Saturday, May 31, 2014

Altopacia to,San Miniato May 31


                                                             Current Day                             Trip to date

Distance walked- miles.                             18.1                                        227.6

Gross climb- feet                                       1108.                                      16,861

Net Climb- feet                                            493.                                        2077

Song of the Day: Country Air by the Beach Boys:

Breathe the beauty of it everywhere 
Mother Nature she fills my eyes  
Get a breath of that country air
Breathe the beauty of it everywhere 
Rise up early

Today was almost a perfect hiking day.  When we left the hotel at 6:45 this morning, it was overcast and relatively cool.  It was clear that it had rained during the night.  During the walk,we could see that it was raining in some of the surrounding mountains.  But, other than a few sprinkles, it never rained on us the whole day.   About every 90 minutes, we would pass through a small village, where we would stop for a rest and snack.  All in all, a great day for hiking.

One of the little towns along the way:


Probably 80% of the walk today was on paths or very small country roads.   This was a striking contrast to the past several days.  Not having to constantly dodge trucks and cars was a real relief.  Plus, the quiet of the woods was a real treat.  Although it had rained extensively last night, the trail today was very walkable:

We also came upon several horse farms along the walk.  Once when we visited here in the late 90's, we took our kids for a horse back ride across the Tuscan countryside.  Very beautiful, peaceful ride until sudden out of the sky's we hear the roar of several F15 fighter jets scream righ over our heads!  This was when the Bosnian conflict was going on, and NATO was bombing Bosnia on a daily basis.  

Finally, around 2:30, we arrived at the handsome medieval hill town of San Miniato.   We are staying in a very nice hotel (Hotel Miraval Palace), another welcome change from last night's Motel 6 like accommodations! We even turned on the TV in the room today, the first time since we have been here.  They had several channels in English. This is the first hotel that has a TV screen larger than 13 inches!  Here is a view from our hotel room:


A view of San Miniato as we were approaching it via foot.  One of the bad things about staying in these hill towns is that you have to climb to them, later in the afternoon when you are already tired:


Last night, we went to a live show in Altopacio about the Via.  Apparently the government of Tuscany is sponsoring a series of shows about the via to promote its use.  Each show has a different topic, and the one that we saw was about Pane (bread).  It was all in Italian, so we really couldn't follow it.  To be honest, it seemed like a bad Saturday Night Live skit with Will Ferrell and we were glad when it finally ended:


Ww will have another 15 mile hike today to Gambassi Terme.  It is supposed to be a clear, sunny and warm day.  Unfortunately, no stops along the way, so we have stocked up in food for our backpacks.  

Friday, May 30, 2014

Lucca to Altopacia May 31

                                                                 Current Day                              Trip to Date

Distance Walked - miles                               11.5                                           209.5

Gross Climb- feet                                          180                                         15,753

Net Climb- feet                                                11                                           1,584

Song of the day:  Highway to Hell by AC/DC

I'm on the highway to hell

No stop signs, speed limit
Nobody's gonna slow me down

Quote of the day:  

Patches O'Houlihan (played by Rip Torn) from movie Dodgeball: "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball."

Our room last night was so comfortable and quiet, we ended up sleeping in until almost 7:30, a record for us.  After a lite breakfast at the coffee shop downstairs, we took off on a fairly easy 10 mile walk to Altopacia.  The entire path was along highways today.  About half were relatively quiet 1 lane paved roads, but the other half were along very busy high speed highways.  Once again, we had to walk on the road and constantly dodge cars and huge trucks.  Very stressful at times, it once again, we live to tell about it.  As Patches O'Houlihan might say: "if you can dodge cars and trucks, you can dodge a ball!"

One ongoing business strategy question is concerning new lines of business. For example, Apple made the wise decision to expand from the computer business into the music business with the iPod.  This subsequently led to the iPhone, etc.  I mentioned last night that our hotel today is a "spaghetteria e B&B." I understand that the restaurant came first, with the B&B later.  Today, I saw a sign for another product line extension which I found interesting:


I love the description "Restaurant and lap dance."  What do you think came first- the restaurant or the lap dance?  And don't you find it interesting that the word "lap dance" needs no translation?  Is this a universal term?  Yet another outstanding contribution to world peace by America....!  Also, based on the feedback from a couple of weeks ago, I wonder if this restaurant is owned by the Chinese?  

