Today was 11 miles, bringing the total to 158 miles. For the most part, a very green and beautiful stage … if you don’t factor in the traffic.
No traffic in this shot, but more on that, later.
As we left the restaurant last night, we snapped a photo of Radicofani, roughly 7 miles away. 
As a reminder of how far you could go on this walk, here are done choices:
Note that Santiago de Compostela is only about 1000 miles away … 4x the distance we will travel on this trip!
Italy is a cycle loving nation. Everywhere you see cyclists. And the little cafe’s offer incentives for cyclists to stop; like this bike repair station. Very complete!
And, if you’ve ever traveled through California’s foothills, you’ve seen many “Mark Twain slept here” signs. These are a way of self-promoting the town. Well, that works here too! This small town advertises the stay of Galileo, who came here to avoid the plague … for a few months.
OK, caution and council. The guide book suggests that at 7 km remaining, take a bus. Don’t bother to walk because the road is narrow and there is no shoulder. We have walked hundreds of kilometers on narrow country lanes over the course of the last decade, so we know how to take caution while walking these sections. We would certainly take caution on this stretch.
We were 3 km into our walk when a car stopped on the highway and asked ‘why are you walking this way’? That didn’t refer to an Aerosmith song (we’re now fully into the 70s/80s music scene). He was quite familiar with the via Francigena, and the alternative route. He stated that the alternative route is safer and would have been a better route if we read our guide book. We did, but we were concerned about the added 8 km and 1600′ of climbing on that route.
Our approach was to walk on the furthest side of the pavement, facing traffic, and when cars approached we would step off into the weeds on the side. As soon as the cars passed, we would get back on to the roadway. Rinse and repeat.
That is, until one car from behind us decided it was time for him to pass another car in front of him. With us walking facing traffic on the other side of the road, we did not expect to see, and feel, a car going 50 miles an hour pass from behind us about 1 to 2′ off our shoulder. That was not a thrill we were looking for!
From that point forward we would step off into the weeds if we saw a car in front of us or heard a car behind us. We still enjoyed the hike, but we’re a bit more aware then ever before on a highway.
If we have a do over, we would take the alternative route even considering the added 5 miles and 1600′ of climbing.
Looking forward in the guide book, there are no more sections like this. God is good.
Ciao