Comments on pilgrimage after three weeks on the via Francigena - July 5,2015

We have had some ‘what is this all about moments’.

I have been thinking about the importance of the side of the road you walk on. This of course is metaphorical for the importance of the side you choose in important issues.

There are a lot of factors you have to weigh in choosing the side of the road. Where is the most shade, what direction is the traffic coming from, which has the softest shoulder, which has a shoulder, what direction are you going at a busy roundabout. The answer is never totally clear. You have to make compromises. It is important, because making the wrong choice could have catastrophic consequences, especially on very busy highways.

Russell was thinking about why people go on pilgrimages. If they have a clear goal, like quitting smoking for example, at the end they may not quit. Some people may go a pilgrimage to find an answer, but never do. I was suggesting that by going on pilgrimage you connect with nature, and rediscover that sense of awe with creation. They say that by going on pilgrimage your sins are forgiven. If that is true, Russell and I must have quite a bit of credit saved up.

I had established a goal of trying to forgive a person that abused me. I found it very interesting that prior to leaving on this trip, this was the subject of a number of Peter’s sermons. I also did some research on what it meant to forgive someone – something I had never done before. I had assumed that forgiving someone meant you would be ‘friends’ with them again. That is certainly what my mother and father had in mind.  Once I realized that forgiving someone was about my acknowledging the pain the abuse had caused, knowing that I didn’t cause it, I can’t control it, and I can’t cure it, and that I was not condoning the abuse, and didn’t have to let the abuser get into my personal space and continue to abuse me – I realized that I have forgiven them!

I also haven’t mentioned all the beautiful butterflies in the fields. In particular, there have been many sightings of the most wonderful tiny fluorescent blue butterfly, some black and white butterflies, monarchs, and many others.

I should also mention that the deer/horse flies are totally miserable and a constant companion in the fields/woods.

In our first three weeks we have walked 382.4km of 459km and climbed 7.2 km (this only represents the days we were keeping track of the accent). We have 593km left to Rome.

 

Day 21 - Cassio to Berceto - Sunday July 5, 2015

I think yesterday I may have accentuated the negative by eliminating the positive.

The scenery along the way, notably at all the ridges and high points was absolutely magnificent. 

The via Francigena is not only going to important historical and religious sites, but important archaeological sites as well. Finally, as mentioned previously, there are some very impressive houses right along the route, which one can admire.

The climbs are very strenuous, but we have been walking for 3 weeks now, and are in pretty good condition at this point. It is also a major heat wave in Europe, but the heat is probably worse in Canada because of the humidity. I said this to the fellow from New York yesterday, and he groaned and said it was humid here, but honestly, the humidity here is nothing compared to Ottawa.

My heat rash is cured. I started using aloe vera for body lotion after talking to the Belgium pilgrim Anna. Once I thought about it, she was recommending calomine lotion, but I don’t think that would work – the rash wasn’t itchy. In any event, it has cleared up, without cortisone lotion!

My foot problem is also much better. Probably from a combination of conditioning and my new approach of putting the heel guard right in my sock, and only if the foot gets sore.

Russell just trudges along without too much complaining. When he does complain, he says ‘don’t put that in the blog’.

Last night in the hostel on the second floor, with no air conditioner, no fan, and with almost no windows was very hot. We ended up leaving our room door open to get some air circulation. Neither of sleep much.

We didn’t set the alarm because we only had 10.5km to go today, but we were up early anyway and at breakfast at 7:30am. We weren’t too sure if breakfast was included because we had to go up to the bar, but it was. We just didn’t get too much. Cappuccino, a croissant and an orange. We were on the way at 8am.

We started off along the SS 62 to Cavazzola. At this point a fellow drove away from his house and his two dogs came running down the highway after him.  He stopped and walked them back home.

We then went off into the woods along a steep incline of 110 meters to Castellonchio. After a bit of a descent along a flagstone paved road through the town, we stopped at a beautiful trattoria and had the best cappuccino we’ve had so far in Italy, and some wonderful cookies. The view was magnificent. After a short walk along the highway, we climbed through a field another 100 meters to the top of Monte Marino, walked along a ridge with more magnificent views, then made out way to another narrow path through the woods. The route notes were talking about us having to cross a series of thorny fences, which had us intrigued! It turned out to be barbed wire fences. Some of which we had to climb over, but we have lots of experience with that doing the Dingle Way.

