Day 30 - Altopascio to San Miniato- Tuesday July 14, 2015

The route notes for today said: there is a stretch of road between Galleno and Fucecchio that passes through a very unpleasant area, badly kept and full of rubbish. We suggest you take a bus. As there is only a bus at 14:07 and 15:13, do not leave Altopascio in a rush, it is only 8.5 km to Galleno. 

This suggestion would cut a 30km day down to 16km. I wasn’t opposed to that, but we’ve been in Italy long enough to realize that there may not be a bus (a very frightening prospect if you left late), and bus or no bus, we’d be doing the last 7.5 km late in the day.

The temperature flattened out at 28 degrees overnight. The air conditioner was really not working, so it was virtually impossible to sleep. We have really not been getting much sleep. Not too surprising when you think that the daytime temperature has been around or higher than our body temperature for virtually the whole month we have been in Italy. The area we are in now for the next while is experiencing a heat wave, with advisories that the temperature could be 40 degrees.

I laid awake last night worrying about doing 30km in at least 37 degree temperatures with a lot of climbing. Carol was asking the other day about whether I dreamed, well last night I kept having a recurring dream during brief episodes of slumber about being out on a very long hike and getting lost and being in a panic.

At 6:30am Russell was telling me it was time to get up and I said, let’s get up at 7:30. I was exhausted from the heat and tossing and turning all night.

At 7:30 I suggested we had three choices we needed to discuss: get a ride with the baggage transfer taxi part way; get a ride with the baggage transfer taxi the entire way; or take the bus from Galleno to Fucecchio like the route notes suggested. I said walking the whole way was not an option for me. We decided to ask to get a ride with the baggage transfer taxi to Ponte a Cappiano, at km 15, leaving as soon as possible. This would make the day total 15.5km, we could walk earlier, before it got too hot, and it eliminated some of the climbing for today.

We went at 8 and laid out our proposal with the lady at reception. She said she didn’t know who the baggage transfer taxi was, and they usually came between 10 and 12, so she couldn’t ask. I told her to call Beppe at Viadesole, and was fumbling around for his number, when she said yes, she knew Beppe and called him herself!

She found out who was doing the baggage transfer, called them, and discovered they were on vacation. Welcome to Italy! She was getting a bit agitated, and said she would have to call her husband to drive us. I wasn’t really following the logic, and said she could just call us a cab, but she said no, that would be too expensive.

We went and had breakfast and after she said her husband would be there soon. As it turned out, her husband was going to do the whole baggage transfer thing. I thought she was calling him just to drive us part way! It made me wonder what would have happened to our bags today when the fellow on vacation that was supposed to move them never showed up to transfer them.

Her husband arrived in a minivan. We were getting ready to put our luggage and backpacks in the minivan, when he said he would drive us in their other car – an Audi A4, because of the dogs. At that point he opened up the back of the minivan and let 8 dogs out of cages. They all went running right into the hotel, with not even a glance at us!

It turns out they have 8 dogs, 2 cats, 2 championship jumping horses, and two kids, one 28 and one 9 years old. They live on a hobby farm (but the horses don’t). I wondered what he did for a living.

He drove us to the Piazza right before the bridge. Russell gave him 20 euros, which he objected to, but in the end accepted. We shook hands all around, thanked him profusely, and then set off at 9:40am.

The covered bridge was very famous,

it was built by Cosimo de’Medici in the 16^th century and Leonardo da Vinci did a sketch of the bridge. There was a famous hostel/hospital attached to it. The area was a swamp and marsh and a lot of pilgrims would get sick travelling through the area and require help. 

The first 5 km basically ran along beside a canal. It was quite pleasant actually with a lovely view. We saw an otter or muskrat in the canal at one point, and heard another dive into the water.

There was a pretty steep ascent into Fucecchio, and we went into the Cathedral, and then a fellow came over to us and was talking excitedly in Italian, taking us by the arm and showing us a museum. I guess he thought we should visit the museum, and so we did. It had an archaeological display on the first floor, works of art on the second, and stuffed birds on the third. Because of the marsh/swamp they had a special ecosystem in the area. It was very enjoyable.

