In mid March Nancy and I went to Italy to hike part of the Francigena Way. The Francigena Way is an old pilgrimage route from Canterbury in England to Rome in Italy. That’s a long way but we just did the last 100 miles from Orvieto to Rome. Before starting the hike we spent a couple of days in Venice. This worked out well as it was a relatively inexpensive RyanAir flight from East Midlands airport in the UK (just 45 mins from my mother’s home) to Venice. Of course RyanAir drop you in Treviso which is not quite Venice but that’s OK both the price and the timing were good.
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| Venice |
We stayed at the Hotel Metropolitan which sits by the water just a few blocks from St Mark’s Square. It doesn’t look great from the outside but on the inside it is a wonderfully luxurious place. One of those off-season deals from Hotels.com that was a real steal.
I hadn’t been to Venice since I was 20 so it was nice to be back. Not too much has changed in 45 years, it has all become much better preserved. What a wonderful old city kept alive by tourism.
That night at dinner we talk with a Belgian couple at the next table. The conversation turns to Brexit and President Trump. We agree Brexit is bad but that the EU has considerable problems. Their impression of Trump - he’s a clown.
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| Venice - view from the Academy Bridge |
In the afternoon I headed over to the St Mark’s and the Doge’s Palace by myself as Nancy had been there the year before. A truly remarkable square with truly remarkable buildings, works of art in themselves. Surprisingly they cathedral and the palace were not too crowded. I guess early April is a good time to visit - nice weather and modest crowds. There was an exhibit of Hieronymus Bosch paintings at the Doge’s Palace. Only about 6 paintings and not too remarkable ones either. Apparently he became renowned down south in Venice before he became famous in his home in the Netherlands.
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| St Mark's Venice |
That night at dinner, the waiter refuses to give me Parmesan cheese for my seafood pasta - “no sir, that would not be good”. Nice to have a waiter who knows what’s best for his clients.
We spent two nights at the Metropole and then on the Thursday morning we set off for the train station and the train to Orvieto. It was a high speed train from Venice to Florence where we switched to a slower local train to Orvieto. The high speed train was wonderful - very modern, very clean, very, very fast (of the order of 200 km/hr at times). A real treat for an Amtrak traveler. What was also surprising was the amount of track that was in a tunnel - from Bologna to Florence is 78 km of which 74 km is in tunnels.
The train arrived in Orvieto around 3:00 in the afternoon and we took the funicular up the hill to the old town. The ticket also included the bus ride from the funicular to the main square by the duomo. And what a duomo - the most magnificent cathedral you can imagine just sitting there in the square - the front facade all gilded mosaics, sculptures and carvings, the sides and back alternating layers of black and white stone.
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| The Duomo in Orvieto |
The next day was the start of our hike. We breakfasted in the coffee shop next to the hotel and set off on the route. The trail guide lead us down the hill out of town and eventually out of the urban area up a road into a oak woods and lanes through small farms. We got in the way of some sheep being moved down the lane and caused the shepherds a bit of trouble getting them back into the right field. They had beautiful white sheep dogs that we later saw a lot of over the next few days - the Maremma Abruzzese Sheepdog apparently.
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| Pine Trees on the Francigena Way |
Nice walking and for the most part the trail was well marked or well described in the guide book. In the mid-afternoon, Lake Bolsena appeared in the distance, our destination for the night. As we entered the town of Bolsena I realize that I didn’t bring the hotel voucher for the evening’s stay, and I don’t have the name of the hotel. That could have been a problem, but wifi in the town square and a Skype call to our tour company in London provides our hotel destination for the night, the quite adequate though nothing exceptional Hotel Lorina. I didn’t make that mistake again.
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| Markers along the Way |
The next morning we left the town and the lake behind us and gradually climbed up on a nice track in the woods into open rolling farmlands. We picnicked for lunch outside some sort of hostel that was closed (we were early in the season) before descending through oak woodlands again. We were caught by two Germans and their baby in a backpack and we foolishly followed them off the main trail for a while until we realized our mistake. Generally there are a lot of Francigena Way markers but sometimes things got a bit sketchy and other trail markers take over. Thankfully we realized our mistake and doubled back before getting too far off route.
