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4/16 Slideshow
4/16, Easter Sunday, Day 24, San Miniato to Gambassi Terme
4/15, Sat, Day 23, Ponte a Pappiano to San Miniato
4/14, Fri, Day 22, Altopascio to Ponte a Cappiano
4/13, Thu, Day 21, Altopascio
Pascua in Gambassi Terme
We’ve had poor wifi the past few days and haven’t done much blogging. It is overwhelming. There’s so much we could chatter on about. We’ve had two super lovely walking days since my complainy post about the heat and highway walking a few days ago. We’ve started getting up early to be out the door by 6:00 and that’s really helped. It’s exhilarating to be walking in the early dusk. And yesterday we had a rare cloudy day. We weren’t so lucky with what was supposed to be today’s walk. We had planned to break a hard 14 mile stretch into two 7 mile days but it turned out none of the possible places to stay in the middle were available and there were no services. I couldn’t face walking 14 very up and down miles in the hot sun with no food… So we ended up taking a taxi and skipping those 14 miles, and spending the day in Gambassi Terme, a small, utterly charming, off-the-beaten-track village. We had to wait a few hours for our B&B room to become available but just next door is the Bar Centrale and it seems to be a gathering place for the whole community. Good music playing, lots of chairs set up in the shade. Dozens of people around, including a fair number of pilgrims passing through who clearly did not wimp out on that 14 mile walk. We had a wonderful Easter lunch at our B&B/restaurant along with several local families. We’ve been noticing Easter lunch specials advertised in restaurants and were thrilled to get to partake of one. So, buona Pasqua, happy Easter, everyone. (PS, where’s Waldo?)
La Loggia B&B
We really like the little town of Altopascio (we always want to call it “Antipasto”) and love our charming but inexpensive B&B here and the restaurant downstairs so we decided to take a rest day here. Our room is large, but the B&B is small, just three rooms in an apartment in this larger building with an adjoining music school. We hear soft music coming from there through our window. Below is the view from our window.
Alessandro, the young man in photo below owns the B&B. His mother and father, also in the photo, own the restaurant and do the cooking. They are good cooks. Alessandro also teaches music. They are the nicest people. And we aren’t just saying that because Alessandro drove us to the laundry this morning. Here is the website: La Loggia Bed & Breakfast.
