Day 23 - Montelungo to Pontremoli - Tuesday July 7, 2015

Day 23 Montelungo to Pontremoli - Tuesday July 7, 2015

Last night we stayed at the Appenines Restorante Hotel in Montelungo. We had another experience of him bringing us a menu, me telling him (with difficulty) that dinner was included, him running off and checking the voucher, then a loud conversation between his wife and Beppe. This was followed with him scooping up the menu’s and telling us wine, water and coffee was extra. After all that, we were given no choice on what we were to eat, but the dinner was excellent. Ravioli with basil pesto, followed by veal and fungi, roast potatoes, and two unidentifiable things, one of which had a lot of green in it so I thought I better eat it for sure to get some vegetables, the other we have no clue (and frankly didn’t want to ask) but we ate it and it was good. This was followed by a mousse that was very refreshing – we don’t often get dessert.

We took the better part of our bottle of wine outside after dinner to the tables in the yard and did our blog. There was a german fellow and his partner that were having a four week motorcycle trip through Italy at the tables as well, and we got into a wonderful conversation, mainly with him. His partner wasn’t feeling well and left soon after we arrived. We made the full round of religion, politics, Greece, ISIS, the US, Germany etc. He plays football and had an English coach at one point, and he was doing very well speaking English, and he seemed amazed at how well it was coming back. He has a tile business in Bavaria, but does a lot of work in Munich. We told him of our possible pilgrimage to Germany in 2017 and he was suggesting lots of places we just had to visit.

Russell slept very well last night. Usually I fall asleep very quickly, but I couldn’t last night because a bunch of kids were playing in the piazza of the cathedral (I think) but somewhere just outside our room, making a lot of noise. Then after that, it was very hot, and I just couldn’t get to sleep.

This is now three nights in a row of little sleep (two for Russell). Plus there is no indication of having air conditioning in our room for days to come.

The cathedral bells pealed at 7am. We are not talking ringing seven times, but ringing, ringing, ringing. We were already up but holy cow – good luck sleeping through that.

The Mrs. must have been making up for having to feed us dinner last night. We had a very minimal breakfast. The coffee was awful and the milk was curdled. There was no buffet – just a basket of bread, some jam, and she gave us each a yogurt after I asked for it.

We left there with two bottles of water and no provisions for lunch. She didn’t have anything, there was no store in the town, and the route notes said there was a bar at 5 km. This was a fatal error.

We had some early excitement to look forward to. The route notes said we would pass by a house with two loose, but muzzled dogs, and went into detail on how to behave around them. The route notes also said to retrace our steps from yesterday, but we hadn’t come in per the route notes so it was going to be an adventure.

Coming in to town yesterday we had noticed a very long bridge, on very high pillars. That bridge has been in our sight all day.

It was a brutally strenuous day, again. It has been brutally strenuous for the last four days, since Fornovo.

Today, the first thing we did was weave our way down the mountain behind the pillars of the bridge. We did indeed meet up with the loose dogs, but they were not muzzled, and quite frankly they were more concerned about guarding the goats than us. Other than being a bit unnerving, passing them went quite smoothly.

This massive descent down the mountain was on a very steep, loose rock, narrow path, on the edge of a cliff, and it took us 2.5hr to walk 5km. It was a very hot day today, so by now it was 34 degrees. Next we walked up and down the mountains, fording streams, passing through villages, and fields.

The bar we were promised at 5.37km was closed – permanently from the looks of things. Unfortunately, I was starving and we were out of water. The next bar was at km 12.5.

Fortunately we passed through a few villages with water fountains, where we filled up all our empty water bottles. Of course, the water was cool but not cold, and quickly got very hot.

I had a peanut bar in my bag, which I ate at around km 6, and Russell had an apple, which we shared at km 10.

We got a bit off track at Previde, but fixed it without too much grief. From up in the town we could see a stone Roman type one arch bridge. We crossed Ponte Valscura over river Magra - billed as one of the nicest in Lunigana. We couldn't get a good picture of it below, and sure didn't feel like climbing back up the cliff to get one. The bridge crossed a rushing waterfall. Very pretty.

