06: In the Shadow of Monte Rosa
The plan may have only come together a few days before I left, and was nearly thwarted by a skeptical French consulate official, but it came together in a way significantly better than I ever could have imagined. It took several trains and a three hour bus ride to reach it, but the seven days in the end destination - where the road eventually disappeared into a small Italian village called Alagna, in the shadow of the grand Monte Rosa - will go down as one of the most memorable weeks of my life.