As we were entering our destination, Altopacia, a village of approximately 15,000, we see our friends Christian (Germany) and Masa (Japan) sitting outside at a bar and we decide to visit with them for a while.  As we were sitting out front,  enjoying refreshing beverages, a guy walks out of the bar and says to me, "Go Giants."  I look at him and he has a San Francisco 49ers t-shirt on and I say "go 49ers!"  I look closer at the guy and he looks familiar, but I don't know why.  Turns out, he is Gian Lucca, and he owns the restaurant La Briciola  in San Francisco and is visiting his family in Altopacia.  Amazingly enough, his restaurant is just a few blocks from our San Francisco house, and we have eaten there and talked to Gian Lucca many times over the years!  It is indeed a small world and these sorts of magical occurrences seem to happen often on these hikes.


Gian Lucca's friend Franco then starts talking to us and telling us how he had lived in San Francisco for several years as well.  Franco was an interesting guy, lots of stories.  He asks us where we are staying and we tell him the Spaghettria e B&B.  He sort of turns his nose up, and asks, how much we are paying?  We tell him, it's a real bargain at only $90.  He tells us we are overpaying and he has a better place for us. He then marches us across town to another restaurant called trattoria Avalon, that also has rooms.  And the rooms here are only $55 per night.  So, that is where we are staying tonight!  The room is actually ok, although located on a busy highway, so a bit noisy.  

This morning as we were leaving Lucca, we passed a convent and saw this nun filling up water bottles in the middle of the square out front:

Here is the Duomo in Lucca.  It's more impressive on the outside than the inside.


Once again, it was supposed to rain on us today.  We could see rain in the mountains all around us, but nothing on us.  Tomorrow, the forecast is again for rain.  We will see if we can avoid it yet another time.  We have a rather long walk tomorrow of 19 miles to San Miniato.  I am looking forward to this place, as it is supposed to be a nice village and we are staying in a top notch hotel.  

 

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Camaiore to Lucca May 29

                                                             Current Day                         Trip to Date

Distance walked- miles                            17.0.                                    198.0

Gross Climb- feet                                     980.                                   15,553

Net Climb -feet                                          -88.                                     2,274

Song of the day: The Wanderer, by U2, singing by Johnny Cash

I went out walkin'
Through streets paved with gold
Lifted some stones saw the skin and bones

Yeah I went with nothin'
Nothin' but the thought of you
I went wandering

I stopped outside a church house
Where the citizens like to sit
They say, "They want the kingdom"
But they don't want God in it

This is one of my favorite U2 songs, and certainly a great rendition by Johnny Cash.  For those of you interested, the Robert Hilburn biography of Johhny Cash from 2013 is a terrific read, and the story about how Johnny came to record this song with U2 is fascinating.

Well, the walk from Camaiore to Lucca was about 13 miles, and then we walked another 4 miles wandering the interesting city of Lucca.  Lucca is an ancient walled city, dating back to 180 BC, with a current population of around 95,000.  For a town of this size, it has more churches than just about anyplace I have seen.


The forecast had been for rain today.  When we woke this morning, it was clear blue skies.  By 9:30, the sky started to darken,  and we were sure it would rain.  But, it never did.  I'm sure glad it didn't, because parts of the walk would have even very dangerous in the rain. Particularly the downhill portion over sheets of rock.  As with prior days, the trail was often overgrown with thorny bushes, making the going slow at times:


On two separate occasions today, we passed individuals going the other way on the trail. Both of them told us they were headed to Santiago de Compestella in Spain, which is what we walked last year.  One of the guys had started in Rome, and the other in Sienna. In any case, both have a long ways to go!  One was a 35 year old German, and he told us that he had sold or  given away  everything he owned, and would move to Portugal at the completion of his walk.  He said this walk was a fresh start on his life. The other was from Poland, and seemed to be on some sort of spiritual mission.

