As in most societies, there are nice trolls and naughty trolls. Plus there is a hierarchy of trolls – and trolls have jobs.

The nice trolls like: Flowers, cleanliness, toys and ice-cream.

The naughty trolls like: To misbehave, create disorder, chaos and are messy. The really naughty ones have to be locked up.

I flew from England to Pennadomo, Italy in the hope that I could catch sight of a troll in its natural habitat. I was hoping to meet a nice troll (although they are very shy) and to avoid an encounter with a nasty troll. Even the local Italian villagers rarely see them, although they sometimes hear them scuttle around at night.

Pennadomo  is in the foothills of a mountainous region of Abruzzio, Italy and is a long way from any large town.

The Pennadomo mountainous trolls are not large like most trolls, in fact they are only around 4-5 feet tall and mostly come out in the evenings and early mornings – not in the middle of the night (unless there is a lot of ambient light, e.g. moonlight) and not in the day. It is believed that this is because they are shy and do not like contact with humans.

Also unlike most trolls, they have developed a taste for cats – which is why you do not see many around the area.

Upon first entering the village of Pennadomo, everything seemed normal. The people looked friendly:

People walking in the village of Pennadomo, Italy

Work was being done:

Construction in Pennadomo, Italy

The area was clean and tidy. The residents were obviously religious:

Religious statue in Pennadomo, Italy

However I quickly came across a troll signalling device – their version of a French Horn. So I blew into it with as much air as my lungs could give. This was necessary in order to make them aware that I would be looking for them. You don’t want to surprise a troll – Trolls don’t like surprises (this is partly why they eat cats):

Blowing a troll horn in Pennadomo, Italy

Blowing a troll horn in Pennadomo, Italy

Trolls don’t eat chickens, although in July-August they do like to collect their eggs to make blueberry pancakes:

A chicken - trolls don't eat them

As I walked further up the mountain, into the village; more ‘troll signs’ appeared, such as umbrellas, well-kept plants:

Troll signs - umbrellas and well-kept plants

Troll signs - well-kept plants

Troll signs - umbrellas and well-kept plants

Troll signs - well-kept plants

Troll signs - well-kept plants

Also water bottles and water sources:

Troll signs - water bottles

Troll signs - water sources

Troll signs - water sources

Then I found a troll house:

Troll house

As it was day-time, the door was locked. I noticed the lollypop stick (top left of the door) that had been left there before the troll went inside to sleep.

Troll house

There was a faint zzZZZZzzz noise coming from inside. I didn’t attempt to open the door because:

a) There was a big lock on it

b) It isn’t a good idea to disturb a sleeping troll. Even the nice ones can be aggressive if you interrupt them while sleeping (or eating)

So I kept walking until I came upon another entrance to a troll residence. Note the hole at the bottom of the door:

Troll house

I had a close look and behind the hole was a large piece of cheese. The cheese was resting on top of a large mouse-trap with a rusty spring. As the trolls eat the cats, there are a lot of mice around. Trolls like to skewer mice and roast them in front of an open fire.

Further on (and higher up the mountain) I found the doorway to the house of a naughty troll:

House of a naughty troll

You can see that a naughty troll lives here by the cigarette ends in the doorway.

Half-way up the mountain, near the top of the village I could see the trolls handy-work. Lots of well-kept plants, often in make-up pots, such as paint-pots:

Pot-plants maintained by trolls

Then as I walked I found something a little odd – an entrance to a troll-house with a metal door:

Troll house

Within it I could see a troll’s scooter. They use scooters to get around the twisty streets of villages such as Pennadomo, Italy because they don’t have an engine so are silent.

Troll house and scooter

I opened the door a little and had a quick look in there. I couldn’t see or hear a troll, but I didn’t want to risk disturbing one, so I left.

Then I made my way up a steep part of the mountain, towards the very top of the village where I looked up and saw a troll’s house up high, with a balcony which surrounded with metal bars. This was obviously the home of a level 2 troll:

A level 2 troll's house

A level 2 troll is a senior troll who commands and organises worker trolls. The metal bars of this and the previous houses I had seen gave me the impression that I was in the part of the village where the naughty trolls lived. Lucky for me, it was still day time so I was (relatively) safe – as long as I snuck by quietly without disturbing any trolls.

Onwards and upwards I went – my legs were getting quite tired from all the walking, but I didn’t want to stop (not in naughty troll territory).

