Day 13: 13 miles hiked and 900′ climbed. We’re now at 149 miles hiked and 19,800′ overall.

This morning we woke before sunrise to see a magnificent moonset into the mountain ridge:

Unlike yesterday, today’s journey was mostly in the valley floor; not the expansive views, but certain beautiful.

The path to us through Bard, a medieval village with an impressive fort

And to an old Roman Bridge, still in use

A brief history of Aosta valley. This valley, leading to the Grand St Bernard pass has been an active thoroughfare for millenia.  Abandoned Roman and medieval outposts litter the hillsides all up and down the valley, as they were used to keep control.

In the late 1790’s, Napoleon led an army of 40,000′ up the Switzerland side and down into the Aosta valley to attack the Piemonte people (We’re in Piemonte, tomorrow! ). It’s kind of amazing to try to envision 40,000′ troops marching through this tight canyon.  Apparently,  Napoleon was successful.

We’ve arrived at our night’s rest, and it has a WASHER! “Well” cleaned laundry is on the menu tonight!  And, this excellent apartment is only 50 meters from the trail. Easy peasy!

Last night’s stay was nice, but … it was remote and 0.30 miles up an exceedingly steep hill. After arriving, we had to think seriously about going back down that hill to get a dinner. We did, and it was well worth it! We ate in a “locals”pizzeria. Great food and really, really nice locals.  Worth it!

Preparation for tomorrow awaits! Take care!

Today was 13 miles and 1,300′ of ascent.  Totals are now 162 miles walked and 21,100′ climbed.

Changes: Today we left the Aosta valley. Within 2 miles of walking, you could barely see the massive granite canyon walls that have been our escort for 60 miles!

A look backward to recall the Aosta was required

The changes are difficult. What can you compare the soul stirring Alps (Grand St Bernard pass)?. Apart from Yosemite Valley,  is there an equal to the Aosta valley?

Now we are in the Piemonte, beautiful in its own way. It’s just not the same …

The Piemonte is characterized by gentle rolling green hills, covered with vineyards and forest.

The vineyards cling to the hillsides, seemingly avoiding any surface that might be flat.

The trail builders worked diligently to also avoid any flat surface, focusing rather on goat paths, where possible. In this photo, a worker is clearing debris from our “goat” path!

We still had to wend our way through the debris, as he was only beginning to chainsaw/ remove the fallen tree.

The Legend of Yanqui: We’ve heard buzzings from the local nippers of a “legend of Yanqui”, a tale of a hapless American hiker who has the sweetest tasting blood ever! For generations, these nippers would tell the tale of their Tuscan forefathers long ago tasting that blood. Perhaps it was in 2019 or so. “Just a legend”, they said!

Well, today Yanqui revisited Italy and the nippers were ecstatic! They feasted like there was no tomorrow! Even Diane, normally a less desired nipper target was donating to their cause! The legend was confirmed!

That is, until we pulled out the 30% DEET and shut down the feasting Pronto! Well, maybe not pronto enough,  but at least we weren’t “drained” completely!

In entering town, we saw yet another sky diving exhibition.

This time, Bill did not lose sight of the trail markers while enjoying the show.

Arrivederci!

No miles. Just too much food (pasta, fish, salad, gelato) and too little activity. Sounds good to us!

Hiking and a full post, tomorrow.

Today was 14 miles hiked and 1,300′ climbed. Totals are now 176 miles walked and 22,500′ climbed!

After a nice rest in Ivrea, our journey began with a nice walk through the Old Town of Ivrea, where several bakeries were doing their best to fill the air with the smell of fresh-baked goods and thereby tempt the undisciplined foreigner to part ways with their money in exchange for their treasures. Because we had a great breakfast at our hotel, we overcame that siren’s call. Bill, however, failed to capture a single photo of the medieval streets … distracted, I guess!

One out of the Olde town, we walked through the Old Town, not quiet as engaging, but a necessary part of our path.

Soon, however, we were in the countryside,

With views of lakes and fields

After the beautiful walk, we plugged in the GPS coordinates for our Viverone Lake Hotel, hoping for a waterfront venue! Rather, the Hotel opted for the panoramic “hilltop” view … put it into climbing gear!

Note the last half- mile climb on the Strava plot, above.

QWERTY: In 1908, Camillo Olivetti started a company to manufacture typewriters. He built the factory in his home town,  Ivrea (our last stopover)

The Olivetti brand soon became the standard of excellence in typewriters, with thousands of Ivreans working in the factory. Alas, industry and manufacturing changes led to shutdowns and the Olivetti factories are now only an Ivrean memory.

Enough for now. Enjoy your day.

Today was 12 miles, with 400′ of climbing, a  relatively straightforward day!  Totals are now 188 miles walked and 22 900′ climbed.

We’re now in the agricultural heartland of Italy, with fields of corn, rice, beans and sunflower everywhere!

