Today was another 12 miles, with about 500′ of climbing. The most noteworthy thing about today was the absence of road miles. Roughly 90% of today’s journey was on trails, a very pleasant departure from yesterday’s journey of a thousand roads!

In each of our journeys, a key first step is learning how the path is marked. For the most part, the Via Francigena is the best marked trail we’ve been on! You rarely go 100 yards without seeing a trail sign. It almost spoils you! Today we had a stretch of about 3/4th’s of a mile without a sign. Surely, I’m in the wrong path! No, it is just that there wasn’t a convenient place to put a sign.

So, what do they look like? The first thing to note is that “many signs look alike”. There is a Via Francigena for hikers, for bikers, and even for cars. You need to make sure you’re on the right version.

Here’s a bike and walkers sign:

More often, small stickers are used, as:

We have also seen many of these more permanent, tombstone-esque signs:

Pilgrims: Today was the day for meeting  pilgrims.  Most are Italian, though we’ve met a Hungarian woman, an Irish woman (both solo hikers), a British youth,  and two or three Italian couples. So, even in the dog days of summer, people still do this walk.

Now for showers, etc. We hope each of you are doing well.