After being on the trail for 90 minutes or so, we ran into out friend Christian from Germany.  I don't know how these things keep happening.  We walked with Christian for about an hour, then went on ahead.  Later this evening, we were sitting in a bar in Lucca and who should pull in but Christian again?!  We had many similar stories from the Camino last year, and these are things that just don't happen in regular life!

This evening, we ended up having probably the worst meal we have had in Italy.  The guy at our hotel had recommended several restaurants.  However, when we were out wandering around the town, we saw a restaurant named  Perbacco.  As it turns out, one of the truly great restaurants in San Francisco, and one of our favorites is called Perbacco.  So, we decided to try the Lucca version.  What a dumb idea.  They say you can't judge a book by its cover.  Well, you can't judge a restaurant by it's name either!  Believe me, these two restaurants have nothing in common, and I have to say, this is one of the few cases where a US Italian restaurant is better than an Italian Italian restaurant!

The forecast is for rain again tomorrow, but so far we have been very fortunate when rain is forecasted. We have a walk of about 14 miles to a village called Altopacia.  I love the name of the hotel we are staying at tomorrow:  "La Loggia - Spaghetteria e Bed and Breakfast."  Where else in the world do you get a spaghetti house and B&B rolled into one?!



Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Vernazza to Camaiore May 28

                                                                 Current Day                      Trip to Date

Distance walked - miles                                8.5                                     181

Gross Climb- feet                                        858                                 14,573

Net Climb- feet.                                            79                                    2362


Song of the Day: Wild Horses by Jagger and Richards.  Sung by many, my favorite versions are live with Lucinda Williams and Elvis Costello or The Flying Burrito Brothers.

Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, we'll ride them some day

Quote of the Day: Francis of Assissi: "My feet are my horses" when asked how he would get around after selling his horse to raise money.

Last night, we went down to the Blue Marlin cafe in Vernazza to use their free Internet.  Once again, our hotel did not have Internet. Massimo, the owner of the Blue Marlin, played several songs on the piano and then came over to talk to us.  A very charming and interesting guy, in his early 50's.  Among other things we learned is that he lived in Barcelona for 6 years.  We told him that when we came to Cinque Terre in the 90's, it was busy, but nothing like now.  His reply: "Rick Steves."  He went to explain that Rick Steves' books and films really made the cinque Terre. In fact, he said that Rick was there just two weeks ago filming again.  He said that when the Cinque Terre was flooded out in 2011, Rick Steves called him on the phone to see how things were going.  Massimo also provided us the quote from Francis of Assissi. Massimo was a very interesting and entertaining guy, and gave us some good advice about hiking in Italy.

One other important item from our two days in Vernazza: laundromat!  For the first 12 days of the trip, we have hand washed our clothes in the sink of the hotel and then hung out the window to dry. Certainly works in the short term.  But, we were able to wash and dry all our clothes in the laundromat in Vernazza, a real treat.

This morning at 8:30, we took a 1 hour, 45 minute train ride to Pietrasanta.   Funny thing about train rides- when you are riding through the countryside, they can be very interesting, with beautiful landscapes.  However, when you are riding through populated areas, they are almost universally ugly.   Often the houses near the train lines are run down, with lots of junk in the yards.  Or, near basic industry factories like cement, etc.  We have ridden trains all over the world, and this seems to be true everywhere we go.  Italy is no exception. 

When we got to Pietrasanta, we had a very pleasant surprise.  There was an art show of large horse sculptures that is going to close in two days.  The sculptures were very impressive in their scope.  Most were in a large square, but some were inside of a church!  Here are some pictures:


We then walked to Camaiore.  It was a very pleasant walk, with overcast skies, fortunately we were not rained on.  As with most days, we got lost a couple of times, once after we had walked up a very steep path for perhaps half a mile.  Linda accuses me of just  trying to run up the mileage!  

