Day 15 - Terme di Miradolo to Piacenza - Monday June 29, 2015

Had a lovely night’s sleep, all the doors and windows open for lots of fresh air, screens on all the windows, and a ceiling fan. It was even beautifully quiet until around 4:30am when a bunch of people seemed to be going home, so we closed the door. We even got to sleep in because Max wasn’t coming to pick us up until 8:40am.

Our instructions for today started from Terme di Miraldo (even though we were transported here from Santa Cristina), but we got a ride with Max to Candelasco because we didn’t have a reservation for the ferry/water taxi to take us across and 4km down the Po river. In any event, with the ferry, it would have been 30km plus again today, and doing that 3 days in a row is 3 days too many.

The Albergo Castello in Terme di Miraldo was a lovely hotel, in a very upscale town, beside a pool/spa, full of beautiful people, and they played Italy’s equivalent to Hawaiian music 14 hours a day. The music started up at 8am this morning and it was turned off about 10pm last night.

There were a lot of pies at breakfast again, and they really know how to make pie dough in Italy.

Max arrived at 8:35am and we loaded up his 1980 (guess) Fiat with our luggage, backpacks, poles, and the three of us for another great driving adventure with Max. He never really stopped at stop signs, talked on his cell phone a lot, at one point he started reading our route notes while driving 110km an hour, and he drove no hands for a while putting on his seat belt. I’m sure he never wears a seat belt except he could see Russell and I were all buckled in and he must have felt conscientious. He, of course, was taking our suitcases to Piacenza, and believe me it was very tempting to just go along for the whole ride, but Russ would have been very disappointed in me.

The Po river is the longest and one of the main rivers in Italy. It was quite the bridge we drove over the Po getting to Candelasco. The whole ride was 40 minutes, but it seemed much longer. At one point Russell patted me on the shoulder, as if to say “want the front seat tomorrow?” Memories of riding in the  tour bus in Bejing.

After being cramped up in the car for that length of time, it took a while to get the legs and feet moving. I had asked Max to let us off at the church square Piazza de Bergamaschi (that’s when he read the route notes), but as soon as we got into Candelasco and Russ found where we were on the GPS, he said ‘you can let us off here’. Groan. And so it began for today’s walk.

We have left 161 km’s of rice fields behind. Today we walked past wheat, corn, beans, and now Roma tomato fields. 

But we still saw grey herons and bitterns, and have we mentioned the geckos? They are everywhere. And the barking dogs jumping on their fences?

At one point our route notes said that, if the river Trebbia is dry, we could ford the river and save 2km. It certainly looked dry, so we set out figuring out how to get down off the cliff we were on beside the river. We forded the river under an (at least) 23 span Roman type railway bridge, where it was obvious a homeless person was living. At one point you could see a wide section of the river, and I was getting worried that: a) that this was a great place for an ambush; and, b) the river would suddenly obstruct our passage. We ended up successfully fording the river, not getting robbed, and saving the 2 km. Yeah! However, it was obvious from the large pieces of concrete missing in the bridge supports that at times there was a mighty flow to the river.

Pretty much after that we were in the outskirts of Piacenza. A large town with a population of 100k (according to Max, and confirmed by the internet). Where we were after fording the river was completely not in sync with the route notes, but it was tracking the GPS. My feet were sore enough that I wasn’t in the mood for any extra kilometers due to errors, when lo and behold we came upon a MacDonald’s. I insisted we stop there (you’d never get me in a MacDonald’s in Canada). My reasons were fourfold: I had to go to the bathroom and the toilets in this stretch of Italy were all Chinese stand-up toilets – I fully expected the MacDonald’s toilets would be the sit down variety; we could have a lunch where you actually knew what you were ordering; I could rest my foot; and, we could figure out where we were.  After putting all our resources together, we figured out where we were and how to get to where we wanted to go. The meal was everything you could expect it to be, as were the toilets!

Today, again, we had what is becoming the usual hassle trying to find our hotel, and get into it. This time, we were staying in San Francesco B&B, on a street a block long. We finally found a street with the same name as the address of the B&B, but the B&B wasn’t on it (lucky the street was only a block long). It then took us another 1.4km, and help/not help from many locals to find a street that did have the place on it. We found an entrance to an apartment complex (liken in Vercelli), which said the B&B was there, but there was no buzzer. Out came some residents, we asked about the B&B, they said, no, it wasn’t there. We pointed to the sign, they shrugged, and let us in the lobby. We then made good use of our Vodaphone SIM card again, and called the number. The lady said, ‘I’ll meet you on the 6^th floor’. Wasn’t it just lucky we were actually in the locked lobby, courtesy of some kind and trusting residents! She spoke no English and our Italian is even worse. The whole business of having such a problem finding our accommodations is incredibly annoying, except the hardest ones to find end up being the nicest places, making it worth all the aggravation!!!

The lady gave us some excellent maps, water, fruit, and a coffee. This all because our room was being prepared. The apartment was a rooming house. There were three bedrooms, only two occupied. We had our own bathroom, but it was down the hall. Keys galore, to the door in the lobby, to the apartment, to our room, and to our bathroom. The room was lovely, there was a large dining room, a beautiful deck overlooking a major piazza with a palace and church, just up from the Cathedral

, right beside a supermercato. We had a shower, then we went to the cathedral and got our credenzias stamped, had gelato, and picked up dinner at the supermercato. This is a very big town so dinner is not included. A wonderful opportunity to eat simple, and light.

We then sat out on the deck, moving our chairs and table as necessary to dodge the sun, and did the blog.

 Our roommate came home around 7:30pm with a pizza. She too sat on the deck, offering us some pizza, but we were full. She teaches voice at the university, and was preparing her students for exams on Wednesday. A soprano. Sounds like her time is divided, and this is where she stays when in Piacenza.

Unfortunately the walk was almost all along asphalt again today, so even though it only ended up being 13.7km, my feet are killing me. Today it was 32 degrees. Tomorrow is 23km, and 34 degrees. We have walked 285km out of 326km so far and have 706km (according to the route notes) to go. This is another place where it would be nice to have another day.

Day 14 - Pavia to Santa Cristina to Terme di Miradolo - Sunday June 28, 2015

We met Hugo at breakfast! Too bad when we ran into him yesterday we didn’t ask where he was staying – we could have saved some wear and tear on our poor feet wandering about looking for the hotel. The route notes didn’t take us any further than the San Michele Church yesterday and didn’t start until we returned there today. So we were out by 2.2km from the route notes before we even started today and it just got worse.

