Biscina to Assissi May 30

                                                          Current Day                                           Trip to Date

Miles Walked                                          23.3                                                     265.2

Feet Climbed                                         2920                                                    31,640

Song of the Day:  She Lit a Fire by Lord Huron

I've been through the desert
And I've been across the sea
I've been walking through the mountains
I've wandered through the trees for her

Lord Huron is one of my new favorite groups the past few years.  Check this song out at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VUxh-jw-C-w.

I also want to use this song as an opportunity to pay respects to the always outstanding Linda.  Trips like this can be punishing to the body and the soul, and it is just so great to be able to share the opportunity and  fun, (and suffering) with Linda!  

I think today was the longest we have ever walked in one day.  I told Linda we should have walked another 3 miles and made it an official marathon. The walk to Assissi itself was a very challenging 18 miles, but then we piled on another 5+ miles walking the city this afternoon and evening.  These past three days alone  have been incredibly challenging from a hiking perspective.  We walked over 62  miles and climbed  7,400 feet during this time and our bodies feel it.  We were fortunate to have excellent weather these past three days.  We left our hotel at 7 am to try and beat some of the heat and also make sure that we arrived to Assissi in time to tour the city.   Turned out to be a good strategy.  

Assissi is a spectacular city, incredibly well preserved.  We last visited Assissi in 1999 or so.  Assissi had been hit by a major earthquake measuring 5.9 in 1997.  When we visited in 1999, many of the major sites, including the Basillica of St Francis were closed for repair.  So, today was very special to see these sites restored and repaired.  And I will tell you, Assissi is packed!  Unlike most of Umbria this past week, the tourists are pouring into Assissi.  

First, a couple of shots from the trail today.  I suspect they look like many other days- lots of woods, fantastic views, etc., but I will tell you, we never get tired of this stuff!:

Here are a couple of St Francis related photos from the trail.  The first a painting on a wall of the pact that St Francis made with the wolf of Gubbio.  The second, me in front of a statute of St  Francis along the trail.  By the way, all this stuff with St Francis and animals is a little weird to me.  We saw several items today about St Francis preaching to the birds and some other animals.  I guess there is some deeper meaning that is just lost on me.... 

Here are several photos of St Francis Basilica.  First from a distance.  One interesting thing about the Basilica is that it is actually two churches- there is a lower and upper Basilica.  The 2nd photo is the lower Basilica, the 3rd is the upper Basilica and finally the 4th is the tomb of St Francis, which is below the lower Basilica. 

And finally, a shot of St Francis at sunset (with the always stunning Linda):

I really wanted to make a song of the day selection by the Rascals today.  Could have been "A Beautiful Morning", "Come on Up", "People got to be free" or "Peaceful World" or  any number of songs. Side note: watch the you tube of Steven Van Zandt (of the e-street band and Lillehammer fame) introducing the Rascals into the Rock and Roll hall of fame.  Just outstanding.  You might recall that the leader of the Rascals was the great Felix Cavaliere.  I saw this sign today and was immediately reminded of the Rasacals:

Linda tells me this translates as Knights for Peace.  So, Felix Cavaliere is a knight of sorts!

A couple of other funny photos from today.  Saw these ladies walking on the street in Assissi, not a clue what they are up to:

And, I loved this photo of a monk playing with his smartphone during services in one of the churches:

Seems like when we are in Italy and Spain this time of the year, we always come across a lot weddings.  A couple of wedding related shots today.  The first is actually inside one of the churches we visited and the wedding was under way!  The second is a bride and groom we saw getting in their car.

Tomorrow is our last day of this portion of the trip.  We hike to Foligno, about 15 miles or so.  Then, oon Monday, we take a 4 hour train ride to our cooking school south of Rome.  This has been another very good hiking trip for us.  But, we are also looking forward to the cooking school experience.  

 

Gubbio to Biscina May 29

                                                          Current Day                                           Trip to Date

Miles Walked                                           17.1                                                 241.9

Feet Climbed                                          2090                                                  28,720

Song of the Day:  Boots by Nancy Sinatra

These boots are made for walkin'

And that's just what they'll do

One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you

Are you ready boots?

Start walkin'!