We then arrived to Camaiore and checked into our hotel, the fantastic Villa Lombardi.  The hotel is spectacular and we have a very nice room.  The owner is a antiques dealer, and the furniture in the rooms is quite nice. Here is the ever lovely Linda as we were leaving the hotel for dinner.   By the way, Linda surprised me tonight with yet another new outfit.  I don't know how the hell she does that with her 14 pound backpack.  It's a magic pack that just keep spitting out new clothes!

This evening, we decided to go to a very nice restaurant in town, near our hotel.  Halfway through the meal, I got up to go to the restroom, and who should I run into but our German friend Christian who we met last week!  This is one of those small world items that seem to happen all the time on this sorts of walks.  Christian was with a Japanese guy named Massa who has been walking for 3 weeks and a Dutch guy whose name I didn't catch. Like us, Massa has walked the Camino de Santiago. Here is a photo from our dinner.  Linda has her arm around Christian.  We promised that we would get together tomorrow evening in Luca.


I am really looking forward to this next few weeks as we enter the heart of Tuscany.  Tomorrow, we walk 15 miles to Lucca.  We visited Lucca in 2000 with my brother Bruce and his family and really enjoyed it. 

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Day off in Cinque Terre May 27

                                                             Current Day                        Trip to Date

Distance walked- miles                             5.9                                      172.5

Gross climb- feet                                       840                                   13,715

Net climb- feet                                              0                                      2283

Song of the Day: Birthday, by the Beatles:

They say it's your birthday

We're gonna have a good time

I'm glad it's your birthday

Happy birthday to you

A special shout out to our son in law Damien, who is celebrating his birthday today.  Damien recently moved to San Francisco from Melbourne, Australia. Our Daughter Allison is finishing up her work in Melbourne and will move to San Francisco to join Damien in late June.  Happy birthday Damien!

For those of you curious about the measurement of miles, climb, etc: I use a small electronic device made by Withings that Allison and Damien gave me for my birthday last year. It has been my faithful companion ever since, and has provided great motivation to keep moving. I have calibrated it with maps and other devices, and it seems to be fairly accurate.

We were awakened at 6:00 am by the loud crack of thunder, followed by rain.  We decided to go back to sleep and see what the day would bring.  We later woke at 7:30; the rain had stopped, although it was overcast.  We headed down to the nearby cafe for breakfast, where ee had a first- bacon and eggs!  We have not seen this anywhere else in Italy, and undoubtedly, this is a nod to many international visitors to the cinque Terre.  The cafe was packed with Americans, most of whom seemed to order bacon and eggs!  

We wanted to hike from Vernazza where we are staying, to the towns of Corniglia and Riomaggiore.  This would b a relatively short hike of about 5 miles total.  Unfortunately, all the trails were closed due to the rain, and so we had to take a train to Riomaggiore.

We then explored the charming village of Riomaggiore which was packed with tourists, many of them Americans.  Rick Steves, the American travel writer, made the Cinque Terre popular for Americans.  He started writing about this back in the early 90's and American visitors have surged ever since.   After exploring Riomaggiore for several hours, we took the train to Monterosso for lunch and more exploration.  As we are at the sea, we both ordered excellent fresh fish dishes for lunch. The sun came out in the afternoon, and it was another beautiful day here.  The scenery truly is stunning.





The villages are on steep cliffs by the sea, and we were able to get lots of exercise and climbing today.  Still, it was a light day of walking for us.  We will need to get back in the swing of things as we go back to the trail. Tomorrow, we take a train to Pietrasanta to rejoin the trail and  walk approximately 8 miles to Camaiore.  Those of you following closely on the map may notice that we cut out a couple of sections of the Via when we came to the Cinque Terre.  Life is full of trade offs, and this was a damn good one!