It was an excellent buffet breakfast. All our favorite foods. Hugo left before we did, and we asked the hotel lady about where we got on the via Francigena, and I don’t think she had ever heard of it before! She did however give us a city map which was infinitely better than the one Macs provided.

In total, we walked 31.2 km today and it was 32 degrees. This followed walking 30km yesterday, and it was 31 degrees.

I wanted to see the cathedral in Pavia, so we wandered about until we found that, then went past the San Michele church, the baroque San Pietro in Verzolo Church, the San Lazzaro Church and Hospital, and a modern church with the service about to begin and lots of people (judging from all the cars) in attendance.

We went through a lot of towns. At first most of the bars were closed (Sunday), but later lots were open. At one point we were passed by a motorcycle parade, with a lead and end car. There must have been at least two hundred motorcycles. Lots of horn blowing and well wishes.

At San Leonardo we met Hugo, with a pilgrim from Belgium, Anna, having a break. She had the same map/guide Robert had, and said she had gotten it at Ivrae at the information center. We got a water and sat with them for a bit. My main motivation for stopping there was a bathroom break. We wanted to make as much progress as possible before it got too hot, so left quickly.

At San Giacomo my foot needed a break, and there was a bar that had a lot of tables in the shade, so we got two waters, and rather shamelessly pulled out our lunch and started eating. Soon Hugo and Anna walked by, and Anna stopped but Hugo hurried on, because he had a long distance to go today (he was going where we were going). Anna started her trek to Rome in Belgium, on April 21, so had been walking more than two months already. We told her we had all our rooms booked with no days off, arriving in Rome on August 1. She said she took at least one day off a week, and hoped to get to Rome sometime in August. She was very concerned about my heat rash, with lots of suggestions. She also cautioned me about my foot, not to overdo it, or I wouldn’t be able to finish the walk.

She was only going to Belgioioso today, and was planning to read for a couple of hours before leaving where we were. She gave us her map/guide. She said it was too heavy and she had been planning to throw it away, it was only good for a few more days anyway, and she had better maps she had gotten off the internet before she left Belgium. I said ‘oh no’ but she insisted, so I thanked her profusely, and was very happy to have them.

The major problem today was that we walked 9km on gravel/not asphalt paths, and 22.2km on asphalt roads. Needless to say my left foot was very unhappy. At km 27.2 there was no possibility to bail if we continued, and I really didn’t know if I could make it or not. Russell was being very unsympathetic so off we went. I just flipped into another dimension somehow, ignoring the intense shooting pains in my heel, and we made it to Santa Cristina at a rate of 5km per hour.

Our hotel was 6km off the Via Francigena in Miradolo Terme and at Santa Cristina we could either walk the extra 6km or find a small café run by Chinese people and have them call the hotel and someone would come pick us up. Walking another 6km was not an option for me, so we wandered around to every possible cafe, stopping only when we finally found one run by Chinese, who had no idea about calling the hotel for someone to come pick us up, but did it anyway. Couldn’t our route notes have said the name of the café?

It was a wonderful opportunity to sit and have a cold beer. Also, Hugo arrived and we said good-bye to him. He wasn’t going as far tomorrow, but perhaps our paths will cross again.

It’s a very nice hotel populated by a lot of beautiful people. The room has no fridge or air conditioner, but it has a large fan, and windows (with screens again) on two sides, so it is very pleasant and the fresh air is very welcome!

Upon reading our route notes for tomorrow, we realized that we needed to reserve the Po river ‘ferry’ at least yesterday. We also figured out that if we walked to the ‘ferry’, we would be walking another 30km tomorrow in 34 degrees.

We went and conferred with the hotel management. He called the ferry, with no answer. He then called Max, our driver today that picked us up at the Chinese café, and Max will drive us to the point where the ferry would have left us off, making tomorrow’s journey a much more manageable 16km.

Day 13 - Garlasco to Pavia - Saturday June 27, 2015

Remember what I said about our room yesterday being like a motel but opening on to a courtyard instead of a parking lot. Well, later in the day people started arriving that parked their cars in the courtyard. One couple even arrived around midnight, and I thought what a life it must be being a hotel owner. At all these places we are staying, it seems to be a family affair, with three or four people running the place, all of whom serve breakfast early and work all day.

One thing we noticed, was that so far on our walk the locals have basically looked at us like we were a couple of aliens. Some people have encouraged us but not many. It was quite different here, almost everyone smiled at us, raised a fist, said ‘buon camino’, or asked how far we were going and seemed enchanted we were going all the way to Rome. On the other hand, the sign posting on the route today was very poor, so the locals had not followed through on their enthusiasm for the pilgrimage with more tangible assistance to the pilgrim, like signs to show the route.

We were at breakfast right at 7:30am and on the road at 7:50am. It didn’t take too long to get lost though. The GPS was not tracking our route, even though we were following the rather minimal via Francigena signs and the route notes. Then, of course, the route notes are written in hieroglyphics, making the whole journey an adventurous puzzle to be solved. We went the wrong way twice. The first time a farmer drove over to us and pointed out the way we should have gone, and the second time we saw another pilgrim go another way. By the time we were at km 3 in the route notes we had walked 5.2km. This was a bit concerning since we expected to have to walk 27km today, but at that point the GPS kicked in, makings the route a bit easier to figure out.

As mentioned, we had observed another pilgrim from a distance just before one of our mistakes, which he could clearly observe us making, and then after we were back on track and following him, we took a different turn at a certain point (we were following the route notes, not the GPS, a dangerous thing to do) but we cut him off a bit further up. It turned out to be Louis, the German pilgrim. We all had a good laugh about that. We never walked with him, mainly because he doesn’t seem to want to (possibly because there is almost a complete communication barrier), but we kept leap frogging each other all day. It did get up to 31 degrees today, making it very hot, but he had a very bad sunburn from his 38km day, and was totally covered with clothes to protect it. It must have been a very hard day for him.

After walking out of the city of Garlasco, we walked along rice field canals. At one point we went down dragonfly alley, with dragon flies in grand abundance, thinking about Carol the whole way. We hope she had wonderful trip and visit with friends and relatives in New Brunswick.

Shortly after we went by a cemetery and small chapel, where we cut Louis off at the pass. Next we walked through the city Gropello Cairoli, where we met Louis again and we all went into San Giorgio Martine Parrish Church. Another church full of gorgeous marble and silver and gold statues. A nun in the church asked if we wanted a room, but we said we were walking to Pavia.

We stopped for a cappuccino at a bar then went past more rice fields, along canals. We saw two grey herons, many bittern, a dead muskrat, a bunny, a herd of cows being led out to pasture, and thousands of butterflies.