Village of Pennadomo, Italy

Then I found something quite disturbing – a troll entrance that had been boarded up and large stones placed against it. This was obviously the dwellings of a very nasty troll who had to be kept under lock and key:

Naughty troll's boarded up house

This was the troll’s rear door:

Naughty troll's boarded up rear door

Then I went just around the corner and stumbled upon something interesting – a troll shrine. Notice all the well-kept plants that the trolls have been looking after:

Troll shrine

Religious troll candles

This is a troll prayer:

A troll prayer

And this was clearly a troll sign:

A troll sign - directing to something

I wasn’t sure what it was leading me to, but I had come all this way so was urged to investigate! So on I went…

Cautiously through the tunnel (trolls often jump out at you and demand payment of a toll if you try to walk through them):

A tunnel

Luckily though there were no trolls to be seen.

As you can see, I was now high above the village of Pennadomo:

Village of Pennadomo, Italy from above

Far in the distance was lake Lago di Bomba which is where trolls like to go at weekends to play and take a relaxing swim (trolls are deceptively good swimmers, learning to swim 25 metres at the age of 4):

Lake Lago di Bomba, near Pennadomo, Italy

Lake Lago di Bomba, near Pennadomo, Italy

Then, after following the troll signs for a while, I discovered a rare sight – and not one I was expecting to see. I actually saw a real-life Italian troll! It looked friendly enough, but was placed behind a series of rusty bars.

An Italian troll

I didn’t know if the bars were to protect me from it, or it from me, so I decided to keep my distance, politely wave back and then make my way all the way back down to the car. That was enough excitement for one day!

The morning of the 30th September started with:

• Taxi ride at 03:10 from my house to the MK temporary coach station (temporary because the new one is being rebuilt following a fire)
• Coach from MK to Stanstead Airport (03:40 – 06:00)
• Flight from Stanstead airport to Pescara, Italy (08:30 – 12:00)

I had only finished packing at about 01:00 that morning, so only got 2 hours sleep at home, then a little on the coach and plane.

The coach ride was actually quite nice. There were not many people on it and I decided to sit on the left hand side so I didn’t get a rush of traffic outside my window. I slept for most of the journey. I know we stopped at a bus stop near Luton airport, we may have stopped at other places, but I was sound asleep. I woke up 2 minutes before we arrived at Stanstead airport; from there it was just a short walk to the check-in.

The check-in was actually open early, so I checked in for the flight, drank bottle of drink I had on me (so annoying that you can’t take liquids into the departure area) then went through security.

I then sat near the cafe area where the people from frui said they would be, but they were not there, so when the time came, I borded the plane (I had paid for express bording which I always find is worthwile).

As I was one of the first people onto the plane, I was able to get a seat right at the front, this meant that I had plenty of legroom. A lady had beaten me to the window seat, so I grabbed the isle seat. Nobody ended up taking the 3rd seat, so I had some elbow room.

Midway though the flight, I took out a printout of the e-mail I had and the lady (Heather) sitting by me saw it – it turned out that she was on the same holiday! She had also looked out for the frui staff at the departure area but didn’t see them either, so it was good to know that we both had the correct flight!

After landing at Pescara, Italy; Heather and I got off the flight (we were right at the front, so the first off) and we collected our luggage, then met the frui staff and the other people from the course in the arrivals area. Then we got into a van and were driven to the Villa Danilo hotel which is located in Media Valle del Sangro, in Abruzzi region.

Upon arriving at the hotel we were given some nice food and drink, followed by 2 hours of rest (sleeping in the room), then dinner.

The hotel was very nice, set near a small village in a mountainous area. It was modelled on a Swiss chalet style building, had a small swimming pool, outside seating, nice rooms, 2 dining areas and was about a year old.

On the 3rd day we moved to another location. There the hotel was very basic and the rooms were cold, however that didn’t mater much – luckily they supplied blankets so it was ok.

Each day basically comprised of breakfast, a short talk on an aspect of photography, travel to a site where the participants could practice the photography, a second thing to see/do (e.g. look around a castle, a short demonstration of truffle hunting or pasta making), 2 hours rest in the hotel, dinner and a group review of the photographs.

