Day 7: Today was only 4 miles, but 1,200′ of climbing. Totals are now 78 miles hiked and 10,600′ climbed.

Today, the weather changed!  Where mid-day highs had been in the upper 90’s for over a week,

today started cool and will just be getting cooler!

The good news is that after Saturday, we’ll be dropping 4 – 6,000′ down into Italy, where it should be about 20 F warmer!

For the last couple days, we’ve had glimpses of the pass, so we’ve got to include yet another for yesterday’s stay in Liddes.

Signs: There’s no way of staying on trail without both good trail markings and a competent guidebook. Switzerland loves hiking, so there are a million trail options, each competing with each other for visibility.

What is most valuable about this is the GREEN “70”, the designation for the Via Francigena trail (ours), and the direction that the arrow points! Typically, there are multiple direction options at the signposts, so following that pointer is very valuable.

The next sign of interest is

This one has the advantage of telling you how long it will take to get to your destination. We’ve  learned to add 50% to their numbers!

Most often, the signs are less informative, but still valuable. They won’t tell you that you’re on the right trail, but at least they let you know  you are on a trail … which can be exceedingly valuable!

And so we get to our day’s destination. The photo, below, is a classic Swiss mountain hotel. Now, we’re not staying there … we’re in the nondescript hotel down the street!

Until tomorrow …