We then followed along a river for a while, got lost and ended up on a major highway. A driver going by yelled at us and gestured to where we should be, and we went there. It took us a while to recover from that, but eventually we got back on the VF and started a massive ascent to San Miniato, where we stayed overnight in the Hotel Miravalle –the palace hotel. It was 38-39 degrees today, and the walk was extremely hot and exhausting. We stopped in the Piazza Bonaparte for a drink before starting the adventure of trying to find our hotel and met a couple where the woman said she really wanted to do the Camino but wasn’t a walker. She said her husband would love to be married to me! We had a great conversation and she kissed us both when they left and wished us a buen camino. She also gave me a pamphlet describing all the museums in San Miniato. It was a very busy place. We passed the impressive San Francesco church walking in but were just too exhausted to climb up to visit it and the fortress. As we passed we saw a pilgrim with a very large pack and covered from head to toe in clothes (hat, long sleeved shirt, pants) walking very slowly up. She seemed familiar. We also walked past a bunch of the museums which looked very good.

I had a real laugh yesterday reading our route notes. We most often have a major problem finding our hotel. For today the route notes said ‘from the square take via Mangiatori and reach Piazzetta del Castello where is your Hotel Miravalle.’  

I thought, how about you tell me ‘where is our hotel’!

Well we walked quite a piece up and down via Mangiatori and never saw the hotel. We passed numerous Piazza’s and none were called Piazetta del Castello. This street was incredibly steep and busy with traffic and we were incredibly exhausted. The excursion did however take us past some major restoration work. Since the Middle Ages, the town was known as San Miniato al Tedesco, because the earliest documents report the building of a church dedicated to the martyr Miniato by 17 Lombards in 713. In 912 Otto I of Saxony made it one of the centers of imperial administration and in 1218 Frederick II of Swabia built his Castle above the town. It flourished again with the weakening of the Swabian power until Florence rose in importance in the 14^th century. It was a German, Mary Magdalena of Austria, wife of Cosimo dei Medici, who favored the town and turned it into the seat of a bishop in 1622. The German army destroyed the fortress and a large part of the town during WW2, but most of the historical monuments have been restored since.

It took numerous conversations with the locals to finally figure out where the hotel was. It was not on Via Mangiatori (surprise). You had to climb a very steep staircase to another area to get to it. It wasn’t until the following morning we even figured out we were in Piazzetta del Castello.

I have noticed that the harder it is for us to find the hotel, the better the hotel. This was a 4 star hotel and, of the hotels we have stayed in, the best. When we entered the lobby we were greeted by a blast of cold air. Very much appreciated!

We had a lovely room with a palatial bathroom and an air conditioner that REALLY worked! After the unavoidable laundry and shower I sat down to do the blog and couldn’t keep my eyes open, laid down and Russell said I was snoring immediately.

He woke me at dinner time, and we went to the dining room with this absolutely incredible hilltop view of the country side below. The waitress brought the menu and I told her our dinner was included. There was the usual ‘oh, this is not possible’, followed by much scurrying about and then her coming back and scooping up the menus. We were then not offered any choice.

This time, however, when she discovered we were pilgrims, we then got the royal treatment!

We had excellent bottle of local Chianta, an appetizer of tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, with lettuce, prosciutto and cantaloupe; a primo of two types of lasagna, one with tomatoe and cheese, the other with meat sauce; a secondo of a porter house steak and arugula salad; followed by a plate of fruit fresh.

After dinner we went back to the room, and I was going to do the blog, but fell asleep. Had an absolutely excellent nights’ sleep in our very cool room.

In the morning when we checked out we said we owed them for the wine and dessert at dinner, and the receptionist said ‘oh no, all is included’. She also wished us a very buen camino and warned us there were no stops on the road today. Very classy.