Day: March 31, 2017

In some places we have to walk along busy roads. This is a photo looking back at Medesana. The road was busy with lots of trucks and morning traffic. Here is the other direction.

It was like this for about a mile, then we took a turn off to a new EAVF path. It was 1.5 miles farther and up 300 feet and back down again at the end but worth it. The old trail followed this road for four miles. Here are going up the hill and later meeting some friendly dogs.

A fair amount of the VF is along roads and some parts along busy roads. They are gradually modifying the route to avoid the busier roads. This has been done over the years on the Camino de Santiago also.

It seems Kennedy was popular in Italy. Last year in Portugal and Spain four or five people, on finding out we were from the US, told us how much they liked Obama. Some mentioned what a great democracy they thought the US was. 

On this trip we were in a bar with a guy from Equador who had lived in Italy for 15 years. He liked Obama also. He pointed to his skin and said “chocolate”. I guess people of color all over the world were inspired that Obama was President.

I think you can guess the reaction we are getting about the Orange One. Three different people have expressed their dislike. One guy went into a long discussion about how we should have supported Bernie Sanders.

Did you know we are really Canadian?

We see these in bars and in stores. And lots of smaller ones. Easter will fall towards the end of our hike, about three days from Siena.

It is not unusual to have to ford a stream. In a rainy spring this can be hard. This one was pretty easy, the water was only 2-3 inches deep and we just walked through and counted on the waterproofing. Sometimes you have to remove your boots. That has not happened to us. The 40 km we skipped had some stream fording and that was one reason we skipped it, another reason was the walking on busy roads.

Here we are in the middle of the old track we took on 3/30. No signs, no footprints, overgrown. Without the GPS track we would have given up. Here I am a little later checking the track on my phone.

It was a room with four beds, with sheets, something you don’t often find on the Camino de Santiago. No towels but we carry our own lightweight backpacking towels. Bathroom down the hall. Even radiators to keep it warm. Since we were the only people in the room it was like a private room. In the busy season we would have had to share it.

Every day we get up and walk through the countryside and small towns. It is such a luxury to be able to walk 6-8 miles and never have to walk back. Each day’s walk is different and a surprise. On most days, every few miles there is a bar/cafe with great coffee and sometime fresh-squeezed orange juice.

Today I saw what I thought was a long rope (8 feet or more) across the gravel road we were walking on. I looked closer and realized that it was a line of catterpillers. We have never seen anything like it. 

Yesterday two large deer bounded out of the woods just ahead of us. 

We have seen four storks but no stork nests. Perhaps they continue on to Spain to have their chicks?

The first day out, we saw a little beaver-like animal in the grass. 

We’ve seen some peacocks and chickens. A few horses. Strangely, not a single cow or sheep or goat. (But we’ve smelled lots of manure spread in the fields we pass through. All the out-of-town land seems to be farm land.) 

We’ve seen two or three cats and lots and lots and lots of barking dogs behind fences, mostly in the towns. And today, for the first time, two dogs came out from the fence towards us. We were nervous at first but they turned out to be friendly. 

A very nice man, Oliver, runs the place. He had us sign in, we were 34 and 35 in 2017. He said he had about 1000 in 2016.

No printed menu, before each course he asked us which of two alternatives we wanted. We took one of each so we could try everything. The spinach gnochi was as good as anything we have had so far.

This seems to be the only business in Costamezzana, a really small place. They made us hard-boiled eggs to take and eat on the walk the next morning. Here is the outside:

Walking into Costamezzana.