Via Francigena - Day Two

October 02, 2024

Sunday 22^nd September - Viterbo to Caprarola

Up early for a 7.30 breakfast. We were joined by the two other guests at the B & B annex. A German couple who appeared to be using the same travel company as us. Originally from Munich, they had moved to South-East Switzerland. He was 70, and she, I guess, was around 60. He spoke fluent Italian, as well as good English. She had a reasonable amount of English. They were very friendly, and we quickly established that they would be staying at the same place as us each night. He was very partial to wine and enthusiastically informed us about a legendary local wine called Est Est Est, that he was very keen to try.

Leaving Viterbo - Porta Romana

We headed off and made good progress through the suburbs of Viterbo. At a fork in the road, we headed left up a quiet looking track. We greeted a tall lean young man as we turned off, and he responded in with a well-spoken English accent. Ten minutes later, as we headed up a long hill, the lad caught us up, and we got chatting. After all the usual “where are you from’s etc.” we’d established this was Isaac. He’d gone to school in Reading, and was about to start his final year studying history at Keble College, Oxford. Clearly exceptionally bright, he was very likeable, and quite a character. He had walked the entire way of Via Francigena; Canterbury to the Swiss/French border in his Easter break, and the second half (through Switzerland and Italy) during the summer. He was having to power on to Rome to make sure he was back in time to go back to Uni. We had a fascinating chat, and he gave a great insight into life at Oxford; some of which sadly confirmed some of the negative preconceptions of privilege. For example, he was the only non-privately educated person doing his course. Oxford changing; my arse!

"oooh young man" - Cate chats to Issac

After 45 minutes of walking and chatting with Isaac we left him to power on, and took a rest. When we restarted, we headed off in the same direction as Isaac, but after 5 minutes our route App indicated we were going the wrong way. Frustrated, we trudged back up the hill and found our route. For some strange reason our route for the rest of today, and all of tomorrow is on a lesser-known variation of the Via Francigena. We came upon a road and headed into the big clearing opposite, and then veered off, following a track uphill to the right. Again, after 5 minutes or so, it became apparent that we were off route. Back down the hill, and turn right onto a barely discernible, and horribly overgrown “path” following a power line. This “path” was bloody atrocious, and we had to use our walking poles to hack our way 2 kilometres along it. After about an hour of fighting our way uphill along the route we emerged onto a road, our arms and legs covered with scratches and lacerations from all the brambles. Clearly, no-one from our company had checked this route for absolutely ages. Our thoughts turned to our older German friends who were almost certainly battling through it behind us as some point. Also going through our minds was, “if this is a lesser travelled route, will the rest of it be diabolical?”.

The bloody jungle route

That was just one side of one leg

Fortunately, our fears were unfounded, when we headed into the forest on the other side of the road. A lovely wide track going downhill, that afforded us occasional glimpses through the trees of Lago di Vico below. Finally, the path levelled out and we walked amongst all the Hazel Groves. All rather serene and beautiful. Just what we needed after the jungle earlier.

Within a couple of hours we hit the edge of Caprarola and headed down steep, narrow streets. We saw road signs for “centro” all pointing to the right, but our App just took us straight on. We came upon a big palatial building, which turned out to be “Villa Farnese”, a huge place that towered over the town. Just next to it was our B & B, and more importantly, a café that was open. Knackered after a very long 20 kilometres, we headed to the café for beer and coffee. The beer was sublime! Once we got to the café, we realised why all the signposts for Centro pointed elsewhere. The top end of the town was perched perilously on the edge of a hill, and the road through the centre was only wide enough for a one-way street. A truly spectacular location.

Finally, we roused ourselves to walk the last 30 metres to the B & B, and a lovely welcome from our host, Angela. She, likewise, called and booked us a table at one of the few open restaurants in the small town. What a star! Later on, in the restaurant, we met our German friends. Yes they’d made the same errors as us, and had also battled their way up the 2km long “Jungle Path”. They had, however, noticed that some of the greenery had recently been hacked back, and were grateful for us blazing (partly) a trail!

Fact of the day – apparently Caprarola is the “Hazelnut Capital of Italy”. So much so, it even boasts a Hazelnut Festival. I couldn’t help but think of Topic bars – “there’s a hazelnut in every bite”! Oh, and Whole Nut bars – “Nuts, oh Hazelnuts, oooh! Cadbury’s take them and they cover them in chocolate”. Now there’s a blast from the past!