that of N.12786.
For now, let me only point out the range of the view, which stretches from the Sibillini north to the Gargano south. While the recognizability of Vettore and Redentore is out of question, Vettore even at 500 pixels, I would not swear about the Gargano which I labeled nevertheless, not least because I could distinctly see it, sailing over the billows, when awakening the next day. Nope, with this thick and persistent fog covering both the coastal region and the Adriatic, for the Dalmatian coast, let alone for the Udeuschle maxdist of 302 km which nearly coincides with the standpoint of my Zavizan panorama N.13681. See the Fernsicht-remark to that work.
Striking is also the fact that the huge shadow of the Maiella points, at 60°, precisely the massif that I think to be the most likely to be visible from here, namely, the Biokovo (1761) above Makarska.
As an accompaniment to a Maiella panorama, I would say that the choice is nearly forced: "Harold en Italie" by Hector Berlioz, after Byron. Within it, however, the Betrachter can widely choose his own mood, among:
- Harold aux montagnes. Scènes de mélancolie, de bonheur, et de joie;
- Marche de pélerins chantant la prière du soir;
- Sérénade d’un montagnard des Abruzzes à sa maîtresse.
Otherwise, he can opt for the Finale, summarizing all the preceding:
- Orgie de brigands. Souvenirs des scènes précédentes.
Pretending, as said, with an effort of imagination, that the brigands still live here...

12 HF, Canon G1X, 32 mm equiv, ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/100 sec.
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