Mount Ceva in the Euganean Hills

It's spring and that means waves of Paduans are hitting the hills. They are our Euganean Hills. Some go cycling. Some go by motocycle. Many have lunch on the green colline. We decided to go for a walk.

Yesterday F and I took a short trail up Monte Ceva, starting from the church of Turri (Montegrotto). It was great work for my healing tendon. It made the dog happy to spend time in the outdoors. We discovered new plants that grow in these parts. The view was better than expected from the top.  On a clear day, you can see to the Adriatic Sea and enjoy plenty of the Paduan plains.  The only problem was how amazingly humid and hazy it was considering that we are still in April!  

Monte Ceva 255 mt.

The poppies are out

Fichi nano dei colli euganei especially adaptive at growing on volcanic rock

No Co2 with Delivery

This great local solution to a global problem has arrived in Padua: Triclo. It's cute. It's energy efficient. It moves merchandise around the city center intelligently. It's an example of my city staying with the times.

PT Land

Life has been filled with physical therapy sessions since February, 6 months after surgery. As soon as walking wasn't painful anymore, I joined my gym again to build back my tendon and wimpy leg. It's quite a lot of work. I am doing 2/3 sessions of 1.5 hrs a week. In fact, I need to leave for one now.

You wouldn't believe how slow it is to build back muscle tone after not walking properly for 4-5 months. There is also the concern that the tendon itself is quite healed but weak, too, so I am dedicating a lot of time to re-energizing its every aspect and move...and neural brain-muscle connections. "If you don't lose it, you lose it." This applies even to a tendon's response to brain impulses, supposedly. And I lost those impulses for several months.

Then my dog started in his own round of physical therapy for an arthritic leg last month. That has been another 5 hrs a week hauling him to sessions 20 miles outside of town. That progress is slow, too.

I've been learning tons about PT, to say the very least: laser, ultrasound, exercises, balance issues, heat packs, massages, exercises with household objects as well as strange instruments, etc.

I'll let you know more soon . But for now, I've got to go and stimulate my tendon tonight at the gym. I just started to get my first signs of a solid calf muscle last week. It still has a long way to go, but I am so excited. It's a physical and tangible sign of progress.

If only I could blog from the gym bikes.....