In the mid afternoon we saw our destination, Montefiascone, sitting on the top of a hill in the distance. Unfortunately it wasn’t the hill we were on at the time and it did seem a long way away. We eventually reached Montefiascone and walk through the outskirts to the old part of town (on top of the hill as is usual in Italian towns). The church we had been seeing for the last couple of hours, church of Santa Margherita is on top of the hill and just behind it is the Rocca dei Papi gardens. We wander around the church and gardens and climb to the top of something called the Pilgrim Tower for a nice view of the surrounding countryside. The skies look a little grey and foreboding.
The nights hotel, the Urbano V Hotel, was quite nice but it’s restaurant was closed and they arrange for some transfer of our meal voucher to the Stuzzio Restaurant nearby. The Stuzzio is a great restaurant and we have a wonderful meal (soup, pasta, meat course, dessert) all washed down by a bottle of the local wine, Est, Est, Est. Est is short for “bonum est”, so this wine is triply good. Legend has it that a monk who liked wine sent his servant ahead to sample the local wines and report back. The wine is Montefiascone was so good he gave it a three star review. The monk arrived some time later and drank the wine and promptly died, hopefully well satisfied. The wine was very good.
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| The Cassia Way |
The next morning we left Montefiascone and headed gently downhill along an old Roman Road (the Cassia Way). What an impressive road - still intact after a couple of thousand years or more of use. The large boulders of the road were a little hard to walk on however. Not the most comfortable road. Leaving the Cassia Way behind us we walk up farm tracks through more nice countryside. We took our lunch on the crest of a hill at a table by an old farm building. After lunch and just before the town of Viterbo we pass a thermal hot spring full of Italians out for the weekend. I dozed at the side of the trail while Nancy went in to soak in the hot springs. They didn't look that appealing to me - too many Italian men in Speedos.
The next day, Monday, we were en route from Viterbo to Vetrella. After leaving Viterbo through the old gate in the city wall we walked on a road between high tufa walls. Very nice walking in this very narrow high walled gorge. As the road opened out we do a spell of walking alongside a freeway, fortunately not for too long. As we head uphill through olive orchards away from the freeway we pass a couple who are searching the undergrowth for wild asparagus - very fine and thin asparagus. I search the undergrowth for the rest of the day and I couldn’t find one. We walk on through old olive orchards and we get an abbreviated day as our hotel for the night (Antica Locanda della Via Francigena) is 1.5 km before the town of Vetrella.
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| The Road out of Viterbo |
As we were finished and at the hotel by 2:00 pm we walked into town to get some food - a late lunch. We found an unassuming place called La Lanterna del Santo and just got in before they closed for the afternoon. We had some wonderful food even if the waitress was not particularly helpful - lasagne, pasta, salad, wine. Quite unexpected and very cheap and quite tasty.
We sauntered around the town, had a couple of Aparols (fast becoming our signature drink), and then back to the hotel for more food - dinner in the hotel’s large and very tacky dining room. Too much food again today.
Tuesday’s hike from Vetrella to Sutri was the longest yet some 27 km. That was significantly longer than the other days which had been around 18 km. We left Vetrella and walked through nice woodlands until we came out into an area of hazelnut orchards. We had lunch in the orchard and walked on until we reached two large towers. They were the ruins of an old Roman mausoleum - the Torri di Orlando.
More walking on a well maintained gravel road lined with lots of majestic Stone Pine trees. We reached the town of Capranica, at first the very ordinary modern part of town, and then the very beautiful old town. After Capranica the trail headed towards a valley with a flowing stream which was quite beautiful but had lots of downed trees that make navigating the trail a bit tricky. The downed trees got even worse and we reached a section that had been logged that required climbing over and under the obstacles. Apart from the downed trees this section was some of the most beautiful trail so far. Lots of colorful flowers.
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| The trail before Sutri |
Our destination Sutri is again a lovely town with Roman ruins on the outskirts. Our day’s hike ends at a Roman Coliseum excavated out of the soft tufa rock. We then had a bit of trouble finding our hotel. It was some distance out of town, on a road that was just too busy to walk along. We headed into town check in at the tourist information office. Apparently there were no taxis in town so that option was out. The TI call the hotel and find out we should eat in town at a certain restaurant and then the proprietor of the restaurant would transfer us to the hotel. We then checked email to find that we should have been picked up at the amphitheatre at the end of the hike and taken to the hotel. I called the tour company and they arranged to pick us up in town, take us to the hotel, Il Borgo di Sutri, and then the hotel brought us back to town for the evening meal. It was a lot of ferrying about but it worked. It was just a shame we didn’t realise we had to do all this shuttling around earlier. It would have been a lot less stressful.
