Yesterday we walked 8 km on a paved bike path along a river. There was little shade and it was getting hot. The path led us into busy city streets where we were soon dodging traffic on a road with little shoulder. The farther we got into the city, the hotter. We stopped at a bakery and ate huge slices of pizza and drank down the big bottles of water. We still had an hour to go, headed toward a convent. This is the time when you question this whole affair.
This is in contrast to the early morning (we started at 6:30 AM) enthusiasm we felt walking through olive groves on the side of a mountain along a path with no traffic.
We are in Spoletto, a very old Roman city, and this part is dirty and trashy and far too busy for comfort.
There aren’t many nuns to be seen but the rooms are simple but comfortable. Josette found the chapel and took me there.
This hill town tantalizes the hiker from 4 miles out. The final push into town is UP!
Our guidebook said the city of Foligno, which we walked through this morning, was 80% destroyed by Allied bombardment during WW2 but rebuilt with a medieval flair.
Spello was an easy 3:30 walk today from Assisi: 12 kilometers if you don’t get lost, 14 if you do. Historic with narrow medieval streets, shops, restaurants, and beaucoup tourists.
We arrive in Rome on May 28th. Italy is quite a beautiful place.
What’s it like to have a birthday on a Camino?
People randomly show up in a piazza in Italy and sing happy birthday to you.
You get a happy birthday chorus from Austria
Someone you knew from home meets you to buy you a drink in Piazza Commune
Someone special shows up at the train station
And friends buy you dinner! Plus, you got here walking over mountains and through valleys and fording rivers and long, long uphills. Seventy has started very well. Thank you for all your greetings.
Today was my best day on this trail. My attitude was positive and I did 15 miles and 2100 feet of up (and almost as much down).
We all wrote in the book; of course, Ann wrote in Gaelic
We were all out of water with just over a kilometer to go, so we drank cool mountain spring water.
I was tired but not hammered. The last hour was almost straight up. The stream crossing was under the long bridge in this photo.
We are in Gubbio tonight, where the wolf and Francis came to an agreement. The full story is here: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Umbria/Perugia/Gubbio/Gubbio/Wolf_Monument.html.
While Francis was staying in Gubbio, a wolf was terrorizing the local people. They asked Francis if he could help. He went to the wolfs lair and the wolf came at him snarling. Francis made the sign of the cross and spoke to the wolf. The wolf sat at his feet as Francis talked with him. Francis promised that the people would feed him every day if he would give up killing people. Francis held out his hand and the wolf held out its paw.
Francis talked to Brother Sun and Sister Moon and called the wolf brother. The wolf is buried under the altar. This story is worth reading and meditating on.
The axe has a story https://www.turismo.pietralunga.it/palio-della-mannaja-the-axe-festival/
Kenton and I decided 30 km with hills would kill is, so we took a taxi 12,km down the trail. It turned out well; the first 12 was in the city or on the edge of a busy road with no shoulder and the part we walked was fabulous. Today we are doing the same, our host is taking us down the trail at the start.
We ate our lunches at a Refugio with an adjacent church. It is a donativo run by volunteers. Quite beautiful and peaceful.
Our lodging was a beautiful agroturismo just out of town. Our host, Lucas, is very nice. He took us to town and picked us up after dinner.
Assisi on Sunday, where josette joins us.
22 kilometers today. Beautiful weather and we walked though farm land and mountains. I am tired. Tomorrow Kenton and I are taking a taxi halfway. Neither of us is up to the full 30 km.
We spent most of the day in mountains, came down to find a place for lunch, then back up again. Citella del Castillo is 40,000 people. We are in the historic downtown. We could see lots of industry nearby from our Mountain View.
We had a beautiful 12 km walk today, ended feeling really good! Of course we did twice as much yesterday, and ended up feeling hammered. It’s sunny and over 80° here. We are staying in a beautiful bed-and-breakfast in this tiny town, with a very helpful host. She is young but was for a time a pro volleyball player.
I had a dream last night about midnight. In it the world was being transformed, and humans were being changed into spiritual beings. But the catch was, you had to be changed in pairs, becoming one. The fortunate people were with their dog when this happened. This may be neither here nor there but if I had taken notes I might have been able to write a book of prophecy (Revelation II?)
We were following the guidance from our various guidebook and phone maps when a guy pulled up next to us in his car and told us the road ahead was closed, that the bridge was completely out, and there was a detour which he pointed out to us. Gayden said that was an angel, and I will not argue with that.
The two restaurants in this tiny village are closed, but our host advised us to go to the bar and ask the grocery next door to fix us supper. It was fabulous!
The local people came to the plaza, it was a happening place. It’s a tiny village and everyone walked.
Poggios are big hills, and in Texas we would call them mountains. The trails constantly take us there. Physically this has been a hard trail. Trail markers are only useful in combination with the gps track from the Cicerone guidebook written by Sandy Brown. Of the many routes possible, we picked his. Yesterday was not as much up: 334 meters (1100 feet) and 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) and took us 7.5 hours. It was hot and we all ran out of water. There were no services available enroute.
There are more pilgrims on the trail now, we are meeting 10 or so daily, most are German and Austrian. We are projecting Assisi on May 15 and Rome on May 28.
robertcdeming 