Day 28 - Camaiore to Lucca - Sunday July 12, 2015

When we checked in yesterday the receptionist said there were two ladies from Switzerland staying at the hotel that were also doing the via Francigena. There were two ladies at dinner we thought must be the ones, and sure enough they were at breakfast at 7am. I would say they were in their early fifties, both still worked. They started at Pontremoli and are going to finish in Lucca today. They will have walked for a week, and plan to start again and walk for a week each year until they get to Rome, but from now on in September. Our itinerary took us from Pontremoli to Lucca in five days. The problem is finding villages with accommodation along the way. It seems to me that it has been very strenuous getting from Fidenza to here, so they picked a good place to start. Actually, it has been pretty strenuous the whole way from Switzerland, just different sorts of challenges.

It was 36 degrees today in Lucca. We walked 30km and climbed 879 meters.

We set off at 7:30am and the route lead us through farmland and woodland, passing through several villages before ascending steeply to Montemagno. This was a very popular spot for the Sunday morning Italian bikers. There must have been at least three dozen bicycles at the top of the mountain when we got there. We stopped at a bar there for water and gatorade, and the Switzerland ladies went past, as well as two young pilgrims we hadn’t met.

From Montemagno we walked 4km along a very busy highway to Valpromara. At one spot along the highway a car was parked and three people were sitting in lawn chairs watching all the excitement of the bicycles zooming up and down the hill along with all the cars. There were a few of us pilgrims walking too, but I didn’t expect we were a draw of any sort for them until they started waving and wishing us a buen camino.

There was one spot where we dashed across the highway to turn down to a woodlot, only to climb right back to the highway, which we had to dash across again. For the possible 250 meters walking off the highway, it was not worth the hassle.

There are quite a few war memorials in Italy, many of which are dedicated to specific people that died. There was a very interesting one in Valpromara. The soldier was fallen, and holding the butt of a rifle. It looked like he was passing the torch to you, like in John Macrae’s poem. It was really very moving. We had stopped and were sitting on a bench right across from it in a park in Valpromara to rest my foot, which was revolting against all the road walking we were doing today. I then discovered I had made a very big mistake today and didn’t bring my gel heel support in my backpack. I just hoped it was in my suitcase, and not lost in the room! I took a Celebrex, my only other choice.

After leaving the park at 10:15, we walked past a church with a service in progress and heard them singing ‘Will you come and follow me’ in Italian, of course. It was very nice to hear a favorite and familiar hymn. Since leaving at 7:30 this morning, we have passed a lot of churches with services in progress today. There appears to be a lot of people in attendance at these services too, but primarily older folk from what we can see. The church bells have also been ringing out regularly all across the land today!

We’d like to go to a service, but timing is an issue, and we found in Spain that is not very enjoyable when you don’t understand the language.

Along this stretch we passed a farm with a large banner saying it was the home of the World Dog Championship beagle ‘Vicki’. Vicki wasn’t out barking at us as we passed by. Too bad, as we didn’t get an opportunity to meet her. Being out and barking loudly at the pilgrims walking by appears to be a favorite activity of most of the dogs along the route in Italy. We also passed another sign about Vicki the championship beagle at a crossroad further along the way, at km 11.4. At this point there was also a bar slightly off the route in the opposite direction, which we didn’t go to because the route notes said there were bars and shops on this route at a number of villages along the way. That was another big mistake today.

We next climbed through woodland to the picturesque village of Piazzano, where we met a fellow on a bike who warned us about a loose dog that had bit him. We ran into the dog but he must have just liked chasing bicycles and biting the riders. We stopped at the village church which very thoughtfully provided two chairs and a table in the side yard, and had our lunch. While we were eating the two young pilgrims that had passed us earlier in Montemagno passed again. We didn’t know we had passed them.

After lunch we walked down a very steep woodland path, which was extremely slippery, even dry. We met two motorcycles coming up and a bike going down on this path. I could see maybe the motorcycles, but the biker was out of his mind. This path dumped onto the highway at km 15, which was a fairly quiet road, but we walked in full sun along an asphalt road for the next 7km. This is where we virtually ran out of water. Although it was true there were shops and bars at many villages along the way today, they ended at km 11.4.

The route notes said we could get a bus from San Macario to Lucca at km 20. We went past a bus stop that said there was a bus to Lucca at 15:10, it was 12:30. There was a lady out gardening across from the bus stop and I asked her if there was a bus, but she said not on Sunday. I then asked if there was a bar/restaurant anywhere and she said no.

I was feeling pretty low, between my aching foot, it being so hot, being almost out of water, and having 10km to go. There was a picnic table near the bus stop in the shade so we went and sat there and read the route notes (hoping for some other sort of escape clause) and drank most of the little bit of really hot water we still had left. Shortly after the lady called over and asked if we wanted some water, and I said what an angel she was!

She went in the house and brought out a 1.5 litre bottle of cold water. I asked if I could buy the bottle from her but she flatly refused to accept money, so I filled up two of our empty water bottles (which used up 1 litre instead of the whole bottle but it seemed a reasonable compromise between being rude and practical). I thanked her profusely and we carried on down the road before we stopped and drank all of one of the bottles of water. Honestly, tap water would have been welcome, and I’d have taken four bottles of that.

We then walked along the highway for a while, through a small village, past a church, across a bridge (passing a statue of Peter), and then walked along a gravel track along the river through a nature reserve park. We came very close to going the wrong way along the river. It was really a miracle we figured it out properly from the route notes. The issue was that the way we had to go was counter intuitive, because we seemed to be going back the way we had come from.

My foot was in really bad shape by now, but getting off the pavement for 5km and walking along the river helped. There was even some occasional shade. We went past a building after about 4km that was a summer camp for disabled children and they had a sign saying they had drinks!!!! We went in and made short work of an ice cold bottle of water. At that point there was only 6km left. I hobbled along until we hit the pavement again coming into Lucca. We found a bench and I took off my boot and sock and laid down on it for 15 minutes. From that point on it was another one of these mind over matter experiences.

Lucca is a walled city, and we went in Porta San Donato. 

That’s when I figured out the 30km today only got us to the city gate. Fortunately the GPS was short of the route notes km figures, and it was only about 1-2km from the gate to our fancy hotel, which we managed to find without any great difficulty (hallelujah).  We arrived at 3:30. Really nice hotel. 

Hotel Universo, which was built in 1850 as a guest house and became a hotel in 1857, where apparently a King of Italy once stayed. Described on the internet as shabby but chic. Excellent air conditioner, and beautiful marble sink.

Elton John was here last night performing in the piazza our hotel window looked out on before 10,000 fans. Good timing? If we were here yesterday we would have heard the whole concert!

Lucca is a wonderful, artsy town. Puccini concerts every night, this concert venue outside our hotel gets very big names, and a theatre across Piazza Giglio from the front of the hotel.

The problem was we were totally exhausted when we got here, did our laundry, showered, napped until dinner (which wasn’t included – so we found an inexpensive place for pizza and salad), came back and went right to bed.

The town was bustling with people. The church San Paolino we passed getting to our hotel was full of tourists when we passed coming in to town and was having a concert in the evening. It turns out Lucca celebrates the patron of the city, San Paolino on July 11th and 12th. There was a parade with drums, trumpets, flags and men carrying cross bows (which we saw when they went right past our hotel). 

Then there was a crossbow competition at 9pm (we heard cheering from our room but didn't know what was going on).