for our final day we decided to take a look at the Elva area - we visited a very interesting cosy museum about a trade that was typical of this area, the collection and work of human hair - the men here used to travel far and wide collecting hair, buying them off poor women who would sell them for cash or pieces of clothing. the hair would then be brought back to Elva where the women would work them and make them into wigs to be sold to rich people in France, England and even the US. this went on till about the 50s, then synthetics took the toll and the people slowly left the region. in the early days of the 1900s there were over a 1000 people living there, now they're down to 100...
after a picnic lunch we went uphill for a while as part of the
A Spasso per Lou Viol trail, partly on the road and partly in the woods on the mountains - a very nice 2-hour tour, mostly in nature that closed off out 3-day break.
we had a very nice time and we will surely be back for more, as there is still lots to do and lots to see in Val Maira :)
