Our hotel last night was in the perfect location. It was next to the church and at the highest point of a hill with a beautiful view. Despite that, we both had a terrible sleep. I feel like I slept on a marble slab. Are there really people in this world that like sleeping on a mattress as hard as stone? I woke up at my usual ungodly hour of 0600. As you may already know, I aim to catch the sun rise. This morning, the fog was so thick that we could hardly see 5 feet from our window.
Breakfast was included but minimal. 2 slices of ham, 2 slices of cheese, a yogurt and a cafe latte for me. I sat there in our corner and could feel someone's eyes on me. It was an elderly couple and the wife was staring at me but not smiling. It became uncomfortable and I could feel her eyes bore through my soul. I was distracted by the delivery of our cappuccinos. Once again Julie gets a heart and I get a blob.
There are only a few people who will get this but... as I left this morning, my theme song came on... "Fame". I sing that song all the time when I'm feeling goofy at work and at home so it seemed funny to me to actually hear it playing in the background.
Our morning intentions were to explore the town of San Miniato and its churches before leaving but we didn't.
We just started walking and talking and amusing ourselves with the mini traffic lights and mini cars.
It was a fresh morning, the fog lingering but leaving the town had us first heading downhill and then of course back up. Julie isn't really a morning person which she usually manages to hide but today we walked through an olive garden and I saw both black and green olives in the tree and many squashed black ones on the ground. I love olive oil but eating an actual olive is a no for me. So I asked Julie, as we were climbing, if the olives were ripe when they are black and through her slightly laboured breathing she hissed and said, "What do I look like? A fucking olive expert?"
So note to self: Julie likes olives but is not an expert. Also refrain from asking about olives before 10am.
As we continued climbing I said "my quads are burning" and Julie mumbled "my whole body is burning" of course with that, I burst into laughter. Just as the road began to level off, Julie's morning mood began to lighten. I knew I had her back when we passed a roadside mirror and Julie stopped to check her reflection and fix her hair.
We laughed about that for a bit as I stopped to take off a layer. The sun was trying to come out. I offered to shove her jacket in my backpack but she declined and said "I don't want you to have to carry my stuff" so I said, "Why? It's a light jacket, it's not like I offered to carry your cosmetic bag" and with that Julie busted out in hardy laughter.
We were walking side by side at one point and a flying insect flew into the side of my head which needless to say freaked me out momentarily but when Julie looked at me with big eyes, I played cool and said, "it was nothing". Then I had this visual in my head of some creature hitching a ride on my shoulder so I stopped and asked Jules to check my hair and back. She turned to face me, checked my hair and shoulder and then in a panicked voice she backed away saying repeatedly "oh my God, oh my God, oh my God" I'm fairly certain all of the colour drained away from my face in terror and then Julie started laughing and I knew she could no longer be trusted. She has pranked me a few times now. All I said with a smirk as we continued on was "Karma Julie... Karma is coming for you".
There were no facilities today on this section of the trail. No cafés or businesses of any kind, just a few large homes strategically built with views of green hills in every direction and a farm or two. Of course we saw many of the infamous Cypress trees of Tuscany lining the streets.
After about 7kms of quiet roadside walking, the trail became a dirt path and went well into nature.
We were stopped in our tracks by what appeared to a lone buck in a field up ahead. As we approached him it became apparent that he was artistically created with a collection of twigs and sticks woven together to form his large shape.
Close by was a tree and a bench where we stopped for a rest and a snack. Next to the bench was an upside down pot covering a tin can that held a journal and pens.
A green lizard lived underneath the stones that held the can. We read a few entries and added our own.
Soon after, a man and his dog came to inspect the statue and we said hello.
Stefano, a retired Italian police officer and his Jack Russell named Wiski. We chatted briefly before they went on ahead of us. We climbed some more hills, walked through another farm with roosters and geese sounding their alarms and eventually made it to a shady lane.
The sun came out and the clouds left us with the brightest blue sky.
We were forced to create our own facilities roadside for nature's calls and this seemed as good a time as any to meet our first pilgrims. I was on watch duty while Julie ventured into the wild to find her spot.
