Via Francigena 2017

In this part of the VF one direction goes to Rome or you can go the other direction, past Pavia, where we started, over west to St. Jean and on to Santiago.

We passed this at the top of a long climb yesterday. Very pretty. Looks like it is full.

Yesterday as we were walking from Pietrasanta to Valpromaro, we sat down on some church steps, out of the sun, to eat our picnic lunch. As we were finishing up, four young men walked by and stopped to chat since they saw we were pilgrims, too.  Two were from Denmark and two from Norway. We have so far seen only three other pilgrims so we were quite happy to see them. They are walking for a week, picking up where they left off last year. They also had done the Assisi pilgrimage together. I asked if I could take their picture. 

We found out we were all planning to stay in the same pilgrim hostello that evening and indeed we did. We all ended up sharing a room with several bunk beds in the nice albergue. The two volunteer hospitaleros cooked a delicious dinner for all of us and then we pilgrims washed the dishes, pots and pans, etc. We really enjoyed talking with the young Scandinavians during dinner and the washing up. Their English was almost perfect. I asked how they spoke English so well and they said they learned it in school and then watched American television programs all their lives. (They had watched Breaking Bad so were familiar with Albuquerque.) We learned a lot about their countries and their lives and we talked some about American and European politics. They liked to kid each other. One of the Norwegians pointed out that the Danish are much more talkative as his chatty Danish friend exemplified. His Danish friend was indeed chatty but we really enjoyed it. (They said the Finns hardly talk at all.) 

They were so nice and funny and interesting. I felt motherly toward them. I told Charlie when we were hiking out today they must be about Logan’s age. I feel good about their generation.

The hospitaleros made us all a good breakfast so we shared another meal this morning. Charlie and I left the albergue a little before the young men. But they caught up with us and passed us on the trail. Then we stopped at a restaurant in Lucca and there they were there! (This is a coincidence because Lucca is a large town.) They were bummed because they had just found out that we were all banned from going into the old town center of Lucca which would have been a highlight of their trip. Would you believe, the G7 countries were holding a summit there. The center of Lucca had been closed since Sunday. All was supposed to be reopened tonight at 6:00. Charlie and I weren’t disappointed for ourselves since we plan to return to Lucca at the end of our trip. But we were disappointed for the boys. They were finishing up their lunch when we arrived. I asked for another photo before they left. (Below.) Charlie and I had our lunch and then found Lucca had reopened the city center already, three hours early. (The main purpose of the summit was to discuss Syria. Charlie said the G7 probably decided it was a hopeless situation and disbanded early.) But, dang it, I think the boys just missed going in.

This did mark the side with a pilgrim symbol but road walking is still not fun.

It is fun to try to get effects with the light.

We have seen a lot of bamboo in the last 3-4 days, large stands of it. Here are three shoots we passed, we saw a previous one in the trail and it looked dangerous until we figured out what it was.

We were walking down a forest trail and passed what seemed to be a small homestead with various animals. This sheep was in a small pen with two others. He was quite interested in us.

The wisteria is in full bloom here. We usually smell it before we see it, a lovely smell. This one is climbing up a tree and has mostly overpowered it. I didn’t know wisteria did that.

This has everything, a VF sign, a shrine, a bench, and a dog toilet. This was while we were walking along a public trail in a town then went along a lovely river.