As we have been walking along the St Francis trail, I have been thinking about how to pay homage to America's own Italian Francis- the one and only Frank Sinatra.  So many great songs.  But, I actually decided to use a song from Frank's daughter Nancy, which is applicable to our hiking trip!

Today was a very pleasant, yet challenging walk.  After a terrific breakfast at our hotel (by far the best breakfast yet, but that's a pretty low bar...), we left the hotel around 8:30.  We stopped at the St Francis convent church on the way out of town.  Another very large church.  Man, those Catholics could build huge structures.  As I have said before, they really seem to have an edifice complex....

Gubbio is a great place to visit.  If you of you are coming to Italy, I highly recommend it.  One of our places on our trips to Italy.

As we were leaving town, we ran into a German couple we last talked to about a week ago.  This is a couple that hikes 3-4 months every year.  They seem to be having a good walk so far.  Funny, on this trip we have only encountered hikers from Germany and Austria and a few Americans.  No other Europeans.  

It was sunny again today, with temps in the low 60's when we left, low 70's when we arrived at Biscina, our destination.  I say Biscina, like it is some "place."  Actually, the only thing at this place is the Agriturismo Biscina where we are staying.  Over the years, we have stayed at several Agriturismo's and always enjoyed them.  Basically, they tend to be farms that have been converted to apartments.  Our place today is a lovely 2 bedroom apartment, part of a complex of about 6 apartments or so.  Once again though, we are the only people staying here.  Last year when we were in Tuscany at this same time, everything was packed.  And Florence was packed two weeks ago.  Umbria, not at all.  Here are a couple of photos from the agriturismo.  We are about 2000 feet high, surrounded by forest and vineyards.  A very beautiful place:

When it rains it pours...  Mores gnomes.  Here's Linda doing her best Grumpy impersonation.  It's a real stretch for her, so she gets extra credit for the effort that went into this one.....notice the almost regal structure these people put into housing the gnomes!  Can you see the fireplace where Snow White is?  This is right along the road we were walking on!

Here are some photos from the walk today.  We crossed several streams (and didn't fall in once!).

Tomorrow is the big walk into Assissi.  The book is saying 19 miles, almost 4000 feet of climb.  Not sure I trust this book, as they have been off many times (plus and minus).  I'm hoping they have overstated it for tomorrow....in any case, the weather forecast is for sunny and warmer.  We will try to get an early start to beat some of the heat and get there early enough to tour around.  We visited Assisi one other time in the late 90's with my Brother Bruce and his family and enjoyed it a lot. 

Pietralunga to Gubbio Italy 2015'May 27

                                                          Current Day                                           Trip to Date

Miles Walked                                           22.1                                                   224.8

Feet Climbed                                          2360                                                   26,630

Song of the Day:  Waiting on a Sunny Day by Bruce Springsteen 

I'm waitin', waitin' on a sunny day

Gonna chase the clouds away

Waitin' on a sunny day 

Well, we finally got the sun today!  We have indeed been waiting for this sunny day for over a week now.  This was a long day of hiking. First, the hike itself was a little over 18 miles.  Then we spent several hours exploring the beautiful town of Gubbio.  We had never heard of this place before today, but it is a very well preserved town dating back to ancient times.  We visited several museums, churches, and other sites during our tour of Gubbio today.  More about that later.  We are staying in a very nice hotel, adding to the overall pleasure of the day.

We were able to get an early start on the day, leaving our room at 7:30.  We passed lots of people on the trail today, including two college girls from North Carolina, a bunch of Italians,many of course many more Austrians.  We ended up walking with two Austrian women and a guy from Switzerland for a couple of hours today.  As always, we enjoy hearing their stories.  Here are a couple of photos from the trail today, including the ever popular photos with animals:

Today's song is one of many terrific songs from Springsteen's Rising album.  It is an outstanding album in and of itself, but was a particularly cathartic piece of work ip during the post 911 period.  Two days ago, when we were walking with another Austrian couple, the guy (norbert) is telling me how 911 was the greatest attack in the history of the world by a politician on his own people.  He said that "they" (I guess meaning some Europeans) had studied the World Trade Center falling down and determined that the planes could not have brought those buildings down.  Their conclusion was that the attack was engineered by Bush and Cheney as a predicate for the Iraq war. While I had heard of these kinds of stories being repeated in the Middle East, I was surprised to hear that there are people in Austria (what I generally think of as a reasonably rational part of the world) that buy into this stuff.  Personally, it offended the hell out of me and and I had to hold myself back from reacting to him.