The highlights of the holiday were:

• Seeing how dogs go truffle hunting
• The photography ‘sessions’ we had – i.e. walking around villages and taking photographs of a particular theme or in a particular style
• Lots of food
• Hot chocolate – it was really thick, not like any hot chocolate I have had before
• Cooking sessions
• The local Italian trades-people singing on top of a mountain (this was not planned)
• Singing in an agriturismo (see my videos here)

Good points:

• Learned the basics of photography including composition, ISO, shutter speed, aperture
• Never went hungry
• Nice scenery and locations
• Stayed in 2 hotels
• Well thought out itinerary
• The local people were very nice and friendly

Bad points:

• It was more of a holiday with a bit of photography mixed in. It should have been the other way round
• Staff were rude at times (not professional)
• It felt like the focus of the course was for the 2 staff to make an easy living and not to teach the participants about photography(although they were knowledgeable on photography when asked and did a very good job of teaching me food photography which is something they do not usually do)
• The staff did not have adequate equipment. For example they only had 2 small laptops which they used to display people photographs to the whole group of 10 people. 1 of the laptops had a broken screen (blue vertical lines). They should have used a projector
• 2-3 hours each day was allocated to ‘rest’ – i.e. lounging around or sleeping in the hotel. I actually didn’t mind this as I was treating it as a holiday, however I would have preferred to have done more or had more to do (e.g. we didn’t get a chance to go swimming or use the spa facilities of the first hotel – they were available but not offered to us)
• The van they hired was inadequate – 4 of the seatbelts did not work and on the final day the brakes were making a horrible grinding noise
• No real discussion about the photographs that people took. Just a brief 1 on 1 summary on the final day – by which time it was a bit late to ask anything meaningful because we did not have another chance to practice things
• Could have learned a lot more about photography in the time we were there

Overall:

I had a really good time and I learned a lot, but wouldn’t want to give the frui company any more of my money, I would rather spend it with another company. Other people on the course felt the same way.

My photographs:

I haven’t edited and uploaded them yet but will post here when I have. I have uploaded some videos here (taken with my mobile phone).

Unfortunately I can’t leave my car at Stanstead airport where I am flying out of because I’ll coming back via Gatwick airport. I got quotes for taxis to and from each airport (from my house in Milton Keynes) and they are just under £80 each way. So I decided to get a coach from MK to Stanstead airport for the outbound trip and my dad will pick my up from Gatwick airport for the return journey.

So I went onto http://www.nationalexpress.com and found a coach (depart MK at 03:40, arrive at Stanstead Airport at 06:00). The flight departs at 08:30, so check-in opens at 06:30. I got a 10% discount code from http://www.hotukdeals.co.uk (a good site) so it worked out to be just £15.21

Anyway, after purchasing the ticket online (nice and easy) an advert appeared on the National Express website for a saving of £15 off of my next purchase. So I clicked on it and it took me to a sign-up page which had in small writing:

Offer and Billing Details:
Sign up for Shopper Discounts FREE for the next 30 days, with our compliments, and enjoy ongoing savings for only £10 a month thereafter. Get your £15 cash back voucher, (if you make an additional booking at National Express within the next 3 months). Plus, cash back rewards at hundreds of leading websites plus all the valuable benefits of Shopper Discounts. It’s a Special Reward! If you are 100% satisfied during your trial period, do nothing. All your Shopper Discounts savings and protection will automatically continue for just £10 a month billed by Shopper Discounts to the credit card or deducted from the debit card you provided. Shopper Discounts is owned and operated by Webloyalty International Ltd. In the event your monthly membership fee were to ever change, you would be notified before being billed. Shopper Discounts benefits may be enhanced or modified at anytime without prior notice. And you have our Guarantee! If at anytime you are not completely satisfied during your trial period or thereafter, simply call Shopper Discounts on 0808 234 1539 (free phone) to let us know you wish to cancel your monthly membership benefits and owe nothing further. All your benefits and access will then be cancelled. All the money you have saved is yours to keep!

Consent to receive electronic disclosures: Please read carefully and save or print a copy for your records. Shopper Discounts will communicate your benefit and other membership information to you, including payment authorisation made by clicking Yes, by electronic communications, including email and electronic postings on our site. Your Membership Pack email will also include a copy of the Offer and Billing Details for your convenience.

I will highlight the important part of that here:

Sign up for Shopper Discounts FREE for the next 30 days, with our compliments, and enjoy ongoing savings for only £10 a month thereafter. Get your £15 cash back voucher, (if you make an additional booking at National Express within the next 3 months).

