Day 42 - Bolsena to Montefiascone- Sunday July 26, 2015

Hotel Loriana in Bolsena was a very nice beach resort hotel. Everything was very sunny and clean looking. Most guests were here for a week at a time. There were lovely gardens; a fountain with koi and other fish (some of which looked like catfish); lovely statues all around the pool, which had a beautiful deck with tables, beach chairs, and umbrellas galore; a balcony/patio outside all the rooms and everyone had their own table, umbrella, and chairs; air conditioning that REALLY worked; and, a fridge in the room that really didn’t work.

We both have a pretty bad sunburn from 1.5 hours in the lake yesterday, but it was worth it. We had a great sleep. It was a good thing the air conditioner worked because it would not have been possible to ventilate the room. The only source of ventilation in the room was a patio door which opened on to the balcony, which anyone, guest of the hotel or not, could access.

Our route notes said the walk to Montefiascone today was 12km and that was all I had caught on to. Breakfast was at 7:30am and with such a short day we didn’t try to arrange an early breakfast.

The hotel tables were all set up with your room number on the table. After cruising around the entire dining room last night, our room number was nowhere to be found, so they squeezed us in at a table with no number. We had been asked to select (from what was like a hospital menu) what we wanted for dinner, and we had done that. They never asked us what we wanted, but brought what we had ordered, so they had our order.

It was the same at breakfast today, at least as far as your room number being on the table is concerned. It was a buffet (so why keep track of room numbers?) This time every table had a number, and none of the numbers were ours. We wanted to leave asap and were the first there. The waitress, who watched everyone like a hawk, picked a number to eliminate, and we sat there. It was a nice buffet except they had a thermos of coffee, so you couldn’t get a cappuccino. Let me rephrase that, we couldn’t get a cappuccino. I noticed as others started to arrive that someone would go to the bar and get what you wanted if you asked. Apparently the reason our number wasn’t on a table was because we weren’t staying for a week.

We left about 8:15am, but didn’t go too far until we turned around and went back to get our raincoats out of our suitcases. It looked like it might rain. It has not rained while we are walking since the first two days. Rain hasn’t even been in the forecast, so we have not carried our raincoats.

Because I thought it was going to be a short day we didn’t bring too much water, and no lunch.

We set out as per the GPS and route note directions but very quickly weren’t going anywhere remotely resembling what the route notes said. We were tracking the GPS however, and there were lots of VF signs and way markers.

After about 500 meters we started a massive ascent. The ancient part of Bolsena was up on a cliff overlooking Lake Bolensa, and we had a very steep descent to the newer part of the city and our hotel yesterday. It looked like we were going back up there (albeit on a different route) this morning. It was then I looked at the route notes and noticed that we had a massive ascent today. We were feeling pretty good and just said ‘bring it on’.

We passed a loose dog while we were going up the first hill. The dog was in a Mexican standoff with a cat. 

The cat was looking pretty aloof about the whole thing, and the dog made the perfunctory bark and then just ignored us going by.

There was a very deep gorge we were walking around, and we had to cross a river. We noticed a large group of teenagers merging into the VF slightly ahead, and decided they were either on a walking the VF excursion today, or they were out to explore the archeological park we were passing through. We could have passed them but I thought that would be a real put down for them. Anyway, it certainly wasn’t a race and it was easy to stop and look or stop and take pictures, and stay behind them.

At one point we went past a mobile milking station. We saw a herd of what we thought was sheep, looking rather shaved, then we thought maybe they were white cows, finally we thought they might be goats. 

We passed a truck parked in the field, and a large drum on a flatbed beside it, and perhaps 12 goats getting milked in the truck, and a pile of goats waiting outside. 

There were several loose dogs about, but they were just trying to keep cool under a tree.

The teenagers all were stopped for a break at a large picnic rest area in the archeological park, and we passed them there. I could tell that a couple of the girls noticed my tattoo as I walked by, and they did a double take on that. It’s so nice to feel ‘out of the box’ sometimes.

We were primarily climbing through the woods today for the first 12km. The temperature was decidedly lower, there was a beautiful breeze from the lake, and lots of shade. We met up with a bike race at one point. The bikes were coming down a major hill perpendicular to the VF and then had to do a 90 degree turn left onto the road straight ahead of us.

