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!

Today was 14 miles and 1,600′ of climbing. Totals are 95 miles hiked and 3,600′ climbed.

There are no photos today. 4 days ago, Bill used his phone to capture our hiking in the rain. The phone is still not happy. As such, the phone/camera remained in a plastic bag, out of the rain!

Rain? Here was the morning forecast.

We can testify that the day lived up to and exceeded the forecast! It rained a lot!

A qualifier about this rain. Yes, it rained a lot. But it was also serenely beautiful. Really. We were quite content with the walk … but we don’t wish to do it more than once or twice a decade!

Mud:  All this rain onto old farm roads made massive amounts of mud! At times, our shoes were several pounds heavier carrying that excess mud weight! By the time we arrived at our stay for the night, most of it had washed off. The host kindly took our shoes and washed them. They are now sitting in front of a fireplace, drying!

Fog: When not pouring, the moisture settled in as fog, sometimes rather thick. As a good deal of today’s path was through rolling farmland and old tractor paths (with no regular method of trail marking), it was easy to get lost in the thick fog. Really, we needed to stay close enough to each other not to get lost from one another.

We used the Francigena trail app to track where we were versus the proper trail in order to stay on course.

The red DOT represents where we are, and the red line indicates where the proper trail was. Without using this , it would have been easy to get lost!

Flooding: Okay, with all this rain, you’d kind of expect some flooding, right?  Well, we were within about 4 miles of the finish today and we’re thinking we were doing pretty well. Until we turned a corner on the trail and found a full-on raging stream crossing the trail. There was no possible way to safely ford that torrent!

We turned around and got back on a paved road that kind of went parallel to the path and walked on that. Eventually we found a bridge that crossed the stream and piecemealed a path back to our trail. All’s well that end’s well!

We arrived to a most gracious welcome here! And also, a very warm fireplace! Yes, sir.

All for now!

Today was 14 miles and 300′ is climbing. The totals are now 81 miles hiked and 2000′ climbed. This was the last full day of flat, agricultural lands and tomorrow we begin to enter the hills.

We’re averaging almost 12 miles per day, with a 12 – 20 lb. pack on the back, day after day.  Fueling (eating) is vital to keep the army marching forward! Or, so said Napoleon (who conquered much of Italy).  So, we are forced to find appropriate sources of nourishment. Last night’s stay (Hotel Mathis) boasted a Michelin rated restaurant! That could work, right? Unfortunately, the restaurant closes on Sundays (last night would be Sunday 😟).

We were forced to discover other options. We did okay.

(Bill’s pizza!)

This morning, we were able to dine in the nice restaurant … but it was only buffet style. No fancy, but tasty!

Once fueled and on our way, it was a delightful hike!

And all along the way, there was very helpful signage!

And also, very friendly locals!

(An agrarheute, a relative of the beaver).

10 miles into it, our energy was flagging. Fortunately, we met a Swiss couple, walking our direction!

(Andrea and Claudio).

They provided us with fascinating discussions of hiking trails, food, and life in Switzerland. In almost almost no time, four more miles passed and we were in Fidenza! Thank you, Claudio and Andrea! Buon jornatta!

Finally, a phone update:  The wireless charger was magic! Bill is back up and using the phone for navigation, photography, and blogging!

Ciao!

Today was 10 miles and 300′ of climbing. Totals are 67 miles walked and 1700′ of climbing.

Last night, we stayed at a beautiful Agriturismo, El Capitolo.

The hostess was a remarkable chef, so dinner was amazing, and the host, her husband, was a native Italian who lived in San Francisco for several years!

While wonderful, it was also a couple miles off the Via Francigena. Therefore, the first detour was to get back on the Via Francigena. Our alternate path did allow us to pass through some very nice farmland

, with a constant view of the Appinnines … our future hiking target!

Once on the Via Francigena, we followed the signage to a well-noted stream crossing. The guidebook tells you not to pass if there has been recent rain. Well, it’s been raining recently!  When we got to the stream, it was mud and knee-deep. No can do.

Detour #2 was walking a couple extra kilometers out to the busy highway of yesterday to find an alternate crossing.

Now, Detour #3 requires some background. 3 days ago, we had a major downpour, In taking photos of our adventures, Bill’s phone got very wet! It is supposed to be waterproof. Nonetheless, every time Bill attempted to charge it, the phone said, “Danger danger, water detected in charging port”. Not a really happy thing.

Every so often it wouldn’t say that warning and Bill was able to charge. Not so, yesterday. We tried:  air drying, blow drying, charging with the phone turned off, buried in uncooked rice … nothing was working.

Well, what about wireless charging? No “charging port” involved. Hmm. Only problem? Where in the world can we find a wireless charger? No Amazon deliveries here! And no car to drive around to find an electronics store.

Well, blessings do happen. Not far from our stream detour, was a hypermarket (think Walmart superstore). They might have one!

We “googled” a walking path to that store, then entered with guarded hope. The clerk spoke no English, but with Google and Bill’s limited Italian, we finally found …

In Bill’s right hand is the much hoped-for wireless charger. And so ends Detour #3!

Now, the double blessing is that, the detour to the hypermarket actually shortened our route to Fiorenzuola! Nice!

We’re now in our room and the charger has been successfully charging Bill’s phone now for an hour. Yippee!

All for now, Ciao.

Today was 14 miles, for a total of 57 miles walked and 1400′ of climbing. The climbing is coming. We are in view of the Appinnes off in the distance!

We left Piacenza, a large city in Emilia-Romagna, and quickly found ourselves on a well-trafficed highway. Not fun!

Our stop for the night was well off the Via Francigena trail, so getting there either involved following that highway for another 4 miles, or staying on the Via Francigena and diverting later on small country roads, but at the cost of a few extra miles walking. Easy choice! We stayed on the Via Francigena, and enjoyed the country miles, before arriving.

Today’s post is short.. Bill’s phone continues to be having difficulty charging. Life on the trail …