Monday, May 26, 2014

La Spezia to Vernazza May 26

                                                           Current Day                               Trip to date

Distance walked- miles                           14.8.                                           166.6

Gross climb- feet                                    1490                                          12,875

Net climb- feet                                            65                                            2283

Song of the day:  Gloria, written by Van Morrison, performed by Shadows of Knight, Van Morrison, Patty Smoth, others:

G.L.O.R.I.A (Gloria

G.L.O.R.I.A (Gloria)

I wanna shout it ev'ry night (Gloria)

I wanna shout it ev'ry day (Gloria)

Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah, all right (Gloria)

When we checked into our hotel in La Spezia yesterday, a friendly young woman named Gloria checked us in.  We explained to her how we were walking the Via Francigena and decided to take a few days off to explore the Cinque Terre.  She asked if we had considered visiting Porto Venere?  No, we haven't heard of Porto Venere.  "Oh, you need to go, it's a hidden gem of the area."  Ok, but how do we get there?  We are walking and do not have a car.   "Not a problem! it's a lovely 90 minute walk from the hotel.  Plus, they have a ferry from Porto Venere to Vernanzza where you are staying tomorrow night."

Famous last words- "it's a lovely 90 minute walk..."   First, it was almost 4 hours and 9 miles.  Second, not sure "lovely" describes a death defying walk along a curvy, narrow, incredibly crowded highway, with speeding, crazy Italian drivers.  When I say along a highway, I actually mean, on a highway, as there were few if any sidewalks along the way.  We were constantly dodging cars, trucks, motorcycles, etc.  Truly a stressful, miserable morning.  

By the way, Porto Venere is in fact a lovely place and we had a terrific lunch of grilled fish and burata cheese by the sea.  We were able to catch a 2:00 ferry to Vernazza.

Gloria gave us one other piece of advice about going to a famous pizzeria that is 150 years old in La Spezia.  A true must do experience.  So we faithfully set out last night in search of this restaurant.  When were finally able to locate the restaurant, it was closed!  That should have set off alarms about Porto Venere....But once again, we were able to locate another restaurant that turned out to be very good, and we had a great evening in La Spezia.  

When we left for this trip, my top 4 concerns about stuff that could go wrong were:

1.  Personal health issues- one of us gets sick, problems with feet,etc.  While we have indeed had a few blisters (I think it comes wth the territory when hiking 100's of miles), we have done very well in this regard  so far.

2.  Getting lost- from what I had read, the trail is not as well marked as say the Camino in Spain. And indeed, this has proven to be the case.  However, every time we got lost, we were able to react and adjust relatively well.  

3.  Logistical errors in planning of hotels, reservations, etc.- this part has gone relatively well so far.  Other than one of our hotels having new management and another being a few miles further off the trail than anticipated, all has gone well.  And importantly, we are able to adjust pretty easily.

4.  Mental health issues-  certainly on an undertaking like this, you worry about having a mental breakdown from stress, fatigue, etc. Or having to spend 24 hours a day for 7 weeks with your spouse! (This is probably more of a concern for Linda than me....).  In any case, we are doing great so far, and in tremendous spirits.

What was not on this list is getting run over by a car!  I have to say, after 11 days of walking, this is by far my biggest concern now.  While today was the worst we have encountered, we have had several other near death experiences with cars on this trip.

One very nice thing about being in the Cinque Terre:  no cars!

The boat to the Cinque Terre is one of the great boat rides in the world.  Fantastic views of the 5 villages on a beautiful sea.  The boat was packed with American college students and young people.  Linda had an opportunity to do what she does best- play Mom by helping several of the girls out with directions, how to use the trains, etc.  Linda is extraordinarily talented at this stuff.

Here are three of the villages as seen from the boat:




After arriving at our hotel around 3:30 this afternoon (great little hotel in Vernazza), we decided to take a walk to the village of Montorosso, a little over 3 miles away.  It is a very challenging hike, very rocky, with lots of stairs and climbs.  On the first 9 days of this hike, we have seen exactly one other hiker.  On the little 3 mile walk this afternoon, we encountered 100's of walkers from all over the world.  This place is jam packed with tourists.

