Author: cpcrowley

There are churchs all over Italy and we have passed many along the VF. This was along a street in a small town. Here is the inside.

If you have walked the Camino you know they have frequent public fountains for pilgrims to get water for the trail. The VF also has fountains although not quite as many in the parts we have walked.

As you can see it is possible to follow the VF in a car. Here the paths diverge where there is no road along the path. There is a third similar kind of sign with marks the bicycle path.

By tradition the hospitaleri (hostel managers) make the dinner and the pilgrims clean up. With six of us it was overkill but we chatted the whole time and made the process quite pleasant. 

Wynette is not shown because she was taking the photos but did more than her share.

You can see it is crowded but we were sharing the room with four charming and courteous young men from Denmark and Norway and so it was a pleasant night. The hostel also had a large public area with couchs and an outside area so the rest of the hostel made up for the small bedroom.

We made the most of our space. Hostels are great experiences but you do lack personal space. It is nice to have a bunk for the two of you. Charlie had the upper and only had to get down quietly once during the night.

This map of Valpromaro was in the hostel there. Just a little place in a curve in the road, two bars though.

This graphic was on the wall in our hostel last night. It shows the common places to stay along the VF with the distances between them shown with figures and the elevations shown graphically. Below it gives information about a hostel in each place. I think it is a pleasing graphic.

Edward Tufte is known for several books on the design of charts and coined the fun term “chart-junk” which this is not, in my opinion. I recommend all his books, facinating reading.

I am fascinated with the signage variation on the VF. It has so many different markers. This was the first time we have seen this one, maybe a one-off someone made. It was in front of the hostel we stayed in last night. I liked the pilgrim graphic a lot.

In Tuscany we are seeing Via Francigena trail markers like this one, little white tombstones. The Camino has similar markers although they are bigger and more post-like. Anyway, on the Camino pilgrims carry stones for people in their thoughts and place them on the markers. This was the first time we have seen this on the VF. The rounded tops don’t allow for many stones. This one had a cross beside it, the first time we have seen that. I’m not sure what it is meant to signify but it is clearly a handy place for stones.