Day 7 – Friday 5 July. Villafranca in Lunigiana to Aulla

Another hot sweaty night. Sounds erotic. But it’s not. After arriving at our B&B yesterday, we greedily drank the water made available and settled in for a chat before heading off for a shower and a lie down. The lie down turned into fretful sleep as we tried to get the rest we didn’t achieve the previous night.

If you stay in a rustic town the church bells will chime out the time all through the night. And where we were, we had a grandfather clock providing that orologio service. They don’t seem to be silenced for night time. Nope. You get to count along to the 11, 12, and 1, 2 and 3 chimes. Not forgetting the single ding or dong marking the half hour. Tonight we should sleep like the dead. We’re in a hotel. With air con.

Our walk today started with senor host telling us we would have an easy day’s walk. Oh good, that’ll be a treat, we thought. So after he dropped us off at the ancient spring to fill our bottles, we set off. It started well. Pretty and picturesque. But then we hit long stretches of rocky path which needed our full attention so as to not roll an ankle. The Roman road was also part of the trail. That sounds almost romantic, doesn’t it? it’s not, after 30 minutes of walking on it, it’s a bastard. And we had about 2 1/2 to 3 hours of it. Those Roman soldiers must have never known what it was like to walk without a limp. Their feet must have looked awful. Ours hurt, and we have the luxury of vibram to take away some of the pain. So today’s effort doesn’t get a 10/10, I’d give it a 6/10, max. And I should have known not to believe senor host…he’s not walked the Via, so I’m not sure where his info is coming from.

He and his wife were delightful though, I wouldn’t want you getting the idea we didn’t enjoy the stopover at their place. We did. And we were particularly tickled by senor’s description of the retired men who are regulars at the local cafes. ‘They hide from their wives, in the bars’ he told us. ‘I don’t spend my time in them, they are like elephant graveyards.’ Well, we laughed at that comment. It’s so true…these old guys camp out in these places, nattering away to their mates, all refugees from their homes seeking some sort of domestic respite. Mind you, they get to slug back a bit of booze and chain smoke their way through the day. Still, not our idea of retirement though.

So another days walking is over for us, we are cooling off before we hit the shower and find a place to eat. Tomorrow will be a tougher day at the office. A fair amount of up and down. I just hope it’s not on any more roman road.

And a shot of the Roman road…