And

We did find a good sign indicating distance to some important towns

Only 880 kilometres to Rome?  Maybe we can make it this trip …

Paths:  Why make straight when, with a little imagination, you can add a kilometer or two?  We were walking today on a relatively easy journey, with a highway and train track to cross. The path builders found an overpass that provided an easy way across the highway. One job, done!  Now to get across the train track!

On finishing the walk across the overpass, straight in front (absolutely straight in front), you could see the elevated train tracks and a path underneath. Did I mention that it was straight in front?  The trail builders had other thoughts!  Our walking path is shown here

We crossed the highway on the left. Then zigged, then zagged, then a zigzag or two more, and then we crossed the train tracks to the right. Yes … did I mention that the path under the train track was straight in front of the overpass? Oh well!

Lemons to lemonade:  Recall yesterday’s final march uphill. Bill was struggling a bit as a result of a poor night’s sleep the night before. Net, he just wanted to be there and rest!

On arriving at the end of the hike, there is always the need to do our personal laundry, shower, communicate (blog, etc), and eat!  Bill lacked any ambition to hike down the hill (then back up) to find a meal.

Now, our hotel has its own restaurant. And it was pricy!  Really? In the middle of nowhere, Italy, you think you can ask these high prices? Well, we decided to go with the flow; make lemonade, just to avoid the walk/ climb …

Boy, was that the right choice! The meal started with shrimp in a mint infused,  foamed, mozarella broth.

Holy tastees, Batman! We requested extra bread to sop up every last drop of the broth!

Then, the primi platta

It’s a lobster-stuffed ravioli, in an intense seafood broth!  “More bread,  per favore!”

So, since we’re going for broke … how about dessert?

This is a semifreddo (gelato), laced with raspberries and draped with a hand-made chocolate lattice! Oh, yeah!

So, maybe there’s a reason for the high prices here in nowhere, Italy! (Actually, the prices were about the same as going to a pizza parlor in the States, but we’ve been price-spoiled here!).

Tomorrow is a long one, so time to begin the preparations.

Ciao!

Today was 18 miles and 700′ of climbing. We’re now over 200 miles walked (206) and 23,600′ of climbing. Honestly, we believe the GPS watch was acting up because, apart from 4 overpasses, we can’t think of ANY climbing today!

We don’t have much of a wifi today, so the post will be short. It was a day of endless rice fields

Now, rice is grown with a lot of standing water. Standing water is like a tropical paradise for mosquitoes 🦟… It took about 2 minutes in the first rice field before Bill pulled out the DEET. Then, all was well!

The other feature of today’s walk was the ever-presence of a very tall, snow-capped peak on the Italian/Swiss border.

Asking an Austrian and a French for clues proved to no avail. So, we went to where all answers are found … Google! Checking the map, the Matterhorn perfectly lined up with the direction we were looking. Net we’re calling it the Matterhorn (unless someone corrects us)

Arrivederci!

Today was 12 miles and 400′ of climbing. Totals are now 218 miles walked and 24,000′ climbed.

After the day’s hike, the chores are critical; shower, laundry, provisioning for the next day’s walk, the blog and … finding that really cold drink that satisfies your thirst! For us, it’s an ice cold Diet Coke!

Yesterday, our search for that liquid gold took on a life of its own. We hit 4 stores coming into town before scoring. And in gluttonous fashion, we bought far more than we could consume … the poor, thirst-driven Pilgrims couldn’t stop themselves!

After chores and drinking too much Diet Coke, we searched out dinner. Our host recommended Theatro26, a hip food joint with lots of options,  including Pizza!

Superb!

And

It was good!

Today’s hike began with a walk out of town and a river crossing,

Followed by the now- familiar rice fields

From there, the path began to follow small canals, using trails that were almost undiscernable from the weeds and other growth.

Our Via Francigena app told us that we were exactly where we should be because, otherwise, you’d have no clue! Even the trail signs were far and few between.

Why the difference in trails versus the last week or so?  Well, we’re in a new region. Just like States or Counties in the U.S., everybody does things differently (better/worse roads, signs, etc).

We have now crossed through Valle d’Aoste (from the Swiss border through Aosta valley), through Piemonte, and now we’re in Lombardy!

It appears that Lombardy spends less effort on Via Francigena signs and trail maintenance. Oh well.

Enough for now.  Chores await (and a cold Diet Coke!)

Today was 10 miles and 400′ of climb. Totals are now 228 miles and 24,400′ of climbing.

Last night’s evening preparations included a most necessary Gelato splurge (triple scoop!). We’ll take photos … next time.

All days in Lombardi begin with an obligatory river crossing

And endless rice fields …

Another feature of this section is that about 30% of the trail is on paved Italian backroads.

The challenge is that this is Italy! Drivers will do 50, 60 or more on these narrow backroads! The good news is that they are usually very careful and pull over as much as they can to accommodate us (we also step off the road when they are close to us). If you look carefully at the photo, you’ll see a car coming and already they’ve begun to move over.  Grazie!

Something else we’ve noted is the farming of trees, likely for paper. Very large fields will have 100’s of trees all perfectly spaced and manicured. The photo below  shows some bad news for one field. Note that about 1/2 of the trees are fallen over.

