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.