On Wednesday morning we left the very fine Il Borgo di Sutri and took a shortcut out of the back of the hotel to the Francigena Way. Nice walking to the town of Montorosi where we stopped for an espresso. Walking on through nice country until we reached a waterfall, the falls of Monte Gelato, where we took a break. The trail guide told us that we have only 2.9 km to go but that 2.9 turns into at least 7 or 8 km. That was a bit frustrating - at the end of the day when you think you are nearly done but in fact you have quite a ways to go.
As usual the end of the day was a slog up the hill to the old town of Campagnano di Roma. This was perhaps the least attractive old town that we visited. Not so much charm in Campagnano. Our hotel, the Hotel Benigni, was just outside the old city gates. The hotel also was not very impressive.
Since we didn’t like the look of the hotel we decided to have a small snack in town at one of the nicer looking restaurants. I have Grecia Pasta with Pigs Cheeks - quite nice but not the best. Since we also had a meal paid for at the hotel we decided to see what it was like - surprisingly it wa very good - beef steak with arugula. The manager of the hotel was a nice guy from Albania - he spoke perfect English.
Next morning we headed out of Campagnano and, again, we walked through some nice countryside considering that we were so close to Rome - farm tracks, parklands, gravel roads. Just before lunchtime we arrive in the town of Formello. We took the opportunity to buy some foccacia for lunch which we ate by the gates to the old part of the city. We discover that the bitter green leaf we had previously been calling bad quality spinach (as in our meal in Orvieto) is actually chicory. I hadn’t tasted it in the green form before (only as an addition to coffee in post war England - Camp Coffee), it was very bitter and not a favorite.
The descent out of Formello was very pleasant. We passed an area with some early Etruscan ruins. Another bitter salad green is encountered as we passed by a field with an old lady collecting leaves. She gave me a sample - perhaps they were dandelion leaves, I am not sure. They were also very bitter.
Another error in the guide book at the end of the day as the final kilometer turns into 2 or 3 km. We finally make it to the Hotel Cassia in La Storta. La Storta is not a pretty town, we were quite close to Rome now and La Storta sits on what must be one of the main roads leading towards Rome - lots of traffic. We did find an excellent Aparol Spritz before dining at a pretty average and nondescript restaurant (by Italian standards).
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| Afternoon Drinks - Aparol |
Friday, the final day of the hike, we left La Storta for our destination at the Vatican, some 12 miles away. A little more urban walking as we are so close but we still managed to find some nice parklands and green belts. Strangely the Via Francigena signs which were quite prolific since Bolsena became quite scarce. We got a bit off route in La Giustiniana but with the help of Google Maps on the iPhone we recovered.
The guide book again proved to be problematic and we decided to ignore it and follow what few VF signs we see. We were getting frustrated by our guide book - when you pay for a tour like this the one thing of value they provide should be an accurate guide, while we didn’t encounter anything we couldn’t figure out, it was sometimes far from clear where we were supposed to go.
We walked up through a park that provided us with nice views of the north side of Rome. The Olympic Stadium and the Tiber were below us and while the Vatican was not visible it should be just around the corner. We dropped into the suburbs again and had lunch before climbing through another park, this one with great views of the Vatican below. Walking into the city, the trail passed through what looked like a homeless camp which Nancy wanted to avoid, so it was Google Maps to the rescue to navigate a small diversion.
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| Our destination, the Vatican |
As we got close to the Vatican we realised something was different. St Peter’s Square was closed because all the EU leaders were getting together to celebrate the Treaty of Rome’s 50th anniversary. So the last 100 meters of our hike into the square was not going to happen. We wandered around the outside of the square and as we were doing so several motorcades of EU leaders come speeding into the square. The only I recognize is Angela Merkel, so for the second time in my life I get to see Angela.
We walked the last kilometer or so to our hotel which was on the south west side of the Vatican and our hike was done - 100 miles in 8 days. A nice moderate daily mileage. I wouldn’t have wanted to do much more each day and 8 back to back days was enough.
Since there were all the EU leaders in town parts of the city, including the Vatican, were closed the next day so we decided to get out of town for the day. It was a couple of hours by fast train to Bologna and apparently it is a nice city for a day trip so off we go. The train was quite comfortable and incredibly fast and we were in Bologna in time for lunch. Bologna was thronged with people, not tourists, locals. The streets and squares were quite busy. The town itself is wonderful too - lots of great churches, lots of arcades of shops, a great central square and the towers, there are several towers that are quite distinctive.
