Day 4: Stia to Camaldoli

 September 4, 2022

11 miles

2500 ft of gain

My first thought every morning when I wake up is, “Ugh, I can’t do this again.” But once I’m up, it’s fine and I’m ready to go. So we headed out on a beautiful morning, uphill, of course. There was dense forest, but also open vistas. A bit of every landscape.

Five miles in, we came upon our German friend, Inken, trying to tape her feet because she has blisters, so we stopped to help her. She is cutting her walk short today to rest her feet and we will see her at our next stop tomorrow.

Our walks are through very rural Italian countryside. There are no towns in between our nightly spots, and the “towns” we stop in for the night are quite small. Today’s stop in Camaldoli is in a town with a monastery from the Middle Ages, our albergo, Lacanda dei Baroni, a restaurant and two cafes. But the place is packed with people visiting on a Sunday afternoon. Maybe because it’s in the middle of a national forest? 

Our albergo was built in 1040, as a convent, across the street from the monastery. In the monastery, we visited a museum that had a lot of paraphernalia for making orujo, a drink like rappa or pisco. Those monks were not just praying and meditating.

Sometimes we pass dogs that are guarding livestock, goats or cattle, in the mountains. Yesterday we passed three huge dogs in the road that were quite aggressive to us. The herd of goats were all bunched together, peeking around a corner at us. When the dogs started following us down the road, the goats came out and followed their dog protectors. I was ready to smack a dog with my hiking pole, but they didn’t get close enough.

We’ve been eating quite a lot of pizza, so tonight for dinner we decided to eat at the monastery, which provides dinner family style. We sat with a family from Milan and got a lot of information about where to visit in Italy and where not to visit. The woman, Barbara, kept asking which towns were on our walk, but I really have no idea. Each night I just check the book to see where we will be tomorrow. 

We have been following or been followed by the group from Australia the entire way. Tonight they introduced us to a woman from Vermont who is walking. It’s strange that we haven’t ever seen her in the trail.