 I thought that was going to be a problem, until I saw that the VF turned right 90 degrees there. So we didn’t miss a step, other than watching that none of the bikes lost control on the turn. There were a ton of race officials and fans all over the place, waving the bikes in the proper direction and cheering them on.

We carried on and went past two waterfalls, very lovely,

when we met up with the bike race again. This time they were on the VF. We had no option but to stop and wait for the bikes to pass. Luckily there was a multitude of rest areas today (probably because of the archeology park). 

We sat a picnic table and shared a banana, a plum, and some iced tea, until the official gave us the sign we could carry on. The bikes were trailed by a number of motorcycles.

There was a river shortly on that the bikes seem to have decided to run through, which was not passable by foot without getting your feet wet, but thankfully we spotted a bridge for us pilgrims.

Just after the bridge we headed along the VF but Russell’s GPS said to go another way. Russell turned around and went back because the GPS was unhappy. I turned around too just as a little boy had fallen and was crying. I asked if the boy needed a band aid and the dad said no, but the little boy said ‘yes’. I stopped and looked at his scraped knee. It was swelling up and was definitely scraped, but it was not bleeding. So I acknowledged he had a boo boo on his knee, said some soothing words to the little fellow, and carried on. He seemed semi-content that he had received due consolation for his injury, but still would have liked a band aid.

The way the GPS said to go was barred by a closed gate that had a sign saying ‘properta priva’. I was not about t0 break through the gate regardless of what his GPS said. None of this was in the route notes (although we hadn’t been doing anything the routes said to do all day except turn left coming out of the hotel).

Russell wasn’t happy, but we carried on. It was nice we followed the VF, because there was rest station for the bikes a bit up the way and they gave us some orange sections and electrolyte drink. We could have gotten water but it wasn’t cold and we already had hot water we had to carry.

We got back on the GPS track only to lose it again shortly up further. This time , where we were was actually on the route notes, except it was unclear which way to go exactly. We decided to follow the GPS.

The route joined the Cassia (ss2 highway) around that point and we came to a roundabout which said 6km to Montefiascone one way and 8km to Bolsena the other way. We had already walked 12.6 km at that point, so obviously it wasn’t going to be 12km today. At least it wasn’t oppressively hot.

Once again we went past numerous mansions along the VF today.  I was getting sort of fussed because it was a Sunday (a lot of bars and stores are closed all day), 12:30pm (bars/stores that are open on Sunday closed for siesta time), I was dying for some cold water, and we had no lunch making material. Thankfully we went past an open grocery store (which was heavily air conditioned) and picked up supplies for today and tomorrow, which weighed a ton in our backpacks, but at least we were all set, and carried on.

Suddenly in the distance we saw an ancient city and (the Rocca dei Papi) fortress, and knew that had to be where we were going. In the end we walked 18.6km today, climbed 735 meters, and it was 30 degrees when we got here. This is a major improvement over 40 degrees.

In ancient times Montefiascone was known as the Mons Faliscorum area of the Falisco people (Etruscans), who came here following destruction of various towns in the ager faliscus by the Romans. It is also the ‘wine mountain’ consecrated by the fame of ‘Est! Est!! Est!!!’, whose vineyard blanket the hills sloping towards the Lake Bolsena basin. The legend says that Pope Urban V travelling north, sent a servant to find out places to stop. He was supposed to write Est on the doors of places where the wine was good. He found Montefiascone wine so special he  wrote Est Est Est three times. Russ and I had a bottle of Est Est Est for dinner last night. It was very nice, not very expensive.

As we came into the historic part town, and just before we passed through the stone gate ‘Porta di Borgo’ we saw the teenagers from earlier today. We know that by walking on the highway you can save a lot of km’s getting from A to B here. But then you are not walking the via Francigena. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.

Our hotel is called Urban V, and is in the historic section of the town (surprise), but is very beautiful and modern. Of course it is at the top of a very steep hill and the restaurant we have our dinner at, is at the bottom of this hill. There is also no possibility to get breakfast before 7:30am tomorrow, so we won’t leave before 8am.

I got an email back from Beppe about my request to stay at Papavista instead next Saturday (about an hour after I sent it) and he is going to check. At least I found out the two hotels are across the street from each other, we had been worrying about the baggage transfer on Sunday (which consists of us wheeling our suitcases to the other hotel).