On a more pleasant note, we have had some of our readers from Utah (that would be you Colleen!) ask for photos of Gnomes....well, you asked, and you shall receive.  The always popular Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs:

One of the stories from Gubbio deals with St Francis and the Wolf.  Here is the story of the wolf, per wiki:

The wolf of Gubbio was a wolf that, according to the Fioretti di San Francesco,^[1]terrorized the Umbrian city of Gubbio until it was tamed by St. Francis of Assisi acting on behalf of God. The story is one of many in Christian narrative that depict holy persons exerting influence over animals and nature, a motif common to hagiography.

And here is a statue of this event:

The patron saint of Gubbio is St Ubaldus.  Once again, we turn to the fountain of truth, wiki:

Ubald of Gubbio (Italian: Ubaldo; Latin: Ubaldus; French: Ubalde; ca. 1084–1160) was a medieval bishop of Gubbio, in Umbria, today venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church.....The devotion to the saint is very popular throughout Umbria, but especially at Gubbio, where in every family at least one member is called Ubaldo.  

Gotta wonder about those only children families....must be a lot of Ubalado's in Gubbio.  Funny, as I have gotten older, people have said to me "U bald(o)"?   Ok, a weak stab at Catholic humor, but here I am with old baldy himself:

We also visited a couple of interesting museums today.  Here is a photo of 7 old things and one relatively young thing:

The old things are 7 are tablets from the 3rd century BC.  

Here is the inside of the cathedral from the 12 century.  Fantastic arches.  

Finally, one other photo from the town today.  I seriously thought about making the song of the days"highway to hell" by AC/DC in honor of this sign, but decided it was too nice of day and town for this!:

Citta di Castello to Pietralunga Italy May 27

                                                          Current Day                                           Trip to Date

Miles Walked                                           11.7                                                     202.7

Feet Climbed                                          1510                                                   24,270

Song of the Day: Fixing a hole by the Beatles:

I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in

And stops my mind from wandering

Where it will go

The hardest parts of the day were leaving our hotel in Citta di Castello this morning and finding our lodging in Pietralunga this afternoon.  The hotel in Citta was supposed to drop us off on the trail about 10 miles outside of town.  But, there was significant confusion at the hotel, and we ended up waiting for 30 minutes or so while they figured it out.  Finally, some guy who looked like Lee Marvin  (if Lee Marvin had lived to be 97 years old), shows up in an old VW station wagon, and off we go!  We were flying around the hills, up and down little roads.  He drops us off, says this is the place, and away he goes.  He actually took us a bit further than we were supposed to go, but we weren't going to argue. Then, after walking for about three hours, when we get to Pietralunga, the instructions said the place is about 1 km ( a little over a half mile) outside of town on the trail.  Turns out the real answer is, it is several miles outside of town, and on a side road.  Fortunately, we were able to flag some people down and they directed us to the right place.

This is where we started out today, at this church along the trail:

Here we are just arriving at the entrance to the town:

Shortly after arriving at Piertralunga, came upon this road crew fixing a hole on the street.  Have seen a lot of this the past few days...

When we finally arrived at our lodging, it is a big old farmhouse place.  Nobody is there.  We look all over, and Linda discovers a key in one of the doors, which turns out to be our place!  Once again, we are the only people staying at the place.  This has happened at several of our hotels now.  I guess it's the time of the year, although last year, it was crowded when we were in Tuscany at this time. We have a beautiful two bedroom apartment in an agriturismo complex.  We were able to find a number to call and the proprietor came out to meet us (they live somewhere else) and she showed us all the ropes.  She will come by to pick us up at 7:30 tonight for dinner.  I am so grateful that Linda speaks reasonable Italian, because it would have been impossible to communicate with her.  Here are a few photos of the place.  The first is Linda sitting outside, the second is a small kitchen area that is part of the apartment.

Very similar weather again today- cool and misty in the morning, even some lite sprinkles.  Really didn't clear up or even warm up.

