Florence finds her Love...... and melts

We have gone from the alluvial plains of Lombardia and Piedmont and it is a massive relief. One hundred plus kilometres of open plain and beating sun was not conducive to great walking but we have done it. Now sitting in a hotel in Fidenza with rain pouring down and the temperature has dropped many degrees, it feels good. Twenty two kilometres this morning and were here by eleven after a few lazy breaks....

So
Italy has embraced two random peregrinos....
language becomes a joy of curious verbals
Laughter ensues
The senora
Watching from her solitary balcony
Buon giorno
Bueno passagiata
At two ragged passing pilgrims
A kiss blown
From gnarled fingers
Hearts brightened with that kiss

Car stops
Buon giorno
Aqua?
Bewildered pilgrims wonder
What ?
Come come come
To the home of this lady
Gifts of water, conversation and a break from the path
A kiss
Goodbye
To the wandering Aussie
And an American man

And the heat
Slaughtered good humour
Continual
No shade
Sweat and salt
The wandering American found joy in all things walking
And carries it deep within
Such a pleasure.....

So, we have rested in hostels and hotels
We have drunk wine of the region
And gleefully gorged on superb food

What an extreme experience
The Via Francigena

It is such a great thing to share with an awesome friend.

The Footsteps of Florence

My friend left this morning- garbed in his walking gear.
His journey will be swift as he walks a long long day today, alone.
We have laughed and talked
Sung and danced
Drunk wine
Eaten cheeses and tomatoes
Groaned at another hill
Blanched at another descent
Stretched our legs on long flat sections
Now it’s time
To hit our own roads
Plant our own footsteps
I take a zero day at Viverone
Gaze across the lake
He will be 4o km ahead before I find the Via tomorrow morning.
What a blast!!!!!

Feeling kissed by summer.....the Ecstasy of Florence

An Italian summer yearning brought me to this place.  I yearned for the beauty, the wine and the food just as I had tasted several years ago in Perugia.
This time I was doing it slightly differently though.
No soft days basking
No long lunches with wine

Sitting on a city wall
This time I would become a part of Italy
This time I would feel the history
Of journeys
Trudged across terrain
Forbidding and demanding.
This time my eyes would open
To a deep culture of challenge
This time I would see
People of the ages would make their stories known.
From Turin to Aosta was easy
Aosta to st Rhemy en Bosse after being told the Col de St Bernard was closed
Too much snow they said
My friend is tenacious and seeks adventure
So he found someone who would give us a lift
The Pass was open.... first time after winter
Came down from 2495m across the snow that covered parts of the Via Francigena... our road to Rome.
Steep and my knees were forced to react
Down to St Rhemy and found comfort in a beautiful B and B
Hidden way off the path.

Food wine and desperate sleep.
Then we continued for four days
Up steep slopes and down
Tortured muscles I had never known screamed!
But my wonderful friend knows how to walk and talk.....
My gratitude is palpable
Ancient roads
Broken houses of stone
Communal gardens of tomatoes and aubergines
Food of the region..... we have been immersed
Roman history etched in roads and massive buildings
Napoleon’s incursions into Italy and the stories he left.
So much
My head is full
And today as we take a zero
I have time to ponder
The beauty I have walked through and discovered.