Vernazza (where we are staying) as seen from the trail


Monteroso (village 5) as seen from the trail 


On the trail, we would greet people with "Buon giorno" or "ciao" or later in the afternoon, "buon sera."  The response from everybody, independent of where they are from is either "buon giorno" or "ciao" or nothing all.  100%.  No other responses............uh, well, there were 27 exceptions to that rule.  That would be the 27 (but who's counting?  Well, me for one) French people who answered with "Bon jour"!  What the hell is it with the French?  It was the same last year on the Camino.  To be fair, not all French answered with Bon jour.  Several did in fact say nothing at all and a few even answered with buon giorno.

In one situation, we greeted a woman with Buon giorno.  She responded with Bon jour.  Linda smiled and looked at me with a look that said "can you believe these people?" 5 seconds later, the woman fell down on the trail, darn near fell over the edge.  I rushed to help her up before she went over.  Do you think there was any karma involved here?  Or perhaps Linda put a curse on her?

Today's walk ended up being much longer than anticipated.  We thought this would be a fairly easy day.  Probably penance from God for taking that taxi the other day....

Tomorrow we plan to hike much more of the Cinque Terre.  However, it is supposed to rain, which may cause a problem.  Several years ago, there were some extreme rains here that washed out many of the trails.  When it rains these days, they close many of the trails for safety reasons.  We will keep our fingers crossed that the karma we have built up (including helping a French woman up!) continues to payoff for us...

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Filleto to Aulla May 25

                                                       Current Day.                             Trip to Date

Total Miles Walked                             13.5                                          151.8

Total climb-feet.                                  1150                                        11,385

Net Climb- feet                                   (280)                                          2208

Song of the day:  Groovin by the Rascals:

Just groovin' on a Sunday afternoon

Really, couldn't get away too soon

No, no, no, no

We'll keep on spending sunny days this way
We're gonna talk and laugh our time away
I feel it coming closer day by day


This was a very enjoyable hike- Relatively short at 13.5 miles,  lots of climbing and descents through a heavily wooded area on a beautiful spring day.  As with prior days, the spring run offs have made the trails very muddy in places.  Our shoes and pants were very dirty by the conclusion of the hike and we probably looked like refuges from some 3rd world country.

On Saturday night, we had an enjoyable meal at a restaurant in the medieval village of Filleto.  Each fall,  Filleto hosts a opera festival, held in the large square where the restaurant is located.  Many famous opera singers appear at this event.  I believe I have seen a film about this on PBS.  The owner of the restaurant showed us photos and signed plates from singers Pavrotti, Placido Domingo, and several others.  She also mentioned other famous people who have eaten there, including George Clooney.  Although the meal was the most expensive meal we have had, it would not even rank in the top 3 meals we have had to date.

I had mentioned previously that our hotel was right next to the church, where the bells rang every half our throughout the night.  Then, to add insult to injury, there was a big Sunday market that was held in the square in front of the church.  Unfortunately all the vendors started setting up their stalls at about 6:30.  So, all in all, not a good night's sleep.

The lack of sleep however did not deter from a terrific walk. We passed through several little ancient villages along the way.  However, there were no services along the way until we reached the outer portion of Aulla.  By the time we got there, we were famished, as we had not had any breakfast.  The bar had the usual assortment of chips, etc along with two small, pathetic looking sandwiches.  Then I noticed a sign on the wall- "HOTDOGS"!  Well hell yes we will have a hot dog!  For us, it was a terrific treat.  How many hot dogs have you had with lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise?   We felt so good about this hot dog that we present here for you:


Entering the village of VillaFranca on Sunday morning:



Some very muddy areas.  The going was very slow through these areas.


A beautiful waterfall along the trail:



When we reached Aulla, we caught a train to La Spezia, the gateway to the Cinque Terre.  For about the first 5 minutes of the 20 minute train ride, we went through a tunnel.  I later checked, and if we had hiked out of Aulla, we would have had to hike over a large mountain.  Probably would have taken us 5 or 6 hours to do what the train did in 5 minutes!