We actually climbed up to a town, Villanova d’Ardenghi, and entered San Cristoforo Martine Parrish Church, but it was being readied for a wedding and what I assume was the bride’s mother shooed us away in a real hurry. We then ran into Louis sitting on a bench, eating a popsicle, with his boots off. We went into the bar across the street from him and each bought a popsicle too – it was terrific.

Other highlights included passing a horse riding stable, then walking along the Ticino river for about 10km. What a glorious river. Beautiful white sand beach all along (on the other side) with hundreds of people out swimming, boating, and having a wonderful Saturday. I would have dearly loved to go swimming in that river. The water was beautifully clear and it was stifling hot! We did a get a few opportunities to get to a beach from our side, but for the most part we were walking along a cliff which dropped to the river below.

We ran into Hugo in Pavia while we were trying to find the hotel, and he said ‘are you okay’? I said, ‘well after walking 30km in 31 degrees we’re doing pretty good’. I asked if he had walked from Garlasco today too, but he hadn’t walked that far. He said Robert left for Milan today to fly to the Camino. I said, ‘the 38km day did him in, did it?’ I don’t think Hugo caught on, so I’m pretty sure he, at least, has been taking a few trains too.

The hotel is a bit of a dive, but we have a large room and it is okay. The air conditioner is giving it its best shot at cooling the room off. It might be lacking a bit of freon.

At least my feet co-operated today. We walked 30km and other than being sore from the sheer distance, no problem with the bursitis. We both have a rather nasty heat rash from today. I don’t think you are supposed to cover your entire body with cortison cream!

Dinner is not included, so we had a super Mercator supper of salad and noodles in our room. It’s nice to not eat in a restaurant for at least one day.

I also redid the math on our dinners. We have paid 11 British pounds, or 16 euros, or 22 CDN for our dinners, each. Not really too expensive. So, we should be grateful for all we are getting!

28km tomorrow, and it’s supposed to be 33 degrees. Gads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 12 - Mortara to Garlasco - Friday June 26, 2015

After supper we asked the owner for another chair so we could sit out on the veranda and he laughed and said ‘you know we are surrounded by flooded rice fields, in half an hour you won’t be able to sit outside because the mosquitos are terrible.’ Russ launched into how he’s from Winnipeg, Manitoba – the worst place in the world for mosquitos. We got a chair and sat outside for about an hour until the prophecy came true. In fact, I then noticed that there were actually screens on the windows – something we had never seen before in Europe.

I had noticed a very perfumed smell in the room, but didn’t think about it seriously enough (scents can give me a migraine headache) before going to bed. The air conditioner worked really well, so no need to open any windows. I woke up around 3am with a major headache and it wasn’t until around 6am I saw the room deodorizer wick sitting in a shelf in the night table right beside my bed! Needless to say that thing made a quick trip out onto the veranda.

Unfortunately by that time I had a full blown migraine, with the accompanying nausea and the whole nine yards. Luckily I have discovered that my accuball, used to cure back and muscle problems, is highly effective in getting rid of headaches too. You just lie with the ball under your neck in strategic locations and in several hours it is gone. I started using that at 6am.

Russell got the bags downstairs by 8am and I managed to basically get rid of the headache by around 8:30am.

After all that we decided to take the train to Garlasco. My foot is actually still reasonably sore today, and Russell wasn’t too keen on walking for 20km through rice fields in the heat and blaring sun. It’s 28 today.

The owner had told us he would leave no later than 8am with the bags, but he didn’t actually get going until around 9am. I walked over to the train station and procured two tickets to Galasco for 9:36am, which collectively cost 4.8 euros.

When I got back to the hotel the two fellows from Bangladesh were down for breakfast and they kept affectionately calling me mom. We had a ton of pictures taken on everybody’s cameras and phones, hugs, and then they were off with their contact for meetings and a tour of the rice fields today, then off to Milan tomorrow. What they do is provide the equipment to make the clothes. The one fellow knew right away there were two universities in Ottawa, and mentioned Waterloo, but his English was very minimal and I didn’t pursue that line of conversation.

It was a lovely, 21 minute train ride to Garlasco, which is an agricultural and industrial center in the Lomellina area, 21 kilometres from Pavia, the main town of the province of Pavia. It was assigned as a feud to the Pavese monastery of San Salvatore in 981 A.D. by Ottone II and then, in the 14th century, passed under the rule of the Visconti and was incorporated into the dukedom of Milan.

In 1370, it was almost completely destroyed by the troops of the marquis Giovanni di Monferrato. Involved in the 2nd war of independence (1859), it was severely damaged by Austrian soldiers.

Macs provided us with a map of Garlasco, making it very easy to find our hotel from the train station. We have a very lovely room in a fairly new building beside the hotel, which is like being in a motel, but our room opens onto a court yard, not a parking lot. They have a laundry room and outdoor clothes line so I washed all sorts of stuff, inspired by access to an iron and ironing board. The lady asked if I wanted to use the washing machine and dryer but she had a great production of washing sheets on the go so I said no thanks. Not to mention the difficulty I would have had trying to figure out what settings to use, all labelled in Italian!

After the laundry was all hung to dry we wandered through the town.

The shops in Garlasco are very trendy and nice, and I bought a (very fashionable) bathing suit so I can use the pool at the hotels which have one (several do). The pool at Hotel Royal in Viverone was very enticing, but I had no bathing suit!

The most representative monuments in Garlasco are the hospice of S. Anna, founded in the 19th century; the church of Santa Maria Assunta, constructed in the 18th century based on plans by the architect Regina; the church of the SS. Trinita in Baroque style which was reconstructed in 1712 on the site of the pre-existent, more ancient building, and the 17th century church of San Rocco which was severely damaged by the actions of French troops in 1813.
The Saint Maria Assunta church in the Piazza della Repubblica is absolutely gorgeous. The remembrance chapels have been constructed with stunningly beautiful marble. The church is very obviously still in regular use, which was very pleasing, somehow, and hopeful.

Had we spent four hours walking the 20 km to get here today, we would have gone through the Bosco del Vignolo oasis, which is a natural reserve within the bounds of the Ticino Park, covering some 24 hectares. The variety of surroundings is reflected in the richness of the fauna and flora. In fact, it is possible to find robinia, planes, black poplar, elder, various species of ferns, reeds and marsh lilies. Amongst the birds, only the bittern nests here, but one can also observe grey herons, nitticore and garzette.

I failed to mention earlier that we saw a pair of grey heron the day we walked from Ivrae to Viverone, and we have seen a lot of bittern since we started walking through rice fields, which we first encountered on our walk from Viverone to Santhia.