We next exited on the SS 62 again for a stretch, where Russell seems to have disturbed a wasp hive. We still had some of that sugar water, and were swarmed by wasps for a while. They were so distracting we missed our exit into the woods and had to turn around and go back a short piece. We finally seemed to shake the wasps.

We had another climb coming into Berceto, which afforded a magnificent view of the city. I was trying to find the cathedral, which I expected would be the highest point in the city, but a castle obliterated our view!

We went past a shrine to San Moderanno (Archbishop of Rennes, and from 718 to 745 abbot of Berceto). People were leaving offerings to him at the shrine, and the lady at our B&B told us it was because there had been an infestation during his time that he was attributed to ending, and ever since people have left offerings to him to ward off any further infestations.

This is a beautiful town. We went past Largo Castello of the Rossi Earls, which dates back to the 1100’s. It is very well preserved and restoration work is being done on it.

Our B&B’s breakfast room contains an arch cellar and stable which once belonged to the ancient houses of the medieval castle.

Berceto on the via Francigena is linked to a Benedictine abbey built in the 8^th century by Longobard King Luiprand requested by Moderanus the bishop of Rennes. The Cathedral dates back to 718, and was devoted to Saint Moderanno. The museum had St. Moderanno’s green silk vestment dating back to  8^th century. We toured the Cathedral, and could have gotten a stamp at the information center, but it closed at 12:30pm today and isn’t open tomorrow.

It’s a festival Day here today. Commemorating the end of the infestation, with several masses at the cathedral and a procession down the via Francigena. We didn’t go to the mass because it would have been in Italian, but did see some of the procession going past our B&B to the Cathedral, which is two houses down.

Day 20 - Fornovo to Cassio - Saturday July 4, 2015

We got down to breakfast at 7am, nice breakfast, and left at 7:30am. It was already very hot. We never did hear the temperature today but it must have been at least 37 degrees. The hotel last night was very lovely, with lovely gardens, garden sculptures, and of course, the pool.

Everyone was sort of shaking their head at us about the walk today, and showing the symbol for climbing. Our route notes indicated the uphill gap was 1,015 meters and the downhill gap was 385. Usually we have to add those two numbers together to get the total.

We set off from the hotel through the town and climbed the riverbank then walked along the Sporzana river for several kilometers. 

It was very pleasant and fairly shady walking through the woods. When we saw the houses of Respiccio, we were to cross a bridge and walk through the town. Never did see the houses from the river, but Russell had his GPS and after a short error we went back and forded the river and climbed up to Respiccio. Never did see a bridge.

From this point on the via Francigena was very well sign-posted. We then walked along SP39 for a while (my favorite) to Sivizzano. The route notes said we could take a bus from Respiccio to Sivizzano to avoid the long asphalt stretch, but we checked the schedule and there was a bus at 7 and 7:35am and another at 5pm etc. Not too useful for a pilgrim!

Sivizzano was at km 6 and the town had numerous information boards and interesting tourist attractions. We went past the Oratory of St. Anthony of Padova, a small church which has always been the reference point for important religious ceremonies. 

Mmmm
Even today the Oratory is the destination of an annual procession for the celebration of Saints and faithful in May. Next we saw some Roman ruins, and finally a traditional outdoor bread baking oven. We stopped at a store and got a nice cold iced tea and a cold bottle of water. What we didn’t know is that that was going to be our last chance to buy a cold drink all day.

We then started walking along the very dry river Sporzana again. At around km 10 we started to really climb, first to the church in Bardone, then to Terenzo, past Santo Stephano church. We had now gone from 158 meters to 540 meters (not including the ups and downs).

From 540 meters at km 13 we then climbed 234 meters in 1.6km, arriving at a picnic site where I had some bread and peanut butter and Russell had most of a banana. It was after noon. We then had a major descent going into Castello di Casola. We ran into a lady selling fruit from her truck to the locals, and asked if there was a bar or store in the town, and they all said Cassio!

