The Crippled Princess Eda.

Chapter 5

The wild birds were overjoyed to see the two of them in the state they were in, they began to sing sweet melodies in their sweet voices and soothing hearts.

The princess and Alexander looked at each other with a smile, then suddenly they ended up laughing, no one knew the reason for the laughter. The guards stood beside them and hurried away from their horses, coming to remove the Princess from her Alexander.

.”Sorry, your majesty”, one of them said while showing concern. “Are you hurt anywhere, maybe? Eh … let's take you home?” his second colleague asked. But Eda said nothing, sighed and headed for Alexander.

“Are you hurt anywhere? .” If you are injured, my guards can give you first aid, they are good at it,” she said to him.

Alexander did not speak and remained silent, offering a hand to the princess to help him stand, but immediately he remembered that Eda was lame, and he did not deserve to give her a hand. "Ah I'm sorry, I'm not hurt anywhere, I'm fine, thank you!” He said as he got up from where he lay.

Alexander helped the princess to ride on their horse, and then he followed, and they set out again. The guards also followed closely and carefully.

“This time be careful, and watch carefully, lest you bring more disaster than you did!” .said Eda as she hid her face from Alexander, she sighed in fear and shame.

They climbed mountains, valleys and went kilometers after another, the pace seemed a bit long. . Alexander looked tired, his strength was gone, and he ended up lying on Eda's back, he was not ashamed to lie on her because he felt sleepy too .

Finally after a long and tiresome journey, they arrived at Corripo.

Corippo bills had tiny village as the “smallest municipality in Switzerland,”. The population of the town was just about 120 people and things felt pretty small when Princess Eda hiked through to the village.

Perched on a steep hillside just north of Locarno and Lake Maggiore, Corippo resembles something straight out of a movie set. The entire village is fashioned from stone. The houses are made of stone, the church is stone, the rooftops are stone, and everything stands on a series of terraced walls, also laid down with stone. If you’re the type of person that loves walking through quiet medieval villages, then you’ll love Corippo.

One of the coolest aspects of Corippo is the quiet position that it maintains tucked away in the hills. Corippo isn’t the type of town that one can see see from miles away. It’s the type of place that sneaks up on someone. One can only see it it when they have rounded the last corner, which is how it happened for Princess Eda who was surprised to get there while hiking between the towns of Locarno and Lavertezzo.

The trail that they took from Locarno to Lavertezzo follows the west side of the Verzasca Valley. They started high above tree line, but as they descended, they passed through alternating segments of terraced farm, hillside hamlet and forest, usually in that order. About evening, the trail enters a dark and magical forest, the type that adorns children’s stories and pilgrim’s tales. The forest felt cool on the hot day that Princess Eda and Alexander hiked through, a welcome respite from the bright sunshine that beamed down on the Ticinese countryside.

Corippo was sneaky. One minute one is enjoying the thick canopy of the trees, wondering what life was like for the villagers that walked these paths 400 years ago. The next minute, Corippo is there, peaking at someone through the leaves from its comfortable hillside perch.