Tomorrow we walk 27km to Pavia, the main city in the province of Pavia.

Day 11 - Vercelli to Mortara - Thursday June 25, 2015

Today is our planned day off. The walk continues through rice paddies, has no shade, is boring, my feet are sore, and we need a rest day every ten days at least.

The checkout time for our room is 11am, so we let ourselves sleep in. At about 8:45 Claudia opened the door, saw we were still in bed, and left.

At that point it dawned on me that everywhere we stay, they expect our bags to be ready by around 8am for transport to the next hotel. I had forgotten about that. The only saving grace was that I knew our hotel for today was close to the train station and we could take them ourselves if we had to.

At about 10:30am Claudia came back, and we told her my foot was sore and we were going to take the train to our next hotel. She said her son was transporting our bags and we could get a ride with her son. It was a good thing we agreed with that because my hotel voucher was not for the right hotel, or even city today as the bag transfer was going to– this came out in the wash because the bags were going to San Michele Albergo in Mortara and my hotel voucher was for Hotel La Mondina in Robbio. Mortara is 16km farther from where we were in Vercelli than Robbio, which was 22km away. Hence, if we hadn’t taken the day off, we would have had to walk 38km from Vercelli to Mortara today!

Her son studies chemistry and physics at the university, and is having exams now. He is Catholic and said he only goes to church for Christmas and Easter, and he thinks the church has to become with the times (aka - stop discriminating against homosexuals) or people will just stop going. He is very disillusioned with the scandals etc that have plagued the church, thinks the church was just political all along, and thinks religion shouldn’t be part of the educational system. Sounds pretty typical for a young person (and a lot of us old people too).

Our hotel is nice, and Mortara is nice, with lots of ancient tourist attractions. We did walk through the town, but I really want to rest my foot, so spent most of the day blogging! Can you tell?

Tomorrow may be a train ride to Garlasco. 20km of rice paddies and no shade is not too alluring, but it really depends on my foot.

We went for supper at 7:30pm and lo and behold in walked Louis, the German pilgrim. Big hugs all around! He, of course had walked the 38km here today, and was very sunburned.

Later at dinner we got talking to two fellows from Bangladesh who were here to discuss selling uniforms to the municipality. What a conversation that was! Things are very desperate for people in that country.

Whatever we decide to do tomorrow, our bags must be downstairs by 8am.

Day 10 - Santhia to Vercelli - Wednesday June 24, 2015

You may notice I have revised the page numbers to correspond to the x'th day of walking. It was too awkward to follow Macs numbering where the day we arrived was Day 1. Day 1 is now the first day of walking.

It was really hot last night again, even though we have an air conditioner in the room.  Poor thing doesn’t have much power, but it makes you feel good to think you have it. Being more experienced now, we opened the windows and balcony door all night for some cool air and air flow. I was a bit queasy about bed bugs in Hotel Vittoria, but my bed bug bag is hot to sleep in and the perceived risk just didn’t justify using it. I really don’t expect to have a problem with bed bugs in Italy.

The hotel was right across from the train station, which brought back fond memories of sleeping above a bar in Spain! The trains ran all night, and people seemed to be getting picked up and engaging in very loud discussions at all hours. Not to mention the blaring car radios and screeching of tires.

The included hotel breakfast today was not a buffet, but ended up being a croissant and coffee, prepared by a single waitress serving not only the hotel guests but all the orders from the hordes of train travelers who came in for breakfast. Needless to say breakfast ended up being a very lengthy event.

Our walk today was listed as being 30.5km with virtually no ascent or descent, and through rice paddies. 

Russell has a neat picture from yesterday of a rice paddy tractor.

 I’ve been sort of hobbling for the last several days on a very sore foot. After about 12km my bursitis in my left foot gets very bad and sore. I have been taking my Celebrex when it gets really bad, but by then I think it’s too little, too late. Russell took a picture of me soaking my sore foot yesterday in the bidet. Ahhhhh. That bidet is a pilgrim’s prayer answered! It’s just so handy for all of a pilgrim’s needs (in particular – doing laundry).

All to say, I’m convinced I don’t have a hope in heaven of walking 30.5km today. What I need is a day off. On the Camino, we never walked more than 10 days without a rest day, and we really needed those rest days! The trouble with this walk is that we couldn’t afford to add on rest days or our total days out of the country would have exceeded the magical 60 days where the trip insurance would have cost a fortune. The day after today as it turns out is 38km (more on that tomorrow), which is really well outside (at least) my doable range, so that is the day we plan to take off!

All to justify that we decided to take the train from Santhia to San Germano Vercelli this morning, and cut 8km off the day total, bringing it to a more manageable 23km.

We bought a ticket for the 8:16am train, which cost 1.5 euros each, and was 20 minutes late. That ended up being very fortunate, since breakfast took a lot longer than anticipated.

The entire walk from San Germano Vercelli to Vercelli was flat, there was no shade, no towns, no nothing. 

There were however tractors and farmers about, and we caught up to two female pilgrims about 8 km along who were from France. We had seen one of them, a very tiny oriental women, at the hostel where Robert was staying in Santhia yesterday. She could really travel, sometimes getting way ahead of her companion and us. The thing about the landscape was that there was no way to hide if you really had to go to the bathroom – so just don’t even think about it.

Who knew there so many rice paddies in Italy? This goes on apparently from part way past Viverone all the way to Galascon. It really puts the meseta on the Camino to shame!

I made it my usual 12 km and then my foot was worse than ever. I really didn’t think I would be able to go the whole way. Fortunately we hit Vercelli at about 16km and could sit and rest occasionally.

 I also made a very big mistake this morning and threw out today’s instructions in Santhia and brought yesterday’s instructions instead. Unfortunately the GPS isn’t very good at finding your final destination and Vercelli is a large town (population 50K). We stopped at a bar for a drink at one point and this very lovely young lady took on a mission to find our hotel for us, and gave us some pretty good instructions (bear in mind she spoke only Italian). They ended up being pretty good but we ended up walking all the way out of town (on the via Francigena at least). We then asked some people at a car wash, and they gave us some instructions which we turned about to follow. Shortly later, one of the ladies that had given us instructions actually drove to us in her car and corrected the instructions – which was unbelievably conscientious of her!