From there, the trail descended very steeply, we forded a stream, reached a road, and started another steep climb to Villa di Casola at km 16.3. There was the same lady in her truck selling fruit. As before, there was a lineup of locals waiting to buy fruit. We talked to a fellow from New York who after high School went to Parma to study veterinary medicine, specializing in cows. I mentioned we would very much like to get some cold water and he pointed us off up a hill in the wrong direction to a water tap with cool mountain water. I was sort of hoping he would go into his house and give us some cold water! We bought a grapefruit from the lady and ate it, it was very refreshing. We then got into our reserve of water from Russell’s backpack. The water was sweetened water we had bought by mistake. We actually set off in the morning with lots of water with us, but it was boiling hot at this point. Anyway, we filled up a few water bottles with this sweetened water and I washed my hands after peeling the grapefruit eating it off my hands with this sugary water.

From there we climbed 233 meters in 2.5 km, unfortunately, the wasps all discovered my sugary hands, and I was being swarmed by wasps. Luckily, I still had a bottle of plain water and Russell poured it over my hands, helping to reduce my popularity with the wasps. 

We were now at km 18.8, and totally exhausted.

There arose a discrepancy between the route notes and the GPS. We followed the route notes. 

We were at a ridge with a superb view of the whole valley. We also could see strange rock formations called Salti del Diavolo dated to the cretaceous period 90 million years ago.

At this point the GPS and via Francigena signs were telling us to go down to the rock formations. We were standing on the  edge of a cliff and the formations were way down in the valley. We could see Cassio a short walk from our location along the SS 62. It was 2:30pm. We had been walking for 7 hours in the blazing heat, had climbed 1271 meters, and just didn’t feel like descending into the valley only to have to walk back up to Cassio. So we walked about 700 meters along the SS62 and reached our hostel, for a total of 20km today. 

Today was a brutally difficult day, far surpassing anything we ever did on the Camino or so far (including climbing the alps) on the via Francigena. We ran into some lady pilgrims at Bardone today, who have done virtually every possible Camino route and the entire via francigena, and they said that from Fidenza to Cassio was the hardest stretch they knew of. There were only walking the via Francigena from Fornovo to Berceto, our destination tomorrow.

Yes, we are staying in the Cassio Hostel tonight. It is actually very nice. We have our own private room, which is actually very charming, and will have a private bathroom if no one else occupies the other room up here on the second floor tonight. 

They provided real laundry powder in the bathroom, and we hope that will freshen our clothes. They are hanging outside on the clothesline

We have to go up to a bar/restaurant in town for supper (not included) and to the bar just up the street for our breakfast tomorrow (included).

Day 19 - Fidenza to Fornovo-- Friday July 3, 2015

Day 19 Fidenza to Fornovo- Friday July 3, 2015

This was our precious day off, and we slept in until 8am. I thought breakfast was 7 to 9:30am, and at 8:50am Russell said, we better hurry up, breakfast is over at 9am! He was right, but we weren’t the last people to arrive. We did get our coffee at least before the ladies started cleaning the coffee/cappuccino machine. It was a lovely breakfast, with everything I like, and a soufflé, which Russell really liked.

We checked out around 9:30 and started sightseeing until our 12:38pm train. We followed the via Francigena in Fidenza and visited the old city gate/bridge, which they have excavated to reveal a series of more ancient bridges into the city.

We then toured the beautiful Fidenza Cathedral, a Romanesque basilica dating from the 12^th century. A fellow came to us and said come, get a stamp, which we did. We told him we were walking the via Francigena but he obviously figured that out on his own or wouldn’t have offered stamping our credenzia’s. He treated us as kindred spirits. We then visited the Museum of Duomo (or, museum of the cathedral), and he came along as our guide. Unfortunately he could speak no English or French, but a cleaning lady in the museum spoke English and she joined us as our interpreter!

The gold and silver treasure of the cathedral bears witness to the generosity of Bishops and devotion of the donors over the centuries. It also represents the evolution in taste and style of the sacred vestments and vessels from the end of 1600 to the middle of 1800. Two other notable items in the museum were the Madonna and Child, a masterpiece of Benedetto Antelami, and an extraordinary baptismal font for infants in white marble which dates from the end of the 12^th century and is the work of students of Antelami.