Tomorrow, we are walking about 5 miles from La Spezia to the sea side village of Porto Venere.  From Porto Venere, we will catch a boat to Vernazza, where we will stay for two nights.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast is a 90% chance of rain on Tuesday, so we will see how that goes.  Here is a map of the cinque Terre that I captured from the Internet:


Hopefully we will have Internet the next few days and able to post regularly.

In the meantime, we would like to send out a Happy Memorial Day to our friends and family in the USA.

One last point, the San Francisco Giaants had a very good weekend, sweeping the Twins.  The Giants are now 6 wins, 3 losses and I suspended tie game since we left and remain firmly in first place.  I religiously wear my Giants ht on this hike.  So far, it seems to be working.

Fidenza to Sant Andrea Dei Bagni May 21

Note:  I accidentally deleted the original posting for May 21. Unfortunately, I did not keep a copy, and so will have to re-do from memory.  Since this was 4 days ago, my memory is not so good!  And, I'm sure I won't be nearly so clever this time around...if any of you kept a copy of the original, can you send it to me?

                                              

                                                               Current Day                    Trip to date

Distance traveled-miles.                           19.0.                                  94.4

Gross climb- feet                                      1930                                  2755

Net Climb- feet.                                          110                                    146


Song of the Day:  rolling Hills by Van Morrisoon:

I will do my jig among the rolling hills
I will do my jig and live among the rolling hills

With my pen I'll write my song among the rolling hills

And I'll stand and watch it all among the rolling hills

Here's a PowerPoint version of the day:

We started out the day with an outstanding breakfast at the hotel, one of the better ones we have had on the trip.  This is not a high bar, as the Italian breakfasts tend to be very spartan like.  Perhaps some coffee and a cookie, often with a factory brioche wrapped in celephane.  Today it included juice, yogurt and a few other items.  I loved the little old lady who ran this hotel.  The password for the Internet was nicolo2008.  In Italian, she explained to me that the "nicolo es piccolo" which is to say not capitalized.  It was all very charming.

We left the hotel at 7:30 this morning, and didn't arrive to our next hotel until 4:30, with very few stops along the way. It was a very long day indeed.  

We did stop for a gelato this afternoon around 3:00.  It is a great treat on a warm day.

This was our first day of true climbing.  With a gross climb of 1930 feet, today's total was far more than the cumulative climb of 850 feet over the first 5 days.  This begins the first of 3 very challenging days of hiking.  Tomorrow, we have a climb of 3000 feet, and the next day, 2000 feet as we reach the peak of the Appenine mountain range.  

The net climb for today was only 110 feet, which means that in addition to climbing 1930 feet, we also descended 1820 feet.  Our experience has been that descents can often be as hard on the body as climbing.  Last year, Linda and I both lost toe nails from the down hill portions of our hike in Spain.  If you are curious, it takes 3-6 months to grow back a new nail.

Many of the climbs today were almost inhumanely steep.  We both felt it in our legs by the end of the day.  But all in all, a very beautiful walk across the rolling countryside.  One of the things we particularly appreciated was that much of the walk today was on trails.  For the first several days, most of the walk was on paved roads.  Not only is the hard surface of the highway very hard on the feet, it also tends to be terrifying with the crazy Italian drivers.  We have been constantly fearful for our lives, ducking and dodging the cars. 

Not sure what this picture is all about.  You be the judge.

Tomorrow will be a very challenging day, with a climb of almost 4000 feet.

Monte Lugo to Filetto May 24

                                                          Current day                        Trip to date

Distance walked- miles.                          13.5                                  138.3             

Gross climb- feet.                                    850                                 10,235

Net climb- feet.                                        -80                                     2488

Song of the day: Saturday in the Park by Chicago:

People talking, people laughing
A man selling ice cream
Singing Italian songs
Can you dig it? Yes, I can
And I've been waiting such a long time
For Saturday

Today's journey was originally planned to be a somewhat strenuous, but achievable 18 mile hike.  However, due to a couple of small calculation errors by the trip planner, the actual distance was almost 23 miles, with a significant downhill section of  2000 feet. When faced with this reality, we huddled for about 12 seconds and decided to take a taxi for a portion of the day.  