We really did just wander about for quite a while asking people for help, me with my incredibly sore paw, and even though we had the address, we were getting nowhere. We finally found the right street, Via Guiseppe Verdi. It was a very obscure street off a Piassa, and even when we found the right street, the address 42 was behind a wooden door with virtually no indication of it being a hotel. The door did push open and we went in, but it was a bunch of apartments, so we went back out on the street. Clang, the door shut behind us, and then we saw a bunch of apartment buzzers, one marked with the name of our Guest House, Al Viaggiator leggero. No one answered the ring, and now the door was locked shut, so went across the street, sat on a bench, constructed and ate our lunch. After a few more attempts ringing the bell, we called the phone number of the place. A man answered and I said, ‘Solvason, reservation’, and he said, ‘my wife come down’. Thank you Lord, for the Vodaphone SIM card.

The place was a fully furnished apartment, with a kitchen, two bedrooms

 a lovely modern bathroom, a patio and garden. Very recently renovated but with some ancient frescoes remaining on the ceiling. The kitchen had everything for breakfast, a coffee maker, etc, etc. We were in heaven. The art, knickknacks, furnishings, and décor were splendid. We absolutely loved it. It was like playing house.

The owner was an English professor at the Vercelli University. She recommended places to eat, told us the major tourist attractions, and gave us a map of the city.

After a shower etc and resting my foot we went out sightseeing. We got to the Basilica of St Andrew at 2 minutes to six, and the fellow told us the church closed at six, but I could see him admiring my St. Helena’s cross, and he said come in, come in.  It was gorgeous. 

What impressed me was that the only decoration on the walls (there were a lot of pictures on the ceilings etc.) but the only decoration on the walls were St. Helena’s crosses.  As always, it was a beautiful church. One other person was in there.

We also found the train station and found the schedule for the trains tomorrow – our planned day off!

Vercelli is a beautiful city, with lots of churches and ancient tourist attractions, but also very modern stores with very trendy clothes, etc.

We didn’t end up eating where Claudia recommended, when our dinner is included we are getting very well fed traditional food of the region. We had a rather Canadian dinner of grilled meat, beans, and salad. With a pasta primo we shared.

We had about the best sleep so far. The apartment was nice and cool, even without air conditioning, there were absolutely no concerns about bed bugs, and it was totally quiet and completely safe. I’d love to stay here for a week.

Day 9 - Viverone to Santhia - Tuesday June 23, 2015

It was unbearably hot last night. Our choice was to have the room accessible by people in other rooms connected via the balcony, or have the door and window open into the room but the air flow impeded by metal shutters. I think as the summer progresses we will have to forgo safety for a livable environment.

Standard breakfast at 7:30 and on the road at 8:08am. Hotel Royal really was a very grand hotel right on Lake Viverone, we’re sure it will be very busy when summer holidays officially begin. Quite a climb back up to the via Francigena, but we passed a lot of stores, bars, and a super Mercado on the way out of town, which allowed us to stock up on water and supplies for lunch. We actually saw one of the hotel owners at the super Mercado, she had sped off (go granny go) in her car just as we left the hotel.

We continued to climb up to a church upon getting back to the Way, but that ended up being pretty much it as far as climbing went for the rest of the day. Stopped for coffee in Cavaglia, where there was a via Francigena information place, but no one was there! Too bad, I’d really like to get the guide book that Robert (the Irish Pilgrim) has.

We walked 19.6km today, and climbed 469 meters. It was a hot 28 degrees.  

I have to say that a lot of very wealthy people live along the via Francigena. We have walked past numerous beautiful mansions, lovely gardens, high fences, security gates, and barking dogs.  The hyacinth in particular are in their glory at the moment, as are the azelias, roses, geraniums, sedum, and many annuals. I have never seen so many roses in full bloom in all my life. I think the gardens in Italy can’t be beat!

Of course the towns all have narrow cobblestone streets and European buildings like in Spain.

Today, after complaining we never go past stores and restaurants, we went past a lot of them, and  in many cities. The Way was also very well sign-posted again, requiring virtually no consulting of the detailed and confusing route notes.

Today we saw a very cute bunny, rice fields, wheat fields, fields of soybeans, the most incredible square foot vegetable garden, lots of farms, farmers, cows, tractors, and expensive cars.

We got to Santhia around 12:30 and although the town looked like everyone was having siesta, a lot of stores and restaurants were open. No problem checking right into our hotel, which is right beside the train station.

After we got showered and cleaned up we wandered around the city and ran into Robert at the hostel! He gave us each a badge to sew on our backpacks re the via francigena, which we really appreciated. We went for coffee and were joined by his Italian friend Hugo. Had a lovely chat with them over coffee for several hours. Hugo said he is not religious but is walking the via Francigena for spiritual reasons. The conversation then seemed to drift into a discussion of all the failings of organized religion.  Of course with an Irish (protestant) man and an Italian, they had a lot to say about that. Nothing we haven’t heard already!

Robert thinks he will carry on until July 2 and then go to Logrono and join up with some friends on the Camino. He doesn’t have enough time to get to Rome anyway.  We hope to see them in Vercelli. tomorrow, and the next day in Robbio. After that I think we will lose them, because we are taking one day to go from Robbio to Garlasco and they are taking two (more about that later.)

I had a lovely supper of pasta, scallopine, and salad; and, Russell had risotta and mushrooms, pork, and zucchini. While we were eating Hugo came in to check out the restaurant, someone had told him it had the best regional food in the city. He said he and Robert would come back there later to eat, but we were finished before they arrived.

Day 8 - Ivrea to Viverone - Monday June 22, 2015

Lovely breakfast was at 7:30. Had a wonderful chat with the proprietor about Ivrae, which is situated in the Piedmont region of Italy, on the junction of the Alpine range and the Po Valley.

We have 20km today, and it’s going to be 26 degrees.  We haven’t had any rain since Day 3.

We walked at a moving speed of 5km an hour for a total distance of 21.4km 4 hours and 15 minutes. In total elapsed time it took us 5 hours and 18 minutes. Comparatively little uphill climb, just 568 meters. We passed by five lakes and walked along the Morainic landscape that surrounds the town of Ivrea (glacial dump). Passing by numerous churches and endless vineyards.

At about 8km, we stopped for a coffee and met a pilgrim from Ireland. He was one of the two pilgrims that had passed us yesterday when we were having the gelato.  We walked with him to Piverone, at km 16, where he was going to stay at a hostel. He said he had 5 weeks holiday, and had started the via Francigena at the San Gran Bernardo Pass. He has done numerous pilgrimages, including the Camino three times.  He said he was thinking of leaving and going to Spain soon and doing the Camino again for the rest of his vacation. We have not met many pilgrims on the via Francigena, and neither has he, and I think he misses the comraderie. We all commented on how difficult the via Francigena was, both in terms of figuring out where to go and the climbing.  Our Lightfoot cultural guide had said the Camino was a great pilgrimage to start with, whereas the via Francigena was ‘hard core’. We are beginning to understand what that meant! Although, for the last few days the trail has been very well sign posted!