Food trucks have hit Italy, or at least portable pizza ovens:

A very long day tomorrow- likely around 18-19 miles, lots of climbing.  Fortunately, the weather should be a little better, with sun expected.  

Citta di Castello to middle of nowhere, Italy May 26

                                                          Current Day                                           Trip to Date

Miles Walked                                          14.3                                                     191.0

Feet Climbed                                           790                                                    22,760

Song of the Day:  Circle Game by Joni Mitchell

And the seasons they go round and round

And the painted ponies go up and down

We're captive on the carousel of time

We can't return we can only look

Behind from where we came

And go round and round and round

In the circle game

Almost an off day.  We basically walked about 5 miles out on the trail today, then turned around and walked back to Citta di Castello.  Just a big circle of sorts....and unlike Joni Mitchell, we could go back from where we came!  We then walked around the town for several hours, visiting a museum and several churches.  Not a memorable day, but a much needed break from long distance hiking. Still, by the end of the day, we had logged over 14 miles.   Here is a photo from the trail.  Notice all the trail signs.  In the past few days, the trail markings have become significantly better than the first few days.

One highlight of the walk today was visiting one of the largest cemetaries we have ever seen.  This thing must have been a half mile long and a quarter mile wide.  Here is a photo of one small section:

The weather this morning was actually pleasant, low 60's and relatively sunny.  Shortly after we arrived back to  the town, it began to pour down rain.  Heavy rain.  I fear the trails will be very muddy tomorrow.  It is supposed to rain tomorrow morning, then turn sunny and warmer for the next week.  That will be a welcome change.  We have been reading stories about all the rain in the USA, particularly Texas and Colorado. Too bad California couldn't get in on a little of this action!

The big highlight of the day is that we were able to send out laundry for cleaning!  This is what passes for big news in our little tiny world of hiking...

While walking around town this afternoon, we saw several of these stenciled spray pain signs on buildings.   Speaking of capitalism, most of the bars  have a tv or two constantly going.  It seems the Simpsons are always on at least one of the tv's.  Yesterday at lunch, they were showing "shark tank Italy" which is the same show as Shark Tank in the USA, right down to format, graphicss, etc.  Wonder how that show plays to the anti-capitalists?!

Citta di Cadtello is a town of about 40,000 people, but seems a bit tired and rundown.  That said there were a couple of nice areas, and as always in these towns, lots and lots of church's!

Tomorrow, our hotel will drive us out to where we left off today.  We then have a hike of about 15 miles.  Hopefully we won't get too wet in the process. Thursday to Sunday, we will have very long, challenging days of hiking, so today was a nice little rest (funny that a day with 14 miles of walking  would seem like a rest!).

Citerna to Citta di Castello May 25

                                                          Current Day                                           Trip to Date

Miles Walked                                          17.4                                                    176.7

Feet Climbed                                          2090                                                  21,960

Song of the Day:  Foggy Mountain Top by Van Morrison

Walk with me, baby

Up the foggy mountain top, what's that?

Keep on walking, keep on walking, baby

On the foggy mountain top

Keep walking with me baby

Up the foggy mountain top

I want to start out wishing all our American friends a very happy Memorial Day.  

When we woke up this morning, the sun was shining!  Hallelujah, it has a long time since we woke up to sun in the morning!  We started out from the mountain top town of Cisterna, and when you look out over the valley, it was totally foggy below.  Here is a photo of Linda with the proprietor of the country villa that we stayed an last night.  By the way, doesn't this guy look like Mike from Breaking Bad?!  Notice all the fog below:

Here are a couple of other  photos from Cisterna:

I also wanted to show a photo from the place we stayed last night.  Truly a beautiful place.  

Today was a very enjoyable walk.  A very reasonable 16 mile walk, with a climb of about 2000 feet.  As mentioned yesterday, this is a very agricultural  area.  The owner of the estate we stayed at last night owns a bunch of farm land around here.  He told me his primary crop is tobacco. He said that in Umbria, they grow "Kentucky" tobacco, whereas in Tuscany, they grow Virginia  tobacco.  Who knew there was a difference?  In any case, I think that is what he told me, as he was speaking in Italian!  We also passed some animals on the way.  This would be a good place for a clever Gary Larson caption....