At first, we thought it was man-caused. Maybe that’s how the farmer harvests. However, when we got into town we saw a couple other trees in front yards fallen over in a similar fashion. Our working theory now is that it was a big wind/rain event. We’re glad we weren’t out hiking then!

It’s starting to get warm out here again. We snapped a photo of a few fellow peregrinos enjoying some shade …

Nipper Encore: Dalai Lama was quoted as saying, “if you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito”. Well, last night that adage was proven right! One or two nippers were loose in our room and worked a regular schedule of buzzing our ears. Bill would dive under the sheets until it was too warm … and he didn’t hear them anymore. Moments after coming out, the nippers were back! Yep, “small” can make a difference!

Caio!

Today was 13 miles walked and 400′ climbed. Totals are now 241 miles hiked and 24,800′.

Just one more day …

Okay, food is a big part of ours, and any hikers journey. We have been walking for nearly a week through the Rice Belt of Italy and have yet to have risotto! Also, this area of Lombardi is famous for goose dishes and we haven’t sampled.

Until last night! We found a great restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed a risotto dish (yum),

And goose breast.

Honestly, that goose breast would challenge any tritip for flavor and texture. It was excellent!

Today’s walk started with more fields of wind-damaged trees

When we passed a cornfield with signs of wind damage, it was time to do an internet check.

Well, about 6 weeks ago, a”super cell” passed through the area spawning multiple tornados!  Wow! Again, we’re glad we weren’t here, then!

We are now about 20 miles directly south of Milan. The Milan Airport is about 10 miles north of Milan. Not surprisingly, we were accompanied by a steady stream of planes landing, every couple minutes.

Lunch:  We typically bring our lunch fixings, bread, turkey, and cheese, etc, purchased the night before. Around noon, we’ll look for a shady spot and ideally a bench or table. As we passed through a town, we were searching for that “spot”.

No success, but there was a store along the way, so we stopped for some cold drinks, then found a shady spot near a small building that had a “purified water” dispenser. It was very quiet and shady, so down on the ground we went!

The bread came out, the cheese, the turkey … it was all spread out around us (as we sat on the shaded ground). As soon as everything was spread out, it seemed like HALF THE TOWN came to that little building for water!

There we were, these poor Pilgrims, sitting on the ground, trying to eat a morsel of food. Somewhere between hilarious and embarrassing is what we felt!

It tipped dramatically to hilarious when one of the locals went to his car and brought out a huge roll of paper towels. He gave it to Diane.

After trying to say, “thank you but no thank you” in Italian, we gave in and took a few. We gave the roll back. He then unrolled about 20 sheets of paper towels and gave them to us. Then he tried to give us the whole roll!

Bill, using sign language, explained that we are hiking the Via Francigena and cannot carry them! He finally relented! Those, poor starving Pilgrims…

We wished we had a film of the whole affair. Quiet shade, half the town showing up, then the generosity. Only on a Camino!

Ciao for now!

Today was 16 miles walked and 700′ climbed, for totals of 257 miles walked and 25,500′ climbed.

For the trip, we’ve averaged 12.2 miles per day and about 1,200′ of climbing.  These are probably the lowest averages we’ve had on a Camino, but … so what?  It’s the journey, not the pace!

To see where we’ve been, it’s useful to pull back our map of our travels

Our journey, this year, is the GRAY path.  We have now traveled about 2,300 miles on European trails in the last decade!

There is more remaining. God willing, we still have to connect the “dots” in Italy, as we are still missing a section of our walking, from Pavia (where we are today) to Lucca (where we started in 2019 when we traveled to Rome).

So, speaking of Rome:  We were stopped on our walk (about 4 miles out of Pavia) by a local cyclist. He could see we were Pilgrims by our backpacks, hiking poles, and dust- covered shoes. We’ve clearly been “out”for a while! In broken English, he asked us “are you walking to Rome?” We said,  “no, just Pavia”. He looked bewildered! Pavia is only 4 miles away?  That’s a morning stroll! How could you only be going to Pavia and look so … so trail worn? It was only when we explained that we started in Lausanne,  400 kilometers back, that he smiled widely and accepted us! He called us “Lupos” (wolves, in Italian,  which we believe/ hope is a compliment), then wished us well.

In fact, it is a bit weird not finishing at a memorable finish, like Santiago, or Rome, or even Le Puy (the French consider LePuy to be the “capital” of European caminos). Finishing in Pavia is kind of like stopping in Topeka,  Kansas. It’s a place … but why?

Our journey today was beautiful.

And we were escorted for much of the journey by the Italian armada

Also, we learned our lesson about lunch spots yesterday. So today, we stopped by a beautiful river

We followed that river for about 5 miles, finishing by exiting the river path and into a beautiful ancient college town.

And now we’re here!

Tomorrow, we take the train to Milan, then a plane to Paris … and on to home!

As the late Jimmy Buffett sang, “its been a lovely cruise!”