It turns out he is an addictions counsellor, with a background that allows him to understand a lot about the affliction! We had a very interesting conversation along the way, and hope to see him again tomorrow.

He had an excellent guide which he says he got at an information center in Italy on the via Francigena, put out by the same people we got our t-shirts etc. from.  Definitely hope we are able to find one. We are going to tell Macs about it and suggest they include it with their packs.

We were walking on asphalt a lot today, and my bursitis was really bad. We have now walked 8 days in a row. I think I would benefit greatly from a day off.

When we got to our hotel today the outside door was locked, so we went back up to a bar we had passed where a lot of people were sitting. They said the bar was closed, but everyone had drinks!  We explained our predicament and one fellow tried calling the hotel. Another fellow asked if we wanted a drink, which was very welcome. After about an hour we asked what time they thought the hotel would open, and they seemed to think it wouldn’t. We showed them our voucher and one fellow led us down to a restaurant /pizzeria and we discovered there was an open door on a different side of the hotel! Live and learn! We were thrown off a bit because when we got to our hotel yesterday at 4pm the lady said we were just lucky she was there, because she doesn’t usually get there until 5. She then asked if Macs had told us what to do if there was no one there when we arrived, and we said ‘no’. She said she had given them detailed instructions and they should have passed them on. She also said a lot of hotels in Italy might be closed in the afternoon. We are learning.

The hotel is right on the boardwalk of the biggest of the 5 lakes. It has a pool but we don’t have bathing suits. This place is probably swarming with people in the summer. Dinner was excellent, a salad, grilled vegetables and a wonderful steak. Too much food! We ate at the restaurant across the boardwalk, but breakfast is in the hotel.  We could have wandered around the boardwalk, but my feet are too sore!

 

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Day 7- Pont St Martin to Ivrea - Sunday June 21, 2015

Breakfast was at 7:00, the best possible time. We have 26km today, and want to get going early. Cereal, fruit and yogurt for breakfast, cakes and croissant, etc.  We didn’t find a store selling fruit yesterday, so we broke our rule and took two banana’s at breakfast for lunch today. We are both feeling pretty good today, it’s not too hot again. We set out at 7:30am but Russ then discovered he hadn’t downloaded the GPS files for today. So he went back in, and since the suitcases were still there of course, he got out the nexus and downloaded them. We finally got going at 7:45am.

We are on week two now (but 7^th day walking) and our week two package of instructions includes maps for the day, so no need to destroy any books to get the maps. Again today, we more or less ignored the instructions and simply followed the GPS, but the instructions do occasionally come in handy.

We made really good time today. We walked 26.8km at a moving speed of 4.5km an hour. It took us a total of 8 hours, moving for 6 hours. We followed the river Dora Baltea again for part of the day today. The first thing we noticed walking out of town was that if we had gone just a bit further yesterday down the main drag we would have found a store selling fruit!  We also saw the famous Pont St Martin roman bridge, which is 31 metres long but reported as being longer depending on the source.

We followed the Carema direction at first, on the ‘Il Sentiero dei Vigneti’ trail along vineyard terraces. We were passed at an ancient church by two pilgrims while I stopped to use a washroom at a municipal office parking lot. The surprising thing, again, is that we never saw the French couple along the trail today, even though they left the hotel shortly after we did today and said they were going to Ivrae today as well.

 Major climb up from Pont Saint Martin, beautiful walk through the vineyards, and large descent.  We have figured out that in ancient times people liked building churches and chapels high in the mountains, and the via Francigena is going past every one of them.  After a week we are getting pretty well conditioned for the long climbs, but the steep descents remain a problem! Very hard on the feet. The other major problem I am having is with the bursitis in my left foot – walking on concrete really gets that going and it is a bit of a show stopper. If it gets really sore I have to sit down for a good 10 to 15 minutes and then it’s okay for about 4 to 5 km. We had a long walk along a major highway today, which aside from being really hard on my bursitis, is very frightening. There are a lot of motorcycles in Italy, and they seem to like passing cars on curves on a solid line.

We went through a trailer park today, and we are very grateful for our provincial parks.  At the park we went through people had their trailer up right against cabins, which was interesting, but they were all very close to one other, and few trees for privacy.

 We climbed up to quite a number of churches 

and castles today, climbing a total of 588 meters, making this the easiest climbing day so far, but still a lot of climbing.  At one point we went past a zipline and rock climbing park with a lot of families out for fun.  We stopped and had our lunch in the picnic space below and then shortly later passed an agrigelatino establishment, where we stopped and had a delicious Italian gelato treat. While enjoying our gelato two pilgrims walked by outside – we waved and pointed at the gelato but they kept going.

Shortly after, we passed through the village of San Germano that was having a major fair with food/ artists/ crafts/ agricultural displays etc. and a lot of people in attendance.

Of course near the end of our walk we had another major climb, past the Montalto [DL1] Dora Castle, the Santa Croce Chapel, and the San Pietro Martire church. What fun would it be getting in to town without an incredible view?

Our lodging for the night is the eclectic BB Spazio Bianco, in the ancient part of Ivrea, and a literal Fort Knox.  We have noticed that in general Italian’s are very security conscious, with large gates/ security camera’s, dogs, etc. Unfortunately, Ivrea seems to be subject to an excess of graffiti artists, with a lot of the city defaced. The old city is very run down, but still very busy, even for a Sunday.

We had a very inexpensive dinner today – a hamburger! They had run out of hamburger buns, so we had focaccia bun instead, but it was very good, and comfort food!

The hotel is a bit of an art gallery and they had a changing of the art today. Lots of people in attendance. We were invited but too tired to go!

Ivrea is famous for Olivetti typewriters! Apparently Olivetti was very concerned about his workers, and established a major socialist city where everyone was taken care of!  He died in 1990, good timing really, since the day of the typewriter was coming to an end, but it seems like it was a major blow to the people of Ivrae, who are still trying to redefine themselves.

It is one of the nicest hotel rooms we have ever stayed in.  Postmodern, we guess would be the best way of describing it. 

Very comfortable and interesting art work, books, etc. everywhere. We were right across from the police station, which is apparently where Napoleon had stayed when he was there, during the period when the French controlled the city from 1800 to 1814.  Ivrea is also apparently well known for its horses. At some point there was apparently 1 horse for every 20 people.

In our first seven days, we have walked about 150km and climbed almost 5,000 meters.

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Day 6 - Verres to Pont St Martin - Saturday June 20, 2015

Breakfast was at 7:30am, a much better time. Cereal and yogurt for breakfast, cakes and croissant, etc.  We are both feeling pretty good today, it’s not as hot and we got going at 8:08am.

