Day 25 - Aulla to Sarzana - Thursday July 9, 2015

The Demy Hotel in Aulla was really very classy. There were a lot of people in the dining room for dinner, and the dining room would have been the perfect place for a wedding. Chairs covered in cream colored, satin covers with bows, and the perfect head table. We had a bit of a choice, and the meal was very good. The room was the perfect temperature, thanks to a working air conditioner, and it was very quiet. Thank you Lord for a good night’s sleep!

My suitcase is getting a bit too heavy so I decided to throw out some via Francigena information I’ve gotten along the way from Mac’s, that I either have in another format, or decided wasn’t that important (ie, the route notes).

I left a bunch of stuff in a paper grocery bag in the room.

We were on the road at 8am. We had lots of provisions for the day – apples, bananas, nectarines, buns, peanut butter, peanuts, and lots of water!

The lady at the hostel yesterday, when the three of us were talking about all the climbing and descending, said the via Francigena was going to start to level out at Aulla. I’ve heard that before.

It took us 1.6 km to get out of town, which was level, and in the next km we climbed 270 meters. Then, between km 2.7 and 7.3, we climbed another 314 meters. Finally, from km 7.3 to 8.4, we climbed another 50 meters! So in about 6km, we climbed 634 meters.

The first thing that comes to mind is that the lady at the hostel has never walked the via Francigena.

There were some great moments along the way. We had a wonderful view of the Brunella fortress. We also had a wonderful view of Aulla. We saw the hill top village of Bibola.

We passed through the ancient village of Vecchietto, where a young boy with boots and a (toy) sword accompanied us part way through the village. It brought back memories of living your early life in your imagination. I then had a wonderful photo op of Momma Turtz (me) with the cutest via Francigena turtle imaginable.

On the down side, for the most part we were walking along very narrow, steep, winding, foot paths, ‘longing’ (route note speak for ‘walking along beside’) thorny bushes on one side and a 250 meter drop on the other. The trail was so steep in parts that I actually slid back down in several places. Very scary.

I like Russell to go first through the woods, to clear the spider webs. At one point I caught up to him standing there (waiting for me), panting, with sweat dripping off his face and chin. I asked if he was okay, but he would never admit it if he wasn’t. I then purposely started going very slowly (he will guffaw when he reads this) so he would have to slow down, and stop more and wait for me, and rest a bit. I was concerned! It was funny because later in the day when we got to Sarzana, we met Stephano who had left earlier than us, and he joked that he had cleared the spider webs for us!

It was incredibly hot and humid. With the humidex, Aulla was 38.

I don’t know if it was the excessive heat or my new undergarment strategy, but after an hour today, the route notes, which I carry in my shorts pocket, were drenched, as was the voucher for today’s B&B. So we needed to go to Plan B for transporting those items, aka, into Russell’s day pack. I gave up carrying a day pack weeks ago, just too hot. While we are on this topic, you know how all the people pictures are of me. That is because Russell has the camera tethered to his day pack, so it doesn’t fall out and get lost or break. It’s just too complicated to get the camera free (for the most part) and allow me to take a picture of him.

At km 9.4 the route notes said ‘from here your journey is largely downhill’. You might think this sounded like good news. The problem is, how steeply downhill?

At first things were going well. We were on a gravel road with a reasonably gentle decline that gave us the opportunity to make good time.

At 12.2km we got our first view of the Mediterranean coastline. How I would love to go there!

At 13 km we passed through the hilltop village of Ponzano, which had a statue of soldier war memorial. The via Francigena did not go past any bars or stores there, but Russell managed to figure out somehow that there was a tobacconist in the town, and she had a very restricted selection of cold drinks in her cooler. We got a cold water, an iced tea, and a Gatorade, and then went the way of the via Francigena and stopped on a lady’s steps, near a water fountain, for lunch. I went back to get another cold water but she didn’t have one, so I got a cold Gatorade and off we went.

As we descended we got a nice view of that hill top village. The track at times got very steep, and we both did a lot of slipping on the gravel stones. We could see how easy it would be to lose control and go sliding down. Unfortunately, this time we were on a narrow, steep, winding, footpath ‘longing’ a wall on one side and a 100 plus meter drop on the other.

We passed the ruins of Castello della Brina, one piece of which looked like a fallen over beehive hut!

 You could tell that some serious interpretative work was going on, not finished yet.

We then went past some beautiful blue stones, eventually seeing a quarry of the blue stones. Obviously we weren’t the only people enchanted by the blue stone (we got a rock to bring home).

After that it was pretty much 5km walking into town.

 

In the ancient part of the city we ran into Stephano, our pilgrim we have run into over the last few days. It turns out he is 28, the same age as Kristjan. He has finished high school, and said that jobs are very scarce in Italy for young people. He saved up from his last contract to walk the via Francigena, and he is looking for job possibilities as he goes. He wants to stay in Italy, but he said if he can’t find a job here, he is going to New Zealand.

As promised, we bought him a beer and had a lovely chat. He is staying at the hostel in the convent here tonight.

We did not get lost once today! We also found our B&B without incident.

It is right across from the train station, is like an apartment with a kitchen, etc. Very nice. We found a supermarcato and bought supplies for dinner which we ate here, and at a reasonable hour too!

We are going to Cararro tomorrow, the same place as Stephano, and hope to see him there.