Day 11: Pietralunga to Gubbio

 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 that I can’t get enough of:

We were supposed to be done at mile 15, but at that point we had just reached town and walked another two miles to the town center and then our hotel, Grotta della ‘Angelo. The woman checking us into the hotel told us that the restaurant was closed and actually the whole hotel was closed because they were leaving on a two day vacation after a busy summer. She showed us the back door that we could use to get into the building. I think we might be the only ones staying here. It’s a little creepy.

I could have used a rest, but after showering, we went right back out to see the town. Gubbio is a large medieval town built into a hill with lots of stair climbing. There are churches everywhere, unless it’s all one big church and church bells are ringing constantly. St. Francis was buried here and his crypt is now a museum.

There’s also a Roman amphitheater that unfortunately was restored over the years with brick instead of the stone that would have made it more authentic.

Three more days of walking and we will be in Assisi.