At km 8 we were at Casalina at 488meters. At km 10 we were at Topelecca at 593 meters, at km 12.3 we were at Passo della Crocetta at 699 meters. Don’t for a moment think it was a steady climb. No, no, no. There was a lot of descending down to streams in between. Actually, we passed a lot of waterfalls, crossed over a number of ancient bridges, and forded quite a few streams today.

For the most part we were walking on cobblestone paths. It was excruciatingly slow and methodical going. The footing was very bad and all those cobblestones are very hard on the feet.

There was a little church at the pass, and then began the descent from 699 meters to 481 meters at Arzengio, in 1.2 km. This was in the hot blazing sun, but there were twelve crosses as you came down the mountain, with reliefs of Christ, to provide some interest.

There was a bar, and it was open, in Arzengio. We each had a lemon soda and some chips, then bought a large 1.5 litre bottle of cold water and drank about half of it.

It was pretty much all downhill from there to Pontremoli, at 240 meters. The rest of the walk was in total sun, along primarily cobblestone roads/ paths. We went the wrong way on a bridge at one point and we met a pilgrim, who I think was trying to tell us we were going the wrong way. 

Russell figured it out, and by that time the pilgrim had disappeared. At first I thought it was Hugo, but it wasn’t.

Once again our route notes gave us no clue as to where our lodging was. We went to a bar in the Piazza del Duomo and had some cold drinks, I then got a gelato, and we began flailing about looking for the street our B&B was on. We then ran into the French lady pilgrims in the Piazza, they were looking for the hostel, we were looking for our B&B.

We really did go all over town this time, asking people, and getting nowhere. Finally the information centre re-opened after siesta and we got a map. We still went the wrong way, but finally figured out the orientation of the map and made it to our B&B.

Today we walked 19.2km, climbed 816 meters, and descended at least 1,127 meters.

We are staying at the B&B I Choisi. It is a bit out of town, has no air conditioning or fridge, but is very lovely and quiet. Once again dinner is included, and right away I pointed this out to the lady, who doesn’t do dinner. She went off to call Beppe, and came back with the name of a restaurant in the city where we were to go for supper. She also can’t do breakfast before 8:30am because she has a baby. We are supposed to walk 33.5 km tomorrow to Aulla. She left again and came back with a card saying we could have breakfast at a bar in town, which opens at 7am.

The dinner was excellent, a local pasta, which was like a crepe smothered in basil and olive oil (which I didn’t like but Russell really did), then a steak and a beautiful salad, and tiramisu for dessert.

The young pilgrim we had met on the bridge came in for supper and we had a lovely conversation with him. He is Italian, doing the via Francigena to get to know his country. He had met Anna, Hugo, the two French ladies, and the german pilgrim that Louis walked into Pavia with. He hadn’t crossed paths with Louis. He told us the two French ladies were quitting after today and coming back in September. It was just too hot, and one of them had fallen today and scraped her face. We hadn’t noticed that when we saw them today.

He too got lost at the place we did yesterday, and had to climb back up that cliff and make a work around.  He had stayed somewhere else yesterday, and I don’t think he went through Montelungo, but he said the trail had been very difficult for a number of days recently. We told him we had run out of water early on and he said he drank 8 litres of water walking here today! He hasn’t walked the Camino in Spain, and asked how we like the via Francigena compared to the camino. We said this was much more difficult, but very beautiful. It needs more stores/bars along the way!

We are sitting on a deck at a patio table at our B&B doing our blog. Very quiet and pretty. We are right in the trees and there appears to be a lot of animals about! The birds have all gone to sleep – to get up early tomorrow.

It is very hot in our room, but I think I’ll sleep tonight, it is so nice and quiet here.

I am not good for 33.5 km tomorrow, and the route notes indicate a massive decline in altitude, and impressive increase as well.  I think we are looking at a day off.