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| The Towers of Bologna |
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| Pasta Bolognese in Bologna |
On Sunday morning we went to St Peter’s to check out what had been closed the previous day. On the way we got our Testimonium - the document that certifies that we have completed some part of the Francigena Way. At each night’s stop on the walk we could get a stamp in a “passport” to validate we have made the ‘pilgrimage’. In Rome this was checked and they gave us a certificate on parchment paper. All very official.
In the square people were waiting for the Pope to bless them so we joined the throng. While we were looking at the center stage in front of St Peter’s the Pope popped out at a window high up and to the right. You could barely see him but there were large screen TVs in the square that showed him in close up. The crowd seemed enraptured by him; there was a group from some South American country that were quite lively in their support. To me the atheist, this was all very strange.
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| In St Peter's Square, the Pope is at the top window, 2nd from Right |
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| The Pieta in St Peter's |
After St Peter’s we walked over to the Trastavere area for lunch. We found a really nice restaurant, La Lucia, and had a wonderful lunch (with a bottle of Est, Est, Est wine). Our faith was restored in Italian food.
Back to the hotel via the Trevi Fountain which was incredibly crowded. While it is a wonderful fountain, the crowds take away from the splendour of it all. I can’t imagine what it's like in the peak season.
In the evening more walking around - the Spanish Steps, the high end shopping below the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain again, still crowded. Then we had a nice meal in a restaurant close to our hotel.
On the following morning, Monday, I was scheduled to pick up my Uzbekistan Visa from the Uzbek Embassy. We walk over to the Embassy which is close to the Vatican. Google Maps actually takes us to the Somali Embassy, not quite what we want but a check on the address shows the Uzbek Embassy two or three blocks away. At the Embassy, which is very non-descript office on the third floor of an old building, I find all is well with my Letter of Invitation and Visa Application but that I need a bank draft for $70. So it's off to a bank to make the payment which is an experience in itself. To get into an Italian bank you have to put your bags into a locker outside the bank, press a bell to get them to open a door into a cubicle big enough for one person, look into a camera in the cubicle, If you are acceptable the door on the other side of the cubicle opens to let you into the bank. That is quite the security procedure. Same thing in reverse to get out. The bank draft is quite a bureaucratic process involving lots of pieces of paper and signatures and passport photos but I eventually get it and go back to the embassy where I get my visa. What a process.
Before lunch we made a quick visit to the Cappuchine Monk’s Ossuary which is a group of chapels adorned with human skeletal bones and mummified monk’s bodies. All very weird and wonderful.
A quick lunch then we took Nancy to the station to catch her train to Puglia and her bicycle trip. I was then alone in Rome. Since my new camera had failed back in Venice I decided to purchase a new one and somehow try and return the old one for credit when I get back home. After calling just about every camera store in Rome I found a camera at a store not too far away. When I arrived in the store there was a person in front of me who was looking at the same camera, a Canon GX7 Mark II, and he bought the only one in stock. Apparently it had been on the shelf for a couple of months and on this fateful day two people showed up to buy it, I was the unlucky one.
In the evenings I had a flurry of notifications from the Uzbek Embassy, they want me to return. Apparently they want more money. They charged me the European price and not the US price. US citizens pay $90 more. So the next morning I was off to the Embassy again, and of course then to the bank as they don’t accept cash. Still it was good to have the paperwork sorted before I arrived in Tashkent with an imperfect visa.
After the Embassy I paid a visit to the Borghese Museum. This was a real treat, the Borghese park itself is wonderful and the museum in the Borghese Palace is a treasure. A few Caravaggio’s and a few Bernini sculptures and assorted miscellaneous items in a wonderfully over the top ornate palace. I was particularly impressed at how Bernini could make a marble statue look so lifelike - the flesh looks so soft.
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| Bernini's Sculpture |
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| Marble made to look like flesh |
On the way back to the hotel I was accosted by a man in a car who said he knows me, he had been to the US and after I said I live in Sacramento, he had been to Sacramento, his brother has a restaurant there called Tony’s. I can’t imagine what scam he was trying to pull but he wanted me to get in his car. I bade him farewell.
In the late afternoon I took the train to the airport and my flight to Tashkent for the next part of my trip.
Many more photos are here.
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