The Finns know well that heading into the forest in the middle of winter to light a bonfire with friends and warm up with a cup of tea is perfectly doable. I did it too, bundled up like a Michelin man in November, an outdoor picnic with tea and conversations that warm you up. In this country, which has few inhabitants and vast lands, the connection with nature is constant. In winter, it’s wonderful to see the first snow here; in summer, it’s a tradition to spend vacations in mokki, cottages immersed in greenery, where you go for walks, pick berries, or fish. There are many of them in the Mikkeli region, and they often have a sauna or one nearby on the lakeshore (https://www.visitmikkeli.fi/).
This immense body of water is located in southeastern Finland and is the fourth largest in Europe. You shouldn’t imagine a single vast expanse, but rather a labyrinth where forests weave like a snake between 15,000 islands. In summer, it’s a green heart; by late November, when the temperatures drop and the season of the frozen lake begins, snow covers it entirely in white (visitsaimaa.fi and gosaimaa.fi).
Silence, tranquility, and fresh air—that’s what you experience walking along the trails surrounding Lake Saimaa, but everything intensifies when you venture further into its many islands. In Niinisaari, in the Puumala archipelago, you arrive after taking a ferry that transports cars and buses. A few minutes of waiting and you cross to the other side, feeling as if you’ve left the world behind—much like the protagonist of Arto Paasilinna’s novel The Year of the Hare (a cult Finnish author beloved even in Italy), who suddenly leaves everything and follows a hare into the forest.
Here, Paula’s dogs greet you joyfully, and the warmth of a large wood-fired oven welcomes you as the hostess bakes Karelian pie, made with rye and wheat flour and filled with porridge made from rice, milk, and eggs. You enjoy it by spreading butter or butter mixed with boiled eggs on top. Fresh out of the oven, it’s irresistible—just like the place itself, a former farm that once sold logs and ice to passing ships and now welcomes tourists (https://www.okkolanlomamokit.com/it/). And then there’s everything you can fish here: whitefish, muikku (small whitefish typical of Lake Saimaa), pike-perch, and salmon trout (https://www.visitsaimaa.fi/en/saimaa-gastronomy-tour/).
The meeting point is at Kallioniemi, where the boat Aino is anchored, ready to set sail and take visitors to see the ancient Astuvansalmi rock paintings. You enter a channel, and in 20 minutes, you arrive at the docking point, where you disembark to see the large rock wall with figures drawn in red—elk and handprints dating back 6,000 years (https://finlandtodo.com/).