Today was 13 miles and 600′ of climbing. The totals for this journey are 218 miles walked and 18,600′ climbed.

When we connect 6 of our 7 caminos together, we get a continuous hike from the west coast of Spain to Rome, a distance of roughly 2,000 miles.

Today was another rainy day, but the hiking surfaces were good.  Much of the walk was on asphalt, but very much back country traveling.

With the rain and it being a Saturday morning, it was very quiet for much of the journey.

We have very poor internet at our current stay, so we will add more details when we are in Rome, tomorrow afternoon.

We are tired, but exhilarated!

More, later.

Today was 9 miles and 1,100′ climbing. The totals are 205 miles walked and 18,000′ climbed!

The story of the day was rain!

Yesterday, the weather channel predicted lots of rain from yesterday afternoon until midnight, then clearing for today.

Well, it absolutely dumped yesterday evening! Rain, wind, thunder and lightning! We were going to go out to dinner but it was raining so hard that we canned that plan. Rather, Bill ran between raindrops to the local pizzeria (there are lots of local pizzerias) and picked up two pizzas, to go. Then a mad dash home and that was dinner!

This morning was supposed to be that “clearing”, not raining time. Well, we had maybe 30 minutes of clear, then it dumped! Some thunder, but no lightning or wind. But rain, rain and more rain!

And that rain kept dumping for 3 more hours. 3 cheers for the quality ponchos we wore!

As it started to clear, we saw this rainbow!

If you look closely at the right side of the lower rainbow, you may be able to see it “landing” in the park! I can’t recall ever seeing the ‘end’ of a rainbow 🌈  .

The approach to our stay for tonight was steep; we climbed about 500′ in less than a 1/2 mile.  But it did afford us a great view. Actually, there is a peekaboo view of the sea!

And also, some nice panaramas.

We are now working on chores for tomorrow’s hike. Tomorrow will be our last day on this journey, and the last segment before we complete the hiking transit from the West Coast of Spain, through Spain, France, Switzerland and Italy, ending in Rome!

It’ll be kind of a big deal for us. Maybe we’ll have pizza to celebrate?!

Ciao for now.

Today was 19 miles hiked and 1,800′ climbed. The totals are now 196 miles hiked and 16,900′ climbed.

Today was a long one and a wet one!  The phone that we use for app-based directions was kept in a zip lock bag most of the day. It only occasionally came out for photos, when the weather allowed … with one exception.

Over two weeks ago, we hiked through the first serious downpour. At the worst of the rainfall, we got stuck behind a railroad crossing, in the middle of nowhere! We stood in the downpour for probably 5 minutes, getting drenched, and the train a long time in coming.  Strange.

Today, as a reprise to that moment, we started our walk on the rain … and got stopped by another “long time coming” train, while it was raining! A herald of what was to come that day?

Once out of town and in the local hills, we finally had “the view”! We could now see the Tyrrenian Sea! Beautiful!

We stayed in the hills for the majority of the hike, with awesome views

Also, we had some of the best trail surfaces we’ve seen during the whole of this trip!  Nice!

We finally (!) arrived, found our place, unpacked, found a grocery store, then started the clean up process.

A standard practice is to look up the next day’s lodging, then locate it on Google maps … so we have a sense of how far off the formal trail it is.

On locating Friday’s lodging, Google kept showing us a village outside of Turin, Italy … about 150 miles away!  We checked, double checked, cross referenced, etc, and Google was right. There were two villages of the same name; one was 9 miles ahead of us, and t the other was 150 miles away! Our reservation was in the wrong version of that village!

We had until midnight to cancel the incorrect version without charge. Done.  Now we needed to find another ones in the correct village.

We’re still working it out as of Thursday morning, but we have options. Lucca (the final destination) is about 25 miles away.  We can find a place there.  We could walk on Friday until we’re “done”, then catch a bus to Lucca. On Saturday, we’d reverse the process and finish the hike into Lucca. There are very few lodgings where we’d like to stop and we’re checking them out also.

This morning will be all about finding a place.

In other news, after almost two weeks of “water in phone” problems, Bill’s phone is back to charging with the cable. The wireless charger did work, but it was very sensitive to how the phone was placed on it, etc. Happy days!

Today is an off day for us, and we definitely have chores to do!

Ciao

Today was 11 miles and 600′ of climbing. Totals are now 177 miles hiked and 15,100′ climbed.  Overall, a nice day for hiking!

After yesterday’s non-start, we wanted to be sure we were properly fueled for our journey ahead. So, after a delicious seafood pasta dinner, we found a nice gelateria, solely for the purpose of carbo-loading for today!

Carbo-loading never was so much fun!

Knowing today was only 10-12 miles, mostly flat, we got out a little after 9:00 am. As it is every day, the morning was beautiful!