I wonder how many people sign up to this without reading it properly? It is how the sales companies leech off of the ignorant. I won’t go into the ‘they are ignorant so they deserve it debate’ (although I agree it is partly true), but I do think that advertisers who come up with ‘deals’ like this which are clearly unethical are scum (like thieves) and it should be illegal.

What do you think?

2 bonuses of this course are:

• I haven’t been to Italy before and I have always wanted to go
• It also has a strong food bias. I like to learn about (and eat) good food and am the co-owner of the cooking site GetMeCooking.com

Before booking the course, I e-mailed the company to find out a bit more about it. Here is my e-mail and their reply:

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On 4 Sep 2009, at 14:57, Paul Richardson wrote:

Hello,

Please can you tell me roughly how much time per day is spent doing/talking photography on the ‘photography trip to Abruzzo, 30th of September – 4th of October 2009′ holiday? It isn’t clear from the Itinerary and it sounds like it is also somewhat biased towards food (which is not a bad thing!), I see that you also have culinary holidays.

Would taking photographs of food be demonstrated? It would be useful for me as I own a cooking website http://www.getmecooking.com

How much storage (in terms of memory cards for the camera) would be good to bring? I assume the cards would get uploaded to a computer each night?

I have a Canon 40D camera, 2 image established lenses (18-85 and 70-300mm), x2 converter, flash, monopod, mini-tripod and a camera bag. Would it be beneficial if I have anything else?

I am 31, male. What is the average age of people on the groups? Will there be other single people on this group?

Thanks.

Paul Richardson

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————

From: Henry Carroll | Frui
Sent: 06 September 2009 11:04
To: Paul Richardson
Subject: Re: Photography trip to Abruzzo

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your email. I’d be happy to answer all your questions.

The way the holiday is set up is that after breakfast (9am ish) we have a 45 min talk of one particular aspect of photography by the pool. This will either be on composition, exposure or visual effects such as depth of field. Afterwards we will drive to a location to take photographs and practice what we spoke about in the morning (if it’s new to you). We will usually set you a theme to focus your shooting. In the afternoon, we sometimes go to another location or have one on one tutorials where you will be able to discuss your photographs with a tutor. It’s worth mentioning that we tend to concentrate on the more creative aspects of photography rather than the purely technical. We try to push people to see the world through more photographic eyes and notice things that one might normally ignore. In the evening, over dinner, we will have a presentation of the images taken that day.

We do like to eat a lot on these Italian holidays! The food out there is all local and we eat at argitourismos, where the food, wine and cheese are all made on site. It’s so fresh and really delicious. The holiday does offer more than purely photography as we get involved with the local community and meet some locals. We also go honey tasting, learn how to make pasta and go truffle hunting (which is a great photo opportunity).

Although we don’t have any specific classes on food photography, I’m sure you could spend time with a tutor, who would happily show you how to photograph food and also look at some contemporary techniques that are used in that genre.

We do upload the pictures every night, however, it’s a good idea to look after your own pictures. Depending on your file sizes, usually 2gb – 4gb is fine. We are also able to burn CDs on the holiday if you need to make more space.

Your equipment would be fine for this holiday. The mini tripod would be particularly useful for food photography.

We usually get a mix of ages on these italian holidays. For instance on our last holiday in July we had an age range of 25 – 58 ish. Most people tend to be in their mid to late 30s. Most people come on their own or with a friend. It does vary, but we usually get about 50/50 ratio of men to women.

Please do get in touch if you have any further questions or would like to book. We only have 7 places on this holiday and it’s filling up quite fast. I will be in the office tomorrow (monday) if you would like to call me directly on 020 7241 5006. I am in Italy from next Tuesday.

Great website by the way. Will be using some of those recipes myself!

All the best,

Henry

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So it sounds like an ideal course and holiday for me.

I have just booked the flights and the course, so I am all set!

A friend has invited me to go walking with him in the Lake District. That would be really nice and I thought about it, but I’ve decided not to as I’m walking up 3 mountains:

• Snowdon (Wales – 1085m)
• Scafell Pike (England – 978m)
• Ben Nevis (Scotland – 1344m)

in 24 hours on Saturday/Sunday as part of a 3 Peaks charity event with some people from work so I wouldn’t want to do any major exercise on Thursday/Friday. Plus I’ll be driving up on Friday and coming back on Monday.

