Today was 13 miles (plus a 3 mile boat ride) and 400′ of climbing. Totals are 43 miles walked and 1100′ climbed.

Yesterday, during the downpour, water got into Bill’s charging port. On trying to charge the phone last night, the phone was not happy. Some time and dessicant later, it was back up and running. This afternoon, it is complaining again. More time and more dessicant and hopefully it will stay happy.

The start of today.

Today’s stage crosses the Po river,  the boundary between the Lombardia region of Italy and the Emilia/Romagna region. This crossing was a significant challenge for Archbishop Sederic in 990, and continues to be an important event for modern Pilgrims.

For the last 30 years, a boatman, Danilo, had provided a boat passage for many of the Pilgrims.

The journey lasts for about 3 miles, downstream on the Po.

Once on the far shore, you must go to Danilo’s home to get your credential stamped and your “vitals” entered into his book of records.

He now has 5 volumes of his book of records

These books contain the story of every passenger he ferried across the Po for more than 30 years. This was a must-see event!

After the river crossing, another 10 miles of farms and towns and cities remained. We are now in our B&B, cleaning up and preparing for tomorrow’s journey … and hoping the phone dries out! Enough for now!

Today was 8 miles and 200′ of climbing. Totals are 30 miles and 700′.

We knew it was going to rain. And it did! We started out dressed for moderate rainy weather.

Regular hiking clothes and a poncho. Then we stepped outside!  The wind was blowing, the rain pouring and we weren’t making the right fashion statement.

Within a mile, we were looking for some sort of dry spot to do a wardrobe swap! We found a bus stop and began adding layers; sweaters, rain pants, balaclava, gloves, etc. In short order, we were back on the road, warmer and drier!

Just to make sure we appreciated the rain, a train crossing closed in front of us during probably the most intense part of the downpour. And we waited, and waited. The train finally came and we went.

We are now in a very nice hostel in Orio Litta. We have met 2 Swedes (Elizabeth and Falke) and a Dutch woman, Marion. They are great company in this walk.

Everything we own is now on racks, drying. Such is the life …

Ciao!

Today was 15 miles and 300′ of climbing.  Overall, we’re at 22 miles and 600′ of climbing. Not a lot, yet, but the climbs are coming!

A beautiful rainy/misty day!

The first, most important, thing about today is … Diane was way  better today! No unplanned gastric events for her today!  What a gift!

The Hunter: So, we’re walking along in the back woods, enjoying the serenity when we noticed that we’re not alone! A man is walking nearby. In looking more carefully, we see that he has a rifle; a hunter!

We decided that we should probably make a bit of noise so that we’re not mistaken as pheasants! Shortly afterward, we heard the gun shots. Fortunately, not our direction!

The Hunted: about 3 miles into today’s walk we spotted several of these signs:

If you zoom into the sign, there is an English section, but the gist of it is: “Caution, wolves have been spotted in this area. Be very careful!” Well, that made for an entertaining add to our walk!

Okay, so we finally arrived at our night’s lodging. We found it online yesterday after our prior booking went out of business! Well, this place was a surprise! A combo gas station and hotel!

Can you beat that? Tomorrow, we will be staying at a hostel which is regarded as the nicest on the whole of the Via Francigena! We’ll see. It has some stiff competition from tonight’s hotel-cum-gas station!

Ciao!

Today was 7 miles and 200′ of climbing.  An easier start than most Caminos.

So, today’s challenge was 3-fold; the first and most significant was, Diane came down with food poisoning the night before we left Riomaggiore. Ouch!  She managed to muster enough energy to walk to the train, and (more of less) survived the 3 hour ride to Pavia.

Fortunately, our B&B was only a 5 minute walk from the train station. And our hosts, Avital and Rafael, were amazing!

There was a pharmacy across the street which provided the necessary treatments and Diane climbed into bed for the needed rest.

This morning, she felt much better!  Not “best”, though. She now has all the necessary background information to write a guidebook on “The Restrooms of Pavia”.

Fortunately, today was short, and we’re here!

Minerva, the Patron Saint of Medicine

The second challenge we faced was our reservations. We were having trouble confirming our reservation for tomorrow night (10/2). While we had contacted them several times to reserve and confirm over the last year, we typically confirm within a week of our arrival. No answer! Finally, our host at last night’s B&B called the restaurant connected with the hotel. The hotel went out of business! Ouch! Given Diane’s state of health, we couldn’t walk further to find a place, and nothing was showing up, closer! We finally solved the problem this afternoon with the help of our new hostess, Maria. We have a place about the same distance as planned. All Diane needs to do is make it!

The 3rd challenge is weather. Seems this is the rainy season and Thursday (2 days from now)  … it’s gonna rain!

Note the word “severe” in that warning ⚠️! But as a great sailor and dear friend of ours once said, “the best weather report is just to look out your window”! So Thursday, we’ll “just look out our window”!

Take care, friends.

Today’s walk was 10 miles and 2,800′ of non-Camino walking.

We left our home base in Riomaggiore before 9 am, headed by train to the northern-most of the 5 villages,  Monterosso.

After locating the trailhead, we were off! And up and down and up … always with great views!

