Pontassieve to Consuma Monday May 18

Pontassieve to Consuma Monday May 18

                                                                   Current Day                                Trip to Date                            

Miles Walked                                                 16.9                                            62.5

Feet Climbed                                                4510                                            6560

Songs of the Day: One Step Up by Bruce Springsteen:

Somewhere along the line I slipped off track 

I'm caught movin' one step up and two steps back 

Toward the end of every show, Bruce Springsteen introduces each of the band members ("Mighty Max Weinberg", "professor Roy Bittan", "Miami Steve Van Zandt", "The Great Nils Logfgren", "Phantom Dam Federici", the "lovely Miss Patti Scialfa", "The Big Man Clarence Clemons") concluding with something like "You've just seen the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, house-rocking, earth -quaking, love-making le-gen-dary E-Street-Band"!  It's always a highlight of any Springsteen concert.  I was thinking about that in relation to the walk today, something like "You've just Experienced the heart attack making, thigh bursting, vomit inducing, calorie burning, gut busting, awe inspiring, hike from Pontassieve to Consuma"!

We knew this was going to be a challenging hike, but it was made even more so by getting (badly) lost a couple of times.  In both cases, we had to wind our way back down the mountain and look for the sign for a missed turnoff.  Again, sort of like Springsteen- except  one mile up and two miles back!  The trail is poorly marked in many places and we have no maps for this hike, only detailed instructions that read like this:

"At about 5km, at the Y-junction, take the dirt track going softly downhill to the left in the woods. After 300m, ignore a track coming from the left and continue on the main track going softly uphill.Just leaving the wood, at the grassy junction, take the grassy track going uphill to the right (VR and n 21 path).  After 150 m, you will arrive at another grassy junction. Pay attention to take the grassy footpath going right toward a yellow house (no sign here)."

When we walked the Camino in Spain a couple of years ago, it was unbelievably well marked, with bright yellow markers seemingly every 100 feet or so.  We are on the St Francis trail (also called the San Francesco trail locally) and it is not even close to the Camino level of markings or even the level of the Via Francigina in Italy which we hiked last year.  So, we just have to pay closer attention going forward.

Not withstanding the poor trail markings, today was one of the most beautiful walks we have done.  We left Pontassieve at 7:30, to a bright sunny day.  The first three miles of the walk were straight uphill through vineyards and olive groves:

After two hours, we stopped for coffee in a small village.  As we continued to climb higher into the mountains, the air became slightly cooler.  This was very welcomed, as it was beginning to warm up, with the temps reaching the low 80's.  

We passed several cemetaries along the way.  I had the feeling they were there for the heart attack victims who were foolishly climbing a mountain on a hot sunny day!  Believe me, there were times that I thought about joining them!

We also passed several small churches along the way, to say a prayer for strength to the walking God:

Even though we had already climbed a significant amount, the trail then took a turn into a forrest and became very steep and narrow.  The other challenge at this point was that the air was filled with swarms of various flying insects, which we both managed to inhale in huge quantities...leading to the vomit inducing portion of the trip! 

 

Finally, we exited this portion of the walk, and entered a wider track in dense forrest.  Very beautiful and calm.  After almost 17 miles and 4500 feet of climb, we reached the village of Consuma.  At this point, we needed to make a phone call to the proprietor of our hotel to pick us up, as it was located almost 10 miles away.  This is due to the fact that Consuma really doesn't have any hotels, only country types of B&B's. We had to wait for an hour for him to come pick us up, which we spent drinking cokes in a small bar.  Finally, we arrived at our B&B, operated by the proprietor Ronald and his elderly  mom Goiya (not sure I spelled that right, but it sounded like Joya in English).

I had a New Jersey board of directors meeting yesterday that I needed to call into.  I ended up sitting on a couch in the living room (where the Internet worked best) for over three hours, with my headphones on.  From time to time, I would ask questions and enter into discussions with the people at the meeting.  I'm sure Goiya wondered  what the hell that crazy American was doing!

Linda managed to coerce Ronald into using their washing machine to do our clothes.  This is a real treat on the trail, as we normally wash them in the sink.  So, we have clean clothes for s few days.

Goiya turned out to be a very interesting woman.  At dinner that night, she regaled us with stories from her past. She had been married to an American guy when she was 18 years old, then divorced with a baby (Ronald) 5 years later.  In opposition to family pressures, she moved back to Italy and started her own import/export business.  This is in the 50's and 60's.  She told stories how it was very unusual for a woman to run a business and some of the problems it created.  For example, the Saudi's would not do business with a woman, so she had one of her employees act as the boss in front of the Saudi's and she would pretend to be a secretary!  We really enjoyed her company, and stayed up late drinking wine and listening to her stories.  By the way, we also had another outstanding Italian meal at their house.  Here is a photo of the back of the home where we are, along with Goiya, her son Ronald, and Ronald's Chinese girlfriend (a whole other set of stories!).  All in all, a delightful evening.