Via Francigena - Day 4
Tuesday 24th September - Sutri to Campagnano di Roma
With 26 kilometres to cover, this was going to be a tough day. The alarms went off at 6.30 and we arose more than a little unenthusiastically. Neither of us fancied it at all. It was a dark dank morning out there. Barely light, we could hear the passing traffic hissing along the adjacent road, the noise louder thanks to heavy overnight rain. As we slowly got our act together there was talk of doing just part of the route. Stoically we shuffled out just before 7.30, with a bare minimum target of getting to Café Gorgeous in Monterosi 9 kilometres away. We crossed the road and went to have a cursory look at the Amphitheatre and burial holes that had been cut into the hillside.
Then we pressed on along the road (again). Within about half an hour we veered off onto a track, and and almost simultaneously the heavy clouds overhead started to part. With that, it really started to brighten up. Perhaps Pope Franny had been on the hotline to "upstairs", and put in a good word for us? Ninety minutes on, and after passing the very posh sounding Golf Nazionale, "The home of Golf in Italy", we got to Monterosi. As much as the village was a pretty unspectacular place, Café Gorgeous came with excellent reviews. It more than lived up to the hype, with really friendly service and great coffee. The Czech lady from last night arrived and joined us. We had speculated why she was walking so far on her own - often there's a story as to why someone would do such a thing - usually after major life events. It turned out that there was no story at all - her name was Ava, and she had become addicted to doing distance walks. She would use two to three weeks of her annual holiday allowance to indulge her passion for this. Seemingly her husband, who she described as "lazy", was very relaxed about this.
By the time we left the Café, in the region of 20 walkers of various nationalities had stopped there. An oasis on Via, and long may their business prosper! Shortly after leaving Monterosi we crossed the Autostrada and then headed back along nice rural lanes and paths. Ava caught us up, and then pushed on. However, it wasn't long before we saw her again - she had stopped by a farm where there were 14 cats/kittens luxuriating on the track. I'm not big on cats, but the kittens were lovely. Obviously, not as lovely as my long-departed house rabbit though. I still miss the little house destroyer. Bless him.
Ava and the cats
For the next couple of hours we walked along lovely paths. The only negative was the constant roar of motorbikes. We later worked out that we had passed one of Italy's major racing tracks - The Vallelunga Circuit. Noisy bastards, practice elsewhere. I shall be having a word about it with his Holiness when I get to the Vatican.
After 18 kilometres we came upon the waterfalls of Cascate di Monte Gelato. It was just lovely to take in the cool air emanating from the rushing water. Much as we'd have loved to take a paddle we'd still got 2 hours more walking. Push on, and whilst doing that contemplate why the Italians would call somewhere Ice-cream Mountain (Monte Gelato)!!!
About an hour out from Campagnano di Roma we met the 4 Kiwi women who we'd seen in various places over the past days. They were a very chirpy bunch. So much so they'd decided that they needed to sing to help them do the last few kilometres. The problem was that they just didn't know all the lyrics of the songs they wanted to sing, so it rapidly descended into a farce. Nevertheless a funny one. They surged on leaving us to tackle the last 2k.
Eventually we turned a corner in the valley where we were walking, and there above us was the town. Because the name of the place included "Roma" we had subconsciously created an expectation of a fairly standard suburban town. What Muppets! Like all our destinations before, it was clinging onto a cliffside. And that, of course, meant a steep climb up round the hairpins of a lane to get there. Hot and flustered we got up there, and walked to the far end of the old town to our hotel. We were knackered, but also delighted that we'd walked the whole way. Sixteen of our finest British miles covered.
Just for a change, we bumped into the Germans in the evening. Finally we exchanged names - Barbara and Woldemar, which he explained was both unusual , and the German variation of Vladimir. They explained that they hadn't walked the entire way today, as they have a "20km maximum" rule. Very sensible. They further explained that tomorrow they were getting the bus to Formello, to knock off the first 7km of a 26km leg. This idea resonated massively with us for 3 reasons. Firstly, it was the longest leg of the entire walk for us. It also had the biggest amount of ascent, 1800 feet, most of which was in the first few kilometres. And finally the weather forecast was dire - rain all day.
They kindly explained that we had to buy the bus tickets at the "Bar Tabachi" just along the road; and that there were buses at 05.30am, 08.30 am and 1.30pm. We mulled that option over, and decided to go for it. But of course the "bus ticket section" of the Bar Tabachi had closed by the time we went in to get tickets. It was impossible to ascertain if the "bus section" would be open early enough in the morning to get the 08.30 bus, so we to went bed uncertain about what tomorrow would bring to us. We all love a bit of jeopardy don't we!
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