The front of the Cathedral is one of the most important evidences of Romantic sculpture in Europe. It was built at the same time of the famous Portico of the Glory in Santiago de Compostela, the doors in the Collegiata de Notre Dame in Mantes, near Paris, and the ones in the Cathedral in Sens.

David and Ezekiel’s cartouches explain that the heaven door is open to the just and closed to the sinners who can, however, find redemption in pilgrimage. The importance of pilgrimage is constant in the reliefs of the front: the statue of Apostle Simone bears a cartouche showing via Roma, the principal way to Rome. The same concept is confirmed in the right portal, with the statue of Raimondo from Piacenza, a saint pilgrim, who died in 1200. Two families of pilgrims are represented on the sides of the central portal and others are identifiable on the Trabucco Tower.

Our guide then invited us up to view the cathedral from the high balconies. It was a very special tour.

When we were done, the gentleman called his colleague to copy explanations of the history of the Cathedral in English, which we greatly appreciated. After many gratzia’s, we exited through the cathedral and ran into Louis, the German pilgrim. I was very happy to see him and exclaimed ‘hello’, whereupon he hushed me because we were inside the church (empty other than us, but that was beside the point, of course). We all met outside. He was taking today off, which we were as well, but we have to advance to Fornovo to our next hotel, which he doesn’t. I hope our paths will cross again.

After that we visited San Michele Church. It was pretty run down. There were marriage bans posted, which stated the bride to be was a virgin, and the groom was celibate. Hummm. Seemed a bit heavy.

We could have only gotten a direct train as late as 9:15am, the next was at 6pm plus. We opted to go through Parma, the train from Fidenza left at 12:38pm and arrived at Parma at 12:50. The train to Fornovo left at 12:56. The problem was that when we went to change trains, they didn’t list Fornovo but the final destination. I looked at the alternatives and guessed that we wanted the train to Pontremoli, because it sounded like a place we staying, but we really didn’t want to take a chance on it, and by the time we confirmed we wanted the train to Pontremoli, we missed it. We got to the right track just as it sped away.

The next train was at 14:42 so we went out of the station, found a bench in the shade, and constructed our lunch. We had salmon pate and earlier in the morning had bought a lovely lettuce, which I washed at a bar. It was delicious. We were right across from a bar and the people were looking at us as if we were aliens! After lunch we wandered around Parma, hitting the Italian national Archaeological museum, the Library, the theatre, and the Commerce buildings. Very ancient Roman!

If we had walked today, it would have been a very difficult day, much climbing, and more than 31 km. Our route notes even said: ‘Important notice: the walk today is very long and tough, we suggest you get a ride with the baggage transfer to Costemezzana’. That is at km 11.8.  We were, nonetheless, on our feet from 9:30 to 12:38; 12:50 to 14:24, except for maybe 15 minutes for lunch, and then from 15:09 until around 4pm. It was 36 degrees.

A few more via Francigena signs were visible today in Fidenza, and then again when we got to Fornovo. We had our usual adventure finding our hotel, but I suggested to Russell we do a mapquest on this, since we were not coming in on our route notes or GPS. But, I didn’t do the mapquest search either, so can’t complain. Anyway, we did get some help from the locals, and we had a bit of a hike, but found it.

I went swimming in their pool, and it was every bit as nice as the picture. 

The dinner was excellent as well. We had salad and vegetables, a pasta primo, and I had roast veal and Russell had winnerschnitzel.

Day 18 - Castell’Arquato to Fidenza - Thursday July 2, 2015

We were aiming to get up at 6am to get going early and beat the heat, but I had a headache I was trying to get rid of. Russell got up at 6:30am and was really banging about (trying to get me up), which I finally did. The breakfast, like the dinner, was excellent. A fruit cocktail with strawberries, kiwis, and all other sorts of fruits, granole, yogurt – my favorite! Russell still thought the breakfast at the Agritourism place in Chambave was the best, though.

We were on the road at around 8am, with about 25km to go. Russell was concerned that the GPS for today was not taking us to Fidenza, which was likely because our itinerary changed for the last few days. So we were, ahhhh, depending on the route notes.