For the last 6 miles or so, we met a couple from Austria (Norbert and Michela) and walked with them.  This evening we had drinks with them in Citta di Castello where we are staying.  A vey nice couple- she teaches kindergarten and he is an engineer, and fairly fluent in English.

A common item on the menus this past week or so has been various types of mushroom dishes.  Last night we had a terrific dish called Acqua Cotto.  This is a very simple, peasant dish, made with porcini mushrooms, parmigian and bread.  Probably more complex than that, but it was terrific.  I have had several dishes with truffles recently as well.  Today, I saw this truck, telling me that the mushroom business is big here:

About 10 minutes after arriving at our hotel today, it started raining.  Hard rain.  Tomorrow, the forecast is for sunny in the morning, and rain in the afternoon.  We have a sort of weird situation tomorrow.  The next major place with hotels is about 25 miles away, which is quite far for one day.  So we are staying in our hotel for 2 nights.  Tomorrow we will walk about 12 miles and then call the hotel.  They will come and get us and bring us back to our hotel.  Then, the next day, they will take us back to the trail to begin again from where we left off.  I am nervous that my phone won't get reception and we will be left out in the wilderness to be eaten by the wild Italian animals!  I guess we can always forage for mushrooms in the forest!  My luck, we will eat some poisoness mushrooms...

Sansepolcro to Citerna

                                                          Current Day                                           Trip to Date

Miles Walked                                          13.3                                                    159.3

Feet Climbed                                            990                                                  19,870

Song of the Day:  Down the Road by Steve Earle

Though the miles lay long behind you

You have still got miles to go

I was thinking about this Steve Earle song today as I was contemplating that while we have walked almost 160 miles, we are not even a third of the way through this trip.  On every long walking trip, we  reach this moment of truth realization somewhere around 150 miles.

First, the weather report.  When we left our hotel this morning, it started to sprinkle.  There is always this hesitation about whether to put rain ponchos on or not, because the process of putting them on and taking them off is not easy.  We hesitated and decided not to put them on.  Turned out to be a good decision as we did not have any more rain after that.  Just a cool, overcast day, not bad for hiking. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and warmer.  However, the current forecast has rain returning on Tue and We'd.  We will keep our fingers crossed for good luck on this one.

We met a very nice German couple- Norbert and Urike last night at our hotel.  They live in southern Germany in the Alps and are avid bikers.  We joined them for breakfast this morning and then saw them off on their 50 mile ride for the day:

Sansepolcro, where we stayed last night, is the corporate headquarters for Buitoni Pasta.  We often buy this at the grocery store in San Francisco.  We walked past their headquarters today, and I was fortune enough to snap a photo of Miss Buitoni, May 2015:

Today we walked to Citerna, a beautiful little hilltop village.  About half way through our walk, we crossed from Tuscany to Umbria.  Here is a photo of Cistern from afar and also a photo of Linda in the village:

I have commented in the past on the poster boards at the entrance to every village.  These boards usually contain death notices and other public information.  I liked this one from Cisterna that let us know that Marisa Torelli had died, a few other public notices, and also that the Fagioli festival is coming up next weekend.  Fagioli of course is Italian beans.  But what I find particularly interesting is the cartoon of two Cowboys sitting around a campfire, with a signpost showing different ways of cooking Fagioli.  Clearly, this is not in Italy, as you can see a cactus in the picture.  Made me wonder if this was a take off from the famous campfire scene from the Mel Brooks Movie Blazing Saddles?

Also, it is election time in several of the villages in Italy.  Here is an election poster for a guy running on a marijuana legalization platform!  By the way, doesn't this guy look suspiciously like the American actor Robert Blake?

We had a fantastic lunch at a restaurant in Cisterna today.  Probably the best meal we have had here yet.  Like many of the restaurants in Italy, this restaurant promotes the use of local and regional foods.  By the way, the slow food movement was actually started in Italy in 1986.  I had not realized how long that movement had been going on.  Our friend Curt Nelson is very involved in helping to finance the slow food movement in Austin, Texas. 

Tomorrow will be a somewhat longer day, probably about 16-17 miles walking.