And the trail surfaces we much improved.

Our path brought us to within a mile of the coastline, where an ancient Roman port city, Luni, used to be located. All that remains are some ruins, like this old amphitheater

Before falling into ruins, this amphitheater held 9,000 people, enough for when the Golden State Warriors were in town!

A we approached the town where we are staying tonight, we noticed that the mountains looked like snow! It’s not actually snow, but rather Carrara marble, which has been mined here for millennia (Roman times).

In Avenza, where we are staying, all the main street sidewalks are made of marble! Wow!

Ciao for now!

Today was about 1 mile and 100′ of climbing (more, later). Totals are 166 miles walked and 14,500′ climbed.

So, what’s the story today?

We took the train between towns! We’re quite confident that Segeric would have done the same during his famous walk of 990 AD; had the train been available. For 2.80 € apiece, it was for us!

In only 25 minutes, we traveled the 10 or so miles and arrived in Sarzana, hardly breaking a sweat!

A quite lovely medieval village!

What’s fascinating is that Sarzana is only 10 miles away from where we started this Italian trip, in Riomaggiore, along the Cinque Terre!

So, what happened? Several factors play into the decision to take a train today.

The first was, we were getting tired!  The last few days were pretty tough. We probably should have scheduled an off day before this stage.

Secondly, today’s route looked straightforward … until you looked at the details. It’s only 12 miles long and net loses 200′ of elevation. There are no major mountain passes in the middle, so it should be fairly easy. No..

The stage includes almost 3,000′ of ascent and 3,200′ of descent. All in only 12 miles. Constant up and down.

Thirdly, the trail conditions are not good. In a previous post, I talked about the trail conditions; eroded, steep, slippery rocks, and mud.

Fourth, it was projected to rain. Water flow on these eroded trails adds to the difficulty.

Finally,  Bill somehow managed to piss off a bee, who returned the favor but stinging him on his ear!  That happened on Saturday and has been spreading more each day. A day off to recover, ice, take meds, seemed good.

And all this serves to illustrate. Mark Twain’s (?) quote: “it’s a poor mind that can’t figure several reasons to do what they already intended to do, anyways!”

We’re enjoying the rest day. Ciao!

Today was 10 miles and 1,100′ of climbing.  Totals are 165 miles and 14,400′ climbed. Also another 1,400′ of descent.

We figured for an easier day today with only about 10 miles to walk and no major climb or descent. As such, we started later than normal.

Within a half a mile, we were joined by a few friends, and a few more

And more and …

Apparently, the race (remember yesterday’s blog? ) also included a community trail walk in which 100’s of people signed up for! It just happened to be going our way, so we joined along!  We started talking to folks and just fell right in! That is, except for the backpacks, and the clothes, and our language limitations. But hey, it was fun. After about a mile, the hoards went one way and we went another. Arrivederci!

We thought we’d make good time today as we weren’t doing major ups/downs, but we weren’t that lucky.

In this part of Italy, there are two factors that conspire against us doing good pacing.

The first is stone. We are now only about 20 miles away from Carrera, Italy. Besides Porsches, Carrera is a very famous brand of marble. There is stone, granite, and marble everywhere!  So, building a trail through the lush shrubbery is tough! Only a few inches below is probably stone.

Now, the second problem around here is rain. It rains a lot, and it rains hard! The result is that, everywhere the trail goes up or down, it is likely washed/ eroded out. And to prevent further erosion, the trail management will pour broken rocks over it!  The result is very unsteady footing and is usually worse on the steps slopes.

Hard to see, but this is about 15-18% pitch.

Now, when the trail isn’t going up or down (it’s level), all the water and dirt washes down to the flat section, creating mud

and pools.

We’re adapting. We now realize that even on these flat-ish stages, we’re only going to be able to walk 2 to 2.25 miles an hour. Okay, it’ll take longer, but we’ll still get there!

Ciao!

Today was 16 miles and 1,700′ of ascent. Totals are 154 miles walked and 13,300′ climbed.

Like yesterday, an important part of the story was the descent, with 2,700′ of decent. And like yesterday, much of the descent was on challenging trail surface.

We stayed last night in a Donativo; much like a hostel that also includes dinner and breakfast, but had no fixed price. You pay what you can afford.

The facility, Casa Temperance,  was nice, but the host was wonderful! There were 3 other seasoned hostel dwellers who helped us navigate how it all works and what we should pay. Again, it was a very nice stay!

Casa Temperance in the background!

As a result of the recent rains, all the creeks, streams, rivers, etc were flowing!

(Beautiful river flow)

The sun was breaking over the mountains

And the the morning fog was still filling in the valley, below.

We walked through several villages that were hundreds, if not thousands, of years old.