It was up major hills, down into the valley, through vineyards, all morning. 

At one point we descended a very steep downhill track through a farmer’s vineyards, aiming toward the Bacedasco Alto bell tower. At least we had something to aim for. After climbing up to the Bacedasco Alto bell tower, we cut through as many vineyards as we could to get to Bacedasco Basso. We next climbed a great ridge then descended down to the Stirone river, crossed a bridge, and entered the provincial Parc of the Stirone.

We climbed 829 metres, primarily in the hot baking sun, getting to the Parc, and it was at least 34 degrees.

We entered the trees at the Parc, which sounded like we would finally be in the shade, but much of that was in sun as well. We were to walk about 10 km through the Parc to get to the outskirts of Fidenza. We read in our route notes that we were to get to a picnic place at around 16km. We did get to a picnic place, and had a lovely picnic lunch, including a beer we had left over from yesterday, and were transporting in the back pack so it didn’t explode in the suitcase. The beer was pretty hot, but still okay. We then carried on for about another 2km, when I was getting a bad feeling about things because we were not hitting any of the landmarks on the route notes. We turned around and went all the way back to an information panel just before the picnic place, and with the help of some Italians out for a picnic, one of which spoke English, figured out that when we entered the Parc in the first place, we went the wrong way! I had even said to Russell when we entered the woods that the instructions should have said whether to enter on the left or the right. What they said was, ‘cross the road and enter the woods’. We always walk facing the traffic, and he must have been walking with the traffic coming behind him.

That was an epic error really, accounting for close to 10km. The Italians that were helping us at the information board suggested we should go to Salsomaggiore Terme, then to Fidenza, rather than going all the way back to the Stirone bridge and entering the Parc from the other direction.

It was 2pm, very hot, and we started walking toward Salsomaggiore. It was a miracle, but we passed a pizzeria/bar about 1 km from there, and I asked the fellow on the cash if he would call a taxi for us to go to Fidenza. He said he would be a taxi for us to Salsomaggiore, and we could get the train from there to Fidenza. We thanked him profusely, and after a bit he showed up at the side of the bar in his car.

He was very nice and kind, and very interested that we were going to see Pope Francesco in Rome. On the way he stopped at the salt baths in Salsomaggiore for a picture, then to the train station. 

All of this was way more than 1 km. Russell tried to give him 10 euros for driving us, but he absolutely refused, saying to put in a good word about him to Pope Francesco.

We got to the train station at 2:40pm and the next train to Fidenza was 2:59pm. The train ride took 8 minutes and cost a total of 2.6 euros.

We got off the train, walked one block, saw a sign for our Hotel Astoria, walked two blocks and were here at 3:30pm. What an angel!

We have noticed over the last few days, very few signs for the via Francigena, and we haven’t met any other pilgrims. We have talked to some locals passing by, and most of them have never heard of the via Francigena. But those who have are very enthusiastic and wish you a good journey.

The hotel is nice, but in a big city, and sort of living up to our expectation of the hotels in the bigger cities. We asked the lady at the desk about a supermercato, and she gave some directions. Russell set out while I did my laundry and was going to have a shower – to return 45 minutes later without luck. He then tried to find a store on the internet, and disappeared for another 40 minutes!

At dinner, there was a discrepancy between our voucher, which said dinner was included, and her instructions, which said it wasn’t. I came down and talked about it, of course it is a different menu if it is included, and she was saying order off the menu and I’ll clear it up tomorrow. I told her to call Beppe and clear it up right away, which she did, and dinner was included.

The place we were supposed to be today before the revision sounded really lovely. It was an Agritourism place 10km out of the city, so of course supper would have been included.

We did end up doing our 25km today, but didn’t reach our destination on foot. Tomorrow is our day off!!! I’m so excited. We will take the train to Fornovo. Our hotel tomorrow looks absolutely fabulous. It has a pool, and a wonderful garden. Look it up on the internet – it’s at http://www.albergocavalieri.it/

It’ going to be a relaxing day lounging around the pool.

The walk we are foregoing is 31km and its forecast to be 37 degrees tomorrow.