We ripped the maps out of the book, but ignored the instructions and simply followed the GPS to start. It took us no time to get out of the city, and then we followed a lovely path alongside the river Dora Baltea and crossed under the highway. We managed to make 4.5km to Arnad in an hour! We walked past an old church and through the historic part of Arnad, then crossed through an underpass back to the other side of the highway on the way to Hone. At Hone we stopped at a bar for ice tea, chips, and a bathroom break, then on to 19^th century fort in Bard

, built by the one of the oldest royal families in the world, the Savoy’s. This stronghold has been fortified since before Roman times. This is almost certainly one of the positions occupied by the troops of Ostrogothe, King, Theodoric in the 6^th century. Bard and his descendants governed it from 1034 to 1242. It then passed to the Savoys. It gave Napolean some trouble in 1800 and was razed to the ground in reprisal. It was rebuilt in 1830 to 1838.

After that, we passed over a 1 century BC road, with cart tracks worn into the rock, and through a Roman arch to the village of Donnas.

To be sure we got our major climb of the day, we then trekked up 110 metres to Perloz, and back down to Pont St Marin.

We managed to cover 20.6 km today, with an ascent of 728 metres in 5 hours and 48 minutes elapsed time, and 4 hours and 17 minutes walking time, for a moving average of 4.8 km an hour.

We stayed at Hotel Cabun in Pont Saint Martin, which had a lovely balcony overlooking Perloz (that we had climbed to coming in to town). We spent a lot of time on the balcony (plus dried our laundry on it very quickly).  Dinner was included today and at dinner we met the French pilgrims we had met the day before on the trail.  This time they said they were going to Rome.

The dinner was excellent.  I had a salad, which wasn’t on the menu, Russell had pasta in tomatoe sauce, and then for the primo plate I had veal (hefer) and Russ had meatballs in tomatoe sauce. Dessert was tiramisu. Very good. The problem (although a minor complaint) with having our meals included is we don’t get much choice. Virtually everyone in the restaurant had this cheese fondue thing for an appetizer, which we got the impression was excellent. It would have been nice to have tried that.

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Day 5 - Chambave to Verres - Friday June 19, 2015

Breakfast was at 8am again.  Lots of quiche etc (more excellent pie dough). However, I like fruit and cereal and yogurt for breakfast.  I think I’m suffering from heat exhaustion and/or dehydration, felt pretty sick this morning. It was very hot first thing this morning, which didn’t help. I got a really bad sun burn two days ago, so have been wearing long sleeves to protect that, which doesn’t help, and my nose and ears are still blocked. It wasn’t a good day.

The instructions were virtually impossible to follow, so we were getting nowhere fast. We had 27 km to go, and had travelled about 8km by noon.  Early on in the day, we met two pilgrims from France, who said they were doing the via Francigena but not going to Rome. They were going to Pavia, which is where we get to on our Day 14. I found it a bit strange though, that they did not go the same way we did from where we met them! 

Luckily, we did go through a town with stores etc right around noon. We had already drank 1.5 litres of water, so were able to stock up on another 1.5 litres water. The climbs were brutal today and we never really were able to sink with the instructions. We followed the via Francigena signs and the GPS. At one point the instructions referred to the ‘map’ which we didn’t have which was a clue we weren’t using all our available resources.

Part of the trail today was from a Roman bridge in Cillian to Filley which is called "Dal ponte Romano ale rupi celtiche" meaning "from the Roman bridge to the Celtic crags".

We climbed 1020 meters today over 23km. We finally managed to sink with the instructions when they said we were at 15.5km but we had covered 18.5km.  It was 4pm, and we had at least 12 more km to go. Our feet were fine, but we were exhausted and suffering from the heat. We kept going to 23km, at which point we travelled over an ancient roman road that you could see the chariot wheel marks in, and the view was absolutely stunning. We then arrived at the village of Toffo, and the instructions said there was a very steep climb coming next.

I was doing the math on this.  There was about 10km left according to the instructions, it was 5pm, and at the rate we were going that would take a minimum of three hours, and we were out of water again. So, I asked a fellow we met getting into his car in the village if he could help us call for a cab to get to our hotel. He was very nice, and said he worked at a restaurant hotel and would drive us there. When we got there, what he was thinking was that we would stay there. So I showed him our voucher for our hotel, and he said he would drive us to our hotel.  What a saint.  I gave him a big hug and Russell gave him some money, which he didn’t want to take but Russell said it was a gift.

Tomorrow is another day. Russell is all concerned about us bailing today, but I’m not. We need to get used to climbing the Alps every day, acclimatize to the heat, and carry enough water! We have also discovered that we do have some maps, which are in a rather large heavy book, but I’m planning to ripe them out of the book on a day by day basis. Russell would like to keep the book as a souvenir, but we have to be practical.  This whole thing will go a heck of a lot faster and easier with the maps. Maybe now the instructions will make a little bit of sense.

We had a lovely dinner at the hotel, which was not included but neither of us felt like wandering around town looking for a restaurant. We both had a turkey curry and shared an order of grilled vegetables, and we had a lovely whipped cream dessert.

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Day 4 - Aosta to Chambave = Thursday June 18, 2015

Since we didn’t have instructions on where the hotel was getting here, we didn’t have instructions on how to get back on the via Francigena.  In the morning, breakfast was at 8pm, it was nice but we didn’t get started until almost 9am. The hotel fellow said, ‘well you have a map’ and we said ‘no.’ He told us how to get started, but not how to carry on.  Russ had GPS tracks, but they didn’t line up with the way we set out.  All to say getting out of the big city was awkward.

In general, the walking instructions are really pretty bad. We are having a lot of trouble figuring out what they telling us to do, and keep getting lost. In particular, they mix up left and right randomly. We seem to be spending 30 minutes standing around figuring out where to go for every hour of walking. Needless to say, that is a colossal waste of time. And, it’s not as if the time doesn’t count, because we are on our feet the whole time.  Thank goodness we now have GPS tracks – but that isn’t fool proof either.

Today was a tough day – 26km plus 938 meters climb and 857 descent – the ascent was almost equal to climbing the Alps (1137 meters) and half of the following day descent (1537 meters). But that wasn’t the major problem, the major problem is that so far we have never gone past any stores or bars, and today it was really hot and we ran out of water. In general the climbs are really brutal, but today we had a massively long, steep climb right before the end, and with no water it was very difficult. When we got to the hotel at 5pm we bought 1.5 litres of water and drank almost all of it by 7:30pm.