At 9 am this morning, the taxi showed up, and took us about 10 miles down the mountain.  This reduced the day's hike to a much more manageable 13 miles, as well as cutting a significant portion of the downhill hike.

In addition to reducing the length of the trip, the taxi provided another significant value. The taxi driver was a very entertaining and valuable source of information.  He talked a lot about emigration patterns from Italy.  For example, in the early 1900's, most of the emigrants were poor people, with many of the people going particularly to the USA.  However today, most of the emigrants are educated people.  They are not able to  get jobs commensurate with their education levels, and thus leave Italy looking for employment opportunities.  He talked about his brother in law who got his PhD from Boston college and went on to teach in the USA and England.  He could not get a job in Italy. 

The driver also talked about the homecomings that happen every summer in the little towns in the area.  For example, a couple little towns which have about 5 people living there during the year,  grows to 150 people in the summer with returning emigrants.  One of the towns speaks all English, as the returning emigrants are from the USA and England. Man other speaks French, as the returning emigrants are from France.

If I were President of the USA for a day, one of the first things I would do is offer every foreigner who graduates from a USA college a green card that would say something like: " thank you for graduating from college in the USA.  We would like you to stay and work here."  I would also increase investments in our own education efforts.  It sure seems to me that the competitive advantage of a country will depend totally on the cumulative work ethic, intelligence and creativity of the people of that nation.  

Note: this paragraph was bought and paid for by Independent Candidate Mike Fawkes who is running for no office, but cares deeply about these things!

Last night, the owner of our hotel made reservations for us at a small restaurant close by.  Once again, we had an outstanding meal, with many excellent dishes..  I had wild boar (which I have often been accused of being...) for the first time in my life.  Sitting next to us was a German couple, Axel and Martine.  They are school teachers at an international school up near Lake Como, and were touring the area on their motorcycles during a school holiday.  Like every German we have met over the past few years, they were interesting and fun people to be around.  Axel was a funny and profane guy.  I complimented him on his ability to swear very naturally in English!  My own experience is that while many foreigners are proficient in English, few can actually swear like a local in English.  He sounded like a truck driver from New York!

It is common in many of the nicer restaurants in Italy to bring a bottle of liquor to the table at the conclusion of the meal. The idea is to have a small drink "on the house."  Well, we and the Germans had more than a small drink, and nearly drained the bottle!  We had a rousing good time, and stayed for nearly 3 hours at the restaurant. Although the owner seemed to enjoy us all, I'm sure he was glad to see us go by the end of the night.

The weather today was letter perfect for a walk:  low 60's, slight breeze, mostly sunny but with a few clouds.  We came upon Pontremoli, a town of about 7000 people.  Similar to what we experiened in Spain, it was Saturday market day.  Fantastic, everybody out having a good time.


We found a cafe in this town that had Internet, and caught up on our email and I posted my blog for the past few days. Our hotels the past two nights have not had Internet nor does our hotel tonight.  Unfortunately, somehow I deleted the posting from May 21, and may need to recreate it if I can't figure out how to retrieve it.  

We then continued on a very pleasant 13+ mile hike with a few climbs and descents, but not of heart attack level!  The trail was very wet and muddy in places, due to spring rains and runoff.  


As with the past few days, we also had to ford several streams along the way:




We are staying in a beautiful little B&B in the medieval village of Fillleto. Our room is spectacular, with one problem: we are right across from the church, with the bells going off every half hour.  The owner told us they continue throughout the night.  She even offered us ear plugs at check in! Here is the view of the bell tower from our room:


The always resplendent Linda as we leave our hotel for dinner:



I also took a photo of the mountain range where we went over the peak yesterday:


Tomorrow, we have another hike of about 13 miles to the town of Aulla.  From there, we will catch a train to La Spezia, the gateway to the Cinque Terre.  We will visit La Spezia tomorrow, then on Monday morning, take a boat to Vernanza, one of the 5 towns in the Cinque Terre. We will spend a couple of days there hiking around, before returning to the trail late Tuesday afternoon.