Day 17 - Carpaneto to Castell’Arquato - Wednesday July 1, 2015

Got an excellent sleep after abandoning the bed bug bag. The place was perfectly quiet, except for some barking dogs, which mainly only barked when we were awake anyway, presumably at people walking past their property. We know all about that, since we get barked at a lot.

The general manager, Vanessa, was nowhere to be seen when we got to breakfast, so I went back to our room to make coffee, but she showed up right away  and Russell came to the window of our room and told me she was making cappuccino. A lovely breakfast. She is from Mordovia, so Russian is her mother tongue. Very pretty young lady, and an absolutely beautiful hotel in the middle of nothing but field upon field of roma tomatoes. Makes you wonder.

We had walked down a tree lined road getting to the hotel, and left through the woods. Soon the woods opened up to acres of roma tomatoes. The tomatoes we had for supper last night have to have been the sweetest tomatoes and best tomatoes I’ve ever had.

The view in the distance of the hills and valleys is magnificent. 

We climbed some major hills today, two of which went on for a kilometer each, in total 120 meters ascent. We were walking through vineyards, past some magnificent houses. We then went through the ancient part of Castell’Arquato, with the medieval Palazzo Pretoria, the superb Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta (12^th century), and the tower of the Rocca Viscontea. 

There was an art exhibit in what was an old monastery, and we went in and viewed the art. Five different artists were displaying their works. Two sculptors, one doing various interpretations of the stations of the cross in olive wood, and the other very graceful sculptures of women. The three others were painters. Very interesting work. Major descent into the newer part of town, through a vault, and on to our hotel.

It was a gorgeous 15.5 km walk today, and my feet behaved very well.

I called our Macs Adventure Italian Viadelsole representative yesterday, because Russell noticed that our hotel voucher for today had the wrong name on it. Starting yesterday, and for three nights they had revised our itinerary and hotels. Beppe was very pleased I had called him. He assured me the hotel knew we were coming, and it was just a little mistake he had made. He asked how we were enjoying the via Francigena and I said we were very pleased except we were often having difficulty finding our accommodations because the route notes didn’t tell us how to get there. He didn’t really want to admit to any short coming in the route notes. He said he would like to meet with us in Sienna, if that was okay with us, to talk about any improvements they could make. That is where their offices are. I said sure, we would like that.

Our hotel in Castell’Arquato, the Hotel Leon D’Oro was very nice. Beppe said we were lucky to be staying there. Russell and I both agreed that the dinner there was the best we had had so far. We had tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and bread for an appetizer, handmade tortellini stuffed with ricotta and spinach, and then I had grilled beef in a marinade with potatoes, and Russell had sea bass with vegetables, followed by a lemon sorbet. Absolutely delicious. We also had a bottle of local Gutturnio wine, which was a frizzante red, but nothing like Baby Duck! This was a full bodied red wine, which was frizzante. Very nice. This time we selected the wine from a wine menu, and knew how much it was going to cost in advance. It was very reasonable.

Although it was a very nice hotel, the air conditioner didn’t work well. It might have simply been that it was so hot, the air conditioner didn’t have enough power to keep up. Anyway, I didn’t sleep well, got a headache, and finally opened the windows. The room was very hot!

Day 16 - Piacenza to Carpaneto - Tuesday June 30, 2015

The B&B San Francesco had no air conditioning, and our room had only one window. There was a fan making an intermittent sound like a typewriter, but being on the 6^th floor, it was very warm. Got a pretty good night’s sleep though. Neither of us ever once went to the bathroom all night. It was a miracle. I guess having to fumble around with 2 keys and be descent enough in case of running into the other roomer was enough. Too bad they can’t make that into a pill.

We could hear the lady in the kitchen so we went to breakfast at 6:50am and were on the road at 7:30am. We went past the Cathedral, Santa Maria Assunta, some famous cloisters in Piazza Sant’Antonio, and a huge statue of Romolus and Remus and the she-wolf feeding them.

It took us 6.5 km to get out of Piacenza, down a main thoroughfare, through a lot of very busy round abouts (being rush hour traffic), then along the side of a busy highway. It was not only scary but extremely dangerous. It was also all on pavement. Finally we got on to a road going through an industrial area, still paved but not too much traffic.