All day long, we saw mountain bikers with race numbers on their bikes; a lot of them! As we were approaching the village where we are staying tonight, we heard “eye of the tiger” and lots of Italian “race” chatter on loudspeakers! As we turned the corner to our stay, the entire street was a Finish Line!

That’s quite the nice greeting for us Pilgrims, eh?

Well, it was a long day. Our third in a row!  We’ve now done almost 50 miles, climbed 8,000′ and descended the same in just 3 days. We’re a bit beat. The shower will feel good tonight!

Ciao

Today was 18 miles, with 2,700′ of ascent. Totals are: 138 miles walked and 10,600′ of climbing.

The real story today was the descent at over 3,300′. The grade varied between about 6% and 30%, on a broken slate, rock crumble trail. Footing was challenging, so the pace was barely over a mile per hour in places.

We spent almost 9 hours on the trail today. Well, 8, plus a nice lunch break! As a result, we arrived pretty late at our modest over-night stay.

Okay, complaints are over. It really was an extraordinarily beautiful segment!

There is so much more to show, but we’re out of time! We have chores to do and get ready for tomorrow’s 17 miler.

Ciao!

Today was 14 miles and 3,400′ of climbing. Totals are 120 miles walked and 7,800′ climbed.

In cycling multi-day races, there’s always one day that is picked out as the most challenging. It’s usually because it has the most climbing or the most miles. Today wasn’t the longest, but it was the stage with the most climbing! And when the climbing came, it was often very steep!

(Tomorrow will also be challenging. Longer stage, slightly less climbing, but a very long descent at the end of the day)

But it was also a beautiful stage! It started with a rainbow.

Then valley splendor.

And mountain vistas

And forest hiking

It really was amazing!

We also learned, both from locals and our own observations that, when it rains, it doesn’t mess around!  We passed this bridge that “used to” cross a gentle stream … until it rained hard!

Not so good!

Remember that muddy path from yesterday?

Okay, last night there was another couple that stayed at the B&B that we stayed in, Jeremy and Cris. Well, they came to that muddy spot and figured, why not? They took off their boots and marched through the mud, then the stream (which washed off much of the mud), put their boots on and continued along their merry way! No problem!  To each, their own.

When we talked about it with them, they said, they encounter those mud/flood obstacles with some frequency in Australia (where they’re from), and that’s the way they deal with them.

That works!

We are now at our rest for the night. The owner said that she’d wash all our clothes for 8€! That’s an easy choice!  We’re now running around in scraps of clothes, because everything else is being washed. What a treat!

Ciao for now!

Today was 10 miles and 1,000′ of climbing. Totals are 105 miles hiked and 4,400′ of climbing.

Sometimes, you score! After hours of hiking in the rain, we arrived at our stay last night to a beautiful fireplace and equally warm hosts!

This morning, they topped even that! The breakfast spread could have fed an army, but was only for our army of two!

Well fed, we were off in the day’s hike. The weather was more accommodating than yesterday, so we were able to enjoy the views and bit more.

After a while, the path descended towards the river. The intent was to follow the river for several miles and avoid a busy road that also follows the river.

As we went approached the river we saw a sign which said, “in case of flooding, go this way”. Okay, nice to know.

We continued along our primary path until we encountered a stream crossing.

Bill quickly found out that you couldn’t even approach the stone crossing without sinking 6+” into the mud. No thank you. And beyond the stone crossing was 10′ of open stream. No can do!

Well, the was the flooding detour. We can do that! So we back tracked and headed out on the alternative. 3/4ths off a mile later, we encountered a closed underpass. Now, there were 2′ x 2′ blocks all through the underpass to provide a way. Once again, though, the blocks ended 15′ before the flooding ended and the water was at least 18″ deep. Nope!

Option 3: go back out to the busy road. It was busy! Lots of traffic, going fast and barely a shoulder to walk on. It was possibly the most challenging section of road we’ve done!  But all things must pass, and we did.

We then crossed the mighty Taro river

And now we’re at our rest stop, showering and getting ready for tomorrow’s big climbing!

Languages: Okay, Google translate is really pretty good. If you need functional help (where’s the bathroom, who are you, can I see the menu), it’s really great. However, if you want to really talk to someone, it takes to much time and is awkward to use (says me …). We’ve found that some language skills really help break the ice with other human beings (versus transactional beings). Over 1/2 our stays have been with hosts that speak English. That’s easy. About a 1/4 are with hosts that only speak Italian. We’ve been working for a couple years on Italian and, while we stumble a lot, we have some good conversations!

Interestingly, about a quarter of our hosts/ restaurants spoke Italian and either French or Spanish but not English. That gave us a lot more options to find ways of communicating. And it’s been fun!

So, the editorial is; since our years are going to pass, anyways, why not try to learn a language a little bit each day? Who knows? It may open up some very interesting doors/ conversations later in your life.

Auf wiedersehen!