The Italian government was complaining about bars and hotels wanting to divert the via Francigena to go past them – as a pilgrim I’d say yes it’s a good idea to go by them! Running out of water is no fun when it’s hot and you are constantly climbing.

On the other hand it is beautiful country. We are walking through the mountains, along ancient irrigation systems (they call Ruz or canals). Today was like walking on a balance beam for about 5km, we had to walk on the concrete edge of the canal, with a gorge on the other side.  Falling into the canal meant getting your boots wet, falling the other way was certain death.

At least the Italians are trying pretty hard to mark the Way (which they have declared to be a Cultural Heritage Route), which is a big help, except there are tons of trails, so you have to know where you are going.  In general, the via Francigena is 103, but that too can’t be relied on.

The hotel was an agri-tourism establishment, being a vintner. The dinner was delicious, consisting of a lot of pie like things (they were very good at making pie crust). The best part of the dinner was an egg noodle dish with sheep sauce. We thought that was primo plato, but it wasn’t, so we were too full for the final course. Everything was ‘home’ made (even the yogurt at breakfast). It was a beautiful establishment- lots of cedar beams and stone.

We were both pretty tired and sort of staggered out after dinner without having coffee. The next thing I knew it was 1:30am, and I finally got in under the covers.

Day 3- Etroubles to Aosta - Wednesday June 17, 2015

Day 3 Etroubles to Aosta June 17,2015

We requested breakfast for 7am which the hosts thought was too early but agreed to. We showed up at around 7:12 and they both pointed at their watches! It was a lovely breakfast with all my favorite foods but yogurt. After breakfast the owner asked if we wanted to go back to Etroubles at 8am or 10am. That seemed a bit funny after we wanted breakfast so early, but he took us at 8am.  Lots of handshakes and best wishes with the German pilgrim. The walk from Etroubles to Gignod was lovely – they had obviously very recently (2014) constructed/rehabilitated a trail along a Ruz (ancient irrigation system)

 that went through the woods along the mountains with spectacular views of the surrounding valley and mountains. It took us 2.5 hours to get back to our Hotel Bellevue, which included stopping at a bar for a powerade and finishing our leftover pizza from dinner last night. The Bellevue Hotel lady was outside when we walked by and we all waved and she said her husband had taken our bags to the next hotel already.

Getting to Aosta today involved a rather massive descent of 825 meters, at times very steep, which is very hard on the knees, quads, and toes. 

We also did some major ups and downs for the sake of avoiding major highways – the cost of being safe- and had some problems with the instructions, which usually make perfect sense once you know where to go!

There was one major flaw with the instructions.  At the end they left us at a large roundabout, said ‘Aosta town centre is 10 minutes away’, and gave no clue as to how to get to our hotel.

We asked one lady who called someone but couldn’t help, and then asked a young man who was very helpful and basically took us by the hand and led us through the old part of the city, explained some of the major points of interest and pointed out how to get to our hotel and where to find a vodaphone store.  He spoke very basic English and between that and our French we did very well.

Of course we always arrive during siesta, so we located the closed vodaphone store, found our hotel, and checked in and got cleaned up.

We walked 19.4 km today.

Aosta was settled in proto-historic times and later became a centre of the Salassi, a pre-Roman population that was killed or sold into slavery by the Romans in 25BC, who then founded the Roman colony of Augusta Praetoria Salassorum. After 11 BC Aosta became the capital of the Grey Alps province of the Empire.

The ancient town walls of the city are still preserved almost entirely

, as is the east and south gate, the Roman Theatre

, a triumphal arch in honour of Augustus built to celebrate the victory of the Romans over the Salassi, the Sant’Orso complex, a Roman bridge, a Forum and cryptoporticus

 … So we spent about 2.5 hours sightseeing this afternoon, and we got a SIM card for one of the phones.

Tomorrow the honeymoon is over – 26km (not including the vast distance from our hotel back to the via Francigena) 840m uphill climb and 890 meter downhill climb. At least we now have a phone, and we have the daily gps tracks for every day starting tomorrow for the rest of the walk.

Day 2- Gran San Bernardo Pass to Etroubles - Tuesday June 16, 2015

Day 2 Gran San Bernardo to Etroubles, Tuesday June 16, 2015

We were up again at 6:30am but the restaurant didn’t open until 7:30am. The breakfast was pretty minimal again but at least they had plain yogurt. When we were leaving our waiter from last night told us the Hotel Cret from Bourg St. Pierre wanted us to call, which we did. We were told we hadn’t paid for the wine at dinner. I told him the lady had said it was included, but he just laughed. Too good to be true I guess. However, we paid 11 British pounds each for the dinners which works out to about $22 Cdn, so maybe you wouldn’d think wine would be included.

We left at 8:15am, it was raining lightly, and we started the massive descent down the Alps on the Italian side. In total today we walked 15.9km, descending 1,537 meters and ascending 447 meters. We saw the German pilgrim (Louis) again, who was walking on the road.  We were walking on an old Roman roadroad

 and I was marveling on walking on an ancient road that thousands of pilgrims had trod over the centuries, in addition to Roman and other armies. The landscape reminded me a bit of Iceland with all the rock.  It was beautiful. We went through Saint Remy and stopped for coffee. Beautiful stone buildings. Most of the rest of the day we walked through forest, along a stream, with cows and sheep all about. We didn’t go the way our instructions said but rather the way the yellow arrows pointed and the way the German pilgrim went (who we kept leapfrogging depending on who needed to put on/take off their raincoat).  In the end we arrived in Etroubles, but on the wrong side of the stream. When we found our hotel, it had a sign up saying the bar, the restaurant, and the hotel was closed today.  We got there at 1pm and there were signs everywhere in town saying closed from 12:30 to until between 2pm to 4pm.  We sat on a bench at the hotel and had some bread and peanut butter until 2pm when the information centre opened. The information guy called all over and determined our reservation had been changed to Hotel Bellevue in Gignod.  The proprietor from there came to pick us up in Etroubles and there ensued no end of conversations getting the delivery of our bags, our dinner, etc. etc. organized. In the end it seems we have paid 22 British pounds today for a pizza for dinner.

The German pilgrim showed up this evening at our hotel and must have thought we walked here too (9km from Estroubles). We had dinner together, and will probably not see him again until possibly Rome as he goes further than us tomorrow, and we go back to Estroubles to walk to Aosta tomorrow. In spite of this it seems we will all be in Rome around the same date.

This hotel doesn’t seem as good as where we were supposed to stay, but the view totally makes up for it.

It is magnificent, and much more importantly, we are very grateful for the opportunity to have dinner with the German pilgrim.