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Day 14: Valfabbrica to Assisi

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 September 14, 2022 10 miles 1700 feet of elevation gain I awoke with mixed feelings this morning. Sorry to be ending our camino, the beautiful views, wonderful people, mindless routine of walking, eating, sleeping. But also glad to be ending, glad to have accomplished this and glad to be able to rest a little. We met Alberto in the town bar for a quick coffee and croissant and we were on our way. We talked politics a little, and I got the feeling that Alberto didn’t think too highly of America. Not just trump, but America’s place in the world and its influence on other countries. It was interesting to hear a perspective from a European. Assisi can be seen from quite a distance away and as we got closer, we saw there was a very steep climb into the city. It’s always disorienting to come into a new city, but today felt especially so because it was full of tourists which felt a little claustrophobic after the small towns and wild forests we’ve been walking through. We had booked a ho...
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Day 13: Eremo San Pieto to Valfabbrica

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 September 13, 2022 14 miles 2400 feet of elevation gain Luigi had breakfast ready by 7:00 this morning so we could all get an early start. Of course, he wanted to say a prayer for us in the chapel before we left, but no more feet washing. We walked away knowing we had experienced something very special there. We started walking in the wrong direction because we were busy talking with Alberto, who was walking with us. We ended up walking the entire distance with him and later Pieta, talking about politics, our country’s customs, our families and life stories, and our experiences and feelings about this camino. Since today is our next to last day walking, it was a nice wrap-up of the adventure. In the area we walked through today, there were large animal prints that looked like a wolf. There is a legend that during the Middle Ages  there was a village that was being tormented by a wolf. The wolf was attacking and killing humans. So the villagers called on St. Francis to interve...
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Day 12: Gubbio to Eremo San Pietro in Vignelo

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 September 12, 2022 10.3 miles 1150 feet of gain We let ourselves out the back door of the vacant hotel and started on our way. Quickly, we met up with two Italian men, Alberto, who made the reservation for our lodging tonight and his friend, Mikela, both from northern Italy. Then we came upon Pia and another woman from Germany, Pieta. It was one of the most beautiful days of hiking, maybe because it felt so short compared to the past two days of 18 miles, and I could relax and enjoy it. We arrived at our lodging, a convent called Eremo San Pietro in Vigneto, in the middle of the countryside. The only people here were our pilgrim friends and another Italian couple (her name is Roberta, Birds!), so we all went into the sleeping room and chose a bunk. Showered, laundry and then suddenly a man, Luigi, drove up with food for lunch: two different pastas, rice, eggs, olives, cheese, ham, cake, wine and beer. Like manna from heaven. So we sat for a few hours eating and talking. A couple f...
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Day 11: Pietralunga to Gubbio

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 September 11, 2022 17 miles 2300 feet of elevation gain Early morning departure today since we were anticipating another long day. On the way out of town we stopped in a bar for a coffee and croissant. Pia came in with 3 other pilgrims we hadn’t met yet. We started talking about how we had no place to stay tomorrow night and if we had to walk to the nearest town with accommodations it would be 20 miles. One of the pilgrims, an Italian man named Alberto said that he was staying in a convent about halfway. He reached for his phone and said he would give us the number to reserve beds, but when I looked over, he was already calling the convent. Pia asked him to reserve her a bed too and he ended up reserving beds for all of us. So all of our lodging for the trip is now taken care of except our last two nights in Rome. We thought the day would be somewhat easier than yesterday, but it turned out to be almost the same distance. Most of it was through that beautiful Italian countryside t...
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Day 10: Citta di Castello to Pietralunga

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 September 10, 2022 18.3 miles 2700 feet of elevation gain We left Hotel Umbria early in the morning because we knew we had a long day ahead of us. We walked 1.5 miles just to get out of town and then another 4 miles along a road before hitting the turnoff for the trail. As we walked, the Australians went by in a cab, skipping the 5.5 miles on the road. We met up with Pia and walked with her for a few miles, but she’s 19 years old, with long legs so she soon took off and was quickly far ahead of us. There were some hills to climb, but the hardest thing about today’s walk was the distance. It was just really long. Even Enrique’s feet hurt and he doesn’t usually have problems with them. Pietralunga is built on the top of a hill, as are most towns here.  After walking 18 miles, the greatest injustice was that we had to climb a huge amount of stairs to get into town. I wish I had counted them, but I had no idea there would be so many. We found our lodging, B&B Gaigo, and after...
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Day 9: 5 km past Citerna to Citta di Castello

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 September 9, 2022 9.5 miles 1500 feet of elevation gain Our walk began in Florence in the Tuscany region, following  the Arno River Valley and into the Apennine Mountains. Now we have left Tuscany and entered the region of Umbria, following the Tiber River. The landscape has also changed dramatically. At the beginning of our walk we went through vineyards and olive groves and then into rugged mountains that had few towns or villages along the way. Now we are seeing agricultural valleys and more towns. It seems more civilized now. Yesterday we walked 5 km past the end of that day’s itinerary which shortened today’s walk by 5 km. Because the walk was shorter, we could sleep in and have breakfast at 8:00 at our albergo. Patricia, the owner, doted on us since we were the only ones staying other than a woman who was not a pilgrim. Patricia is an excellent cook and spoiled us with dinner and a huge breakfast this morning. She even lent me a pair of slippers to wear during my stay b...
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Day 8: Santo Stefano to Citerna

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 September 8, 2022 11 miles 1500 feet of elevation gain The day started with an unusually large breakfast. We had to say goodbye to Inken and I was sad knowing we would not see her again. She has become a good trail friend. Our plans are to finish our walk in Assisi and go to the Amalfi Coast for a few days of relaxation. We have an Airbnb booked for September 16th, and since we want to spend a full day in Assisi sightseeing, we have to arrive there on the 14th. Since there are 15 days of hiking to get there, we had to skip one day somewhere and decided that would be today. It will put us a day ahead of the people  we have gotten to know on the trail. After breakfast we walked down the street to the bus stop. When the bus came, we got on and Enrique started to hand money to the driver, but he said (in Italian) that we had to buy a ticket before getting on the bus and he pointed down a street. He said he would wait five minutes for Enrique to go and get the ticket. Enrique...
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