I’ve looked on TravBuddy and YowTrip but can’t see anything I fancy. Hmm…

I was tempted by a walking holiday like one to Everest basecamp or Jordan (lowest point on earth) but after doing a lot of sporting things recently (and more coming up) such as walking up Snowdon twice 2 weeks ago, 6 hour Adventure Races, a Sprint Triathlon, a half marathon, etc. I think I deserve something more relaxing. So I’m thinking of a photography course+holiday like this one in Italy.

Any other suggestions? Please post them here.

On the 28th I looked at the weather forecast which ranged from Saturday to Thursday – and it showed rain for every day!

On the 29th (Sunday) I landed in Spain (Alicante airport) and it was dry when Dave and Peter picked me up in the hire car, but as we drove to the climbing site in Orihuela where the others were, the skies blackened and we drove into a big downpour, so we didn’t do any climbing that day (which I was actually glad about as I was still sore from the race the day before).

On the Monday the weather was still a bit iffy (although dry at our apartment). We decided to drive out to some rocks near the coast at Toix (Lower) at Calpe, as the weather is usually better there. Just as we arrived there it started to rain! So we sat in the 2 hire cars for 10 minutes and all of a sudden the rain stopped so we walked out to the rocks. The sun came out, the rocks dried really quickly and we got around 4 hours climbing in before it started to rain again! Also while we were there, some other climbers (English) turned up. Once it started to rain, we drove into Calpe and sheltered in a restaurant with a glass of hot chocolate. After which, Dave and I wandered around the town for a while, took a few photos and I popped into a pharmacy for some medicine for my sore throat (which plagued me the whole holiday – grr!!). That night we ate out at a local restaurant owned by an Englishman – the food was okay but not fantastic.

Rock Climbing in Calpe, Spain

On Calpe Beach

From then on we didn’t get any more rain (at least not during the day) for the whole holiday.

On the Tuesday we went to Marin where we did more single pitch climbing. Then I went with 3 other people to 2 supermarkets, where we picked up food for that nights dinner.

That night we ate in the apartment.

The Apartment

On Wednesday we went to Mercia. Once we found the rocks, we spent all day there. The only other person we met was a Spanish man (also a climber) who was walking his dog (which was panting a lot in the heat). On the way back to the card we passed from one side of the rock face (which was hot and sunny – I got sunburnt) to the other side of the rock face, via a small opening. It was like going from day to night as the other side was dark, cold, windy and a forest area. That night we ate out at a local restaurant (run by a Spanish family). The food was pretty good – I had a large steak with Rockford sauce.

Ready to Climb!

On Thursday we went to Toix (TV) in Calpe where we did some 2 pitch climbing, which I really enjoyed. I found it to be more ‘realistic’ than single pitch climbing and it felt like we were actually doing something.

2 Pitch Climb

On Friday we went to a small town called Guadalest. It took about 1.5 hours to get there, along very twisty roads. By the time we got there I was feeling a bit car-sick (it’s always worse in the back of a car!). The rocks didn’t look very inviting as the area was cold, damp and gloomy so I decided to sit it out on this day and just belayed people (supported them as they climbed) instead. Actually after 2 hours the sun came out and it was quite pleasant, but I was glad to have a rest day. Once everyone had finished climbing, we looked around the town for 30 minutes before heading back to the villa along the long twisty road (and I felt very car sick!). That night we returned to the local restaurant where I had a fish and vegetable paella (which wasn’t very nice – too gloopy and they only used fish stock – there was no fish parts in the paella).

Cold and Horrid in the Morning, but nice in the Afternoon

View from the Top

Saturday was our last day, so we went to Sella which was just 20 minutes away. It was a nice area – lots of forest and some locals climbers and walkers there too. The rock was quite ‘polished’ – meaning that because it was such a popular climbing area, the holds had been worn away or smoothed, making it harder to climb. The highlight of the day (for me) was when I managed to climb one stage higher than Dave and Peter

Then it was off to the apartment to pack, followed by a drive to the airport, drop off the hire cars and fly home. Dave then drove me home in his Mazda RX-8 (sounds very nice when accelerating)!

Overall, despite climbing/belaying for 4-5 hours every day, it was actually a very relaxing holiday