Soon, village #2 was in sight, Vernazza!

A diet coke, a cornetto, and a rest stop, and we were in our way to Corniglia, village #3.

At this point, our “dogs” were aching, so we quickly got back on the trail to village #4, Manorola.

We were there yesterday, so we knew we were close to home!

Now, there are two roads from Manorola to Riomaggiore, the high road and the low road. We took the high road yesterday and it was the most difficult section of trail we have seen here! Our “dogs” said,  No!

The low road is the very recently reopened Via Dell’amore path, cut through the sheer cliffs by the sea. Very beautiful, very level and very short. Yep, that sounds just right!

The only challenge was, you need a special permit to travel on it. We had one! Unfortunately, the group of 30 or so in front of us did not have one! And they were vigorously arguing with the trail attendant (in Italian). Finally,  Diane raised her cell phone showing that permit towards the guard who saw the permit and said,  “Si! Si!” She called us forward, showed our phone to the arguing Italians and let us through. Yeah! Now we were less than one level mile from home!

Soon, we were back in Riomaggiore! We’re very content, but ready for the shower and dinner that wil revive us!

Ciao!

Today was 5 miles and 1,300′ of climbing, which will not count as Camino walking.

There is a reason Cinque Terre is so popular; it’s beautiful! And, before 10 am, it’s not crowded at all.

By 10 am, that changed!

Literally, thousands of (us) tourists descended on these five villages! In places, it felt like you were in a New York train station! Still beautiful, just crowded.

After lunch in Manarola, we opted for the high trail (steep, less crowded) path back to Riomaggiore.

And, finally, we were back to our home base.

A nice walk to start our stay here!

We have arrived!

For 4 days, we are not traveling, just being tourists! Time to unwind the 3 days of travel. We have arrived in Cinque Terre!

We have a place right on the little harbor of Riomaggiore. Not to bad!

Getting here posed some of the usual challenges, 2 metro trains and 2 regional trains.

(The assorted tickets required)

We considered ourselves Milan metro experts based on our learnings the night before! So, this morning we purchased our tickets like pros and climbed aboard! On exiting through the metro turnstiles, Bill managed to get the handle of our luggage bag skewered by the turnstile crossbar, which has now returned to the closed/ locked position. “That’s a fine mess you’ve got us in, Stanley!” Fortunately, another metro rider exited, which released our bag! Thank you!

On to the Stazione Centrale Milano. It is an extraordinary work of architecture. The only photo we took was of the interior platform area.

And so, to Riomaggiore! While the weather isn’t ideal (on the verge of raining), the views are amazing!

We’ll get by …

Now, to find a local store for some snacks and check out restaurant choices for dinner!

Ciao, for now!

Planes and trains, hotels and metros …

Getting started on this Camino is a Camino unto itself!

Monday:  Left home to Oak aiport and flight to LAX.

Tuesday: Flight from LAX to Madrid.

Wednesday:  Arrive in Madrid, connecting flight to Milan,  arriving late in the evening. Note that this is as close as we’re going to get to sightseeing in Milan … a photo of the Duomo that’s in our hotel room! No touristing tonight!

Thursday:  Early morning, catch the metro to Milan Central, then the train to Riomaggiore (Cinqueterre), our home for 4 nights! Yippee!

Monday: Train to Pavia.

Tuesday:  We start walking!

10 years ago, the adventure began. Diane proposed we do this “walk” across Spain, the Camino Frances. 500 miles?  Sure, why not!

We had an amazing time and looked for the next one. Well, Spain is littered with these beautiful walks, so in 2016 we opted for the Camino del Norte, plus the Camino Finnesterre, for 600 more miles! Yes, beautiful!

We hadn’t exhausted our interest, so … There’s a Chemin de St Jacques that crosses half of France and leads to the beginning of the Camino Frances. In 2018, we walked that for 450 miles.

2019 brought a change. Friends had told us about a Via Francigena walk that goes from England southward to Rome. The final 250 miles (Lucca to Rome) sounded interesting, so we were off to Italy.

Then, the pandemic. Nothing to do but dream of what’s next. As Bill and Diane looked at the map of Europe, we saw that we were closing in on a “continental crossing”, from the Atlantic Ocean (west coat of Spain) to Rome! All we had to do is fill in the blanks!

2022 the pandemic abated and we were off again! We chose to finish crossing France (Geneva to Le Puy, France). That stretch would give us crossings of all of France, and 2 complete crossings of Spain. 300 miles of French hiking later, we had France “crossed”.

2023 took us to Geneva, with the intent to walk around the lake (of that name) and head south over the Alps to Italy. Another 300 miles and we were in Pavia, Italy!

So, that brings us to Pavia, Italy to fill in the the last “gap”. We are now traveling to Pavia, to make the walk to Lucca, our 2019 starting place.

What’s it all look like? See the map below (click on it to expand the view).

All we have to do now, is do that walk. Things have a way of not being as simple 🙃 as you think.

We’ll see.

And here we are with the first step, getting to the airport. Thanks to our daughter, Stephanie, we arrived safe and sound!

Arrivederci e benvenuti in Italia (well, almost)!