At 10km we were in a small town and our route notes said the regular itinerary was along the banks of the river Nure, including a ford, but continuous floods for the past two years have made the ford impassible. Our alternative was the main road through San Polo and the bridge over the river.

After a pleasant 1.5km beside trees and then through a farmer’s field of corn, we reached the SP6, and walked along that for about 3km. That was even more scary and dangerous than the walk out of Piacenza this morning. It was like walking on the Queensway, except there are no shoulders. I’m surprised pedestrians are even allowed.

I started getting creative, walking between rows of corn in the fields beside us, to get off the highway, but that only worked to a small extent. When we got to the bridge over the river Nure, the river was completely dry. Too bad we didn’t go the regular way!

After that we walked past several small towns, along fields of tomatoes, corn, and wheat.

At 20 km we stopped and sat on a low wall surrounding a lovely church, where I put my heel pad into my sock. We have walked almost the whole 20 km on pavement today and my foot has had it!

Soon after we were back on the SP6 for a spell, then walking down a slightly less busy highway to the turnoff for Carpaneto and our hotel, La Maison de Vi.

In total we walked 24.4km today, mostly on pavement, and it was 34 degrees. The scenery is getting much nicer, with hills in the distance, and some climbing today.

We walked down a lovely tree lined lane to the hotel, which is absolutely beautiful stone and wood. Of course the door was locked, but there were Hellenic Project cars in the parking lot and people were inside. Russell pounded on the door and a man opened, saying he was just a guest, no ‘one’ was there. The Greek bike team were having a rather lavish lunch at around 2:30pm in the dining room.

We got a card for the establishment, the number for which matched the number we had, and we called. We are just glad we have a phone on this trip. We would be in serious trouble without it. We are also learning the drill in Italy getting into our hotels. Anyway, the lady spoke absolutely no English except ‘your name’, the answer to which did the trick, and she said ‘be there in 2 minutes’. Ten minutes later she was there, and we got signed in – she had no stamp for our credenzia’s.  The Greek’s were still eating away.

No air conditioner again, but the shutters were all closed and the room was quite cool compared to outside. 

This place was totally in the middle of nowhere, so our only option was to ask for a two beer. She came back with two very tall beer glasses and three bowls of snack food and proceeded to pour the beer into the glasses, even though I tried to say ‘no’. I wanted to put the beer in the fridge and have it after we had a shower, but oh well. She left with the beer bottles, which I think was her main objective in the first place.

We had dinner outside under the wonderful umbrella covered patio areas they had. The dinner consisted of bread with a soft cheese, tomatoes, and basil drizzled in olive oil – a type of bruschetta, then two crepes each stuffed with mozzarella and prosciutto, followed by a salad, some cheese, and sliced meats like prosciutto. We would have gotten salami, but an Italian guest who spoke English was there when we were ‘ordering’, and told her I didn’t like salami, so she changed it. It was a very minimal dinner, consisting really of nothing but appetizers. We also ordered a bottle of red wine, and had cappuccino’s and fruit after – because we were both pretty hungry after that dinner.  When we checked out the next day, those few things added up to 42 euros. It was unbelievable. The wine was 25 euros alone! Better ask next time!

During dinner Russell said he really wasn’t enjoying our trip, because I was always complaining about my foot and we were having such a hassle getting into our rooms. I suggested he was going to have to relax a bit about walking every meter of the via Francigena, and we were going to just have to realize that we would need to use our wits and the phone to get into our lodging. Good thing we have the Vodaphone SIM card! On the bright side, it seems the harder it is to find/get into our room, the better the room is. We also knew in advance that we would need to take days off, it’s not realistic to expect to walk every day with no breaks. I feel bad about my foot, I think it’s primarily because of the new orthodics. I’m hoping things will improve as I get more distance on. In the short term, I just need to rest my foot a bit.

After dinner I found a very large spider in the room, which Russell declared to be dead – but still – this was evidence that there were big spiders like that there. Then I noticed a few bugs crawling in and out between the wall and the floor and got a bit paranoid, so I decided to sleep in my bedbug bag. That lasted about two hours. I was dying of the heat, so abandoned caution to the wind.