She knew they were behind us and approaching but she couldn't wait anymore. What she didn't know was how long she would take versus the speed of their steps. Her voice from the bushes was slightly panicked as she said "are they coming close??" I was starting to giggle now and answered with "yup, on their final approach" and in the bushes I see Julie struggling to get her bottoms back up moments before being visible. It was close but she was successful. The pilgrims were Jenny and Roger from the UK. An elderly couple and they were sweet and friendly. They told us of four more pilgrims behind them. Jenny says "we saw you at the hotel this morning" and I realized this lovely woman was the one staring at us at breakfast.
We walked on ahead of them after a brief chat and I took this encounter as a reminder to not judge a book (or a Jenny haha) by its cover.
It was past lunch hour and we had been carrying only some fruit and snack bars. We turned a corner and bumped into Stefano and Wiski again. We all walked together and shared more conversations and even shared lunch at a rest area next to an abandoned monastery.
Before coming to Italy on this trip, many signs were pointing me to Sardinia. It was added to my bucket list about a year ago. Stefano lives on the island of Sardinia and has given us an open invite to beach camp on his land. I'm fairly certain Julie will never camp again (I've invited her repeatedly). I, on the other hand, am a nature freak and will most certainly plan on a wild beach adventure. I fully intend to keep in touch with Stefano and hope to see him again in Sardinia. Perhaps we will even bump into him again on the trail.
We parted ways after lunch and we met young Anna soon after.
She is one of the four pilgrims mentioned by our Brit friends earlier. Her brother, father and Uncle went ahead of us and she walked with us ladies for a few kms. Also Italian, she was tall, beautiful and smart. She spoke excellent English, learned through her studies, she was cheerful and a joy to share the trail with. We were all fascinated by this section of the trail.
The rolling hills were stunning and the grass the brightest of green accentuated by the bright blue sky.
It was a gorgeous day, a long one and after meeting fellow pilgrims, it felt very much like a Camino should, sore feet and all.
Anna stopped to rest with her family and we wished them well. After climbing a small section of the trail we came to an old country house and at the front in a sunny spot sat an elderly local gentleman.
It was a very typical scene to me and I asked to photograph him. He proudly grinned hiding his missing teeth and allowed it. Julie had a chat in Italian with him and she is getting better at remembering to translate for me. He got up from his chair to show us the town in the distance.
He was a lovely man and asked us if we were going to Rome. He then asked us to say hello to the Pope. His name was Salvatore and he was a kind soul.
We had already walked 22kms and expected only 2 more but we passed a sign that indicated another 5kms to go. We could see a town on a hilltop but it just looked so far and Julie's energy began to wane a little.
I still had fuel but had only the one coffee in the morning and was already salivating thinking about a really giant glass of wine. With 4kms to go, Julie was done. Couldn't take another step. So when we saw a taxi number spray painted on a cement wall at the top of our final climb, we called and after a long 30 min wait we were picked up and dropped off in the centre of the tiny town. Our host that met us at our new home for the night was a young man named Cristiano and oddly enough reminded me of my own Christian. He gave us the key and rather than settle in I told Jules that I really need to be outside, drinking wine and though her feet ached and her legs had seized, she was all in. We found a bar nearby and it was the only thing open at the time. It was 530 or so and restaurants weren't opening until 7. So wine and chips it was... my favourite.
The bartender looked similar to our host but perhaps even more beautiful. He also had long hair but neatly tied it back. A close to the face, well groomed beard, beautiful eyes and a smile. He was polite, friendly and hard working. He was tall, slim and had a deep voice. I tried not to stare but he was THAT handsome. His name was Donato and I was right, he was Christiano's brother. I spent the hour trying to figure what was wrong with him but couldn't. Just before we paid and left, he stepped outside and I saw him have a smoke and I thought 'there it is'. The image of perfection... shattered.
We went another 100 steps just after 7 to eat and was limited again to steak, salad and potatoes. No complaints here...
Hopefully a good night's sleep.
Buona Notte x
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