Eva on the Via Francigena (and beyond)

Song of the Day: Pulaski at Night — Andrew Bird

“I’ll paint you a picture / but it never looks right ‘ ‘Cause I fill in the shadows / and block out the light”

This song was one of a few on a playlist that I listened to a lot in 2016 — including on that Irish roadtrip with Derek, where it was a great companion to vast grassy landscapes. Today, it was a companion for a river crossing and road walking….damn, maybe I should have used Rivers & Roads by The Head & The Heart…

I woke up naturally this morning at 6:45 am, despite not having an alarm set until 7 — so much for sleeping in! Joanne and Mariella’s beds were empty, and I could hear them in the kitchen downstairs. I padded down to join them, and we sat for awhile sipping tea and coffee and snacking on biscuits. Suddenly, I heard someone appear behind me. I turned around,e specking Daniel, and recoiled when I realized it was a man I had never seen before.

“You must be Giovanni,” Joanne said, assuming he was the proprietor of the hostel. “No,” the man responded. “I’m Piero.” Us three women at the table stared at him in confusion. Another pilgrim? No, as it turned out, he was a marathoner — here to run a marathon this morning on the banks of the Po. Suddenly, out of the dark stairwell two other men emerged. Where the hell did these guys come from?

One of the marathoners went straight to the fridge, rummaged through it, and angrily turned to us. “There is no fizzy water?!” He asked, indignant. I tried to stifle a snort as Joanne responded “well, in a pilgrim hostel, we drink tap water.” The marathoner stared as if we had asked him to drink sewer water, then gestured and rolled his eyes. “Pilgrims…” he complained. Can’t say I was a fan of this guy,

I went back upstairs to pack as the kitchen was feeling crowded. In the girl’s room I turned to Joanne: “It’s a little alarming that three men came in in the middle of the night and none of us noticed anything…” she laughed in agreement. Though apparently they left the lights on, and she had gotten up in the middle of the night to turn them off.

After much confusion, the marathoners left, and Cristina (one of the hospitaleras) came to apologize to us about the confusion — we deflected, it really wasn’t an issue — but she expressed her own frustration that these guys had showed up unannounced at midnight, waking her and making lots of noise. Daniel agreed that he had been woken up by the commotion. Well, what can you do.

At around 8:30 the four of us set out for the banks of the Po, snapping a picture before heading out. Today was an important day — we would be crossing the Po with Danilo, the legend of the Via Francigena. Danilo is a septuagenarian who has been transporting pilgrims across the river for 25 years — in that time he has transported about 12,000 pilgrims! So, excitement was high as we prepared to meet this rockstar.

It was only a 5 minute walk to the river. In the morning it was beautiful: a slight haze covering the sun, banks of trees lining the water, marathoners weaving their way past us. The banks were high up above the water, and there was a steep ramp down to a dock. We sat for 15 minutes or so with another pilgrim waiting, admiring the signage for this historic crossing point. It’s still almost impossible to believe that thousands of years ago Hannibal crossed here with elephants!

At 9 am promptly, Danilo pulled up with his boat. We loaded up our packs, introduced ourselves, and took off down the river. I haven’t been on water since the boat on Lac Leman, and it felt amazing to fly down the river, wind in my hair and sun on my face. I was near the front of the boat so couldn’t fully hear as Danilo chatted with the other pilgrim, an Austrian woman cobbling together pieces of various caminos to get her to Cremona. After many photos and maybe 20 minutes, we started to pull toward the opposite bank — but there was no dock in sight.

“The normal dock is inaccessible,” Danilo said, “but it’s okay, there are some stairs here.” Suddenly he rammed the boat into the muddy bank. “Stay here,” he told us while he hopped off the boat and did his best to further pull us onto the bank, assisted by Daniel. After a few attempts, he figured we were all set, and one by one we put on our packs, jumped into the mud, and climbed up a set of “stairs” (pieces of metal sticking out from the dirt” to the bank. Once we were all safely on land once again, we followed Danilo to a garden near his home, where there was a column similar to one we had seen on the other bank. He gave us a short lecture on the history of the river crossing, used not just by Roman legions and medieval pilgrims but also by the Saint Colombano. He told us the story of Saint Colombano and Saint Gallo, who traveled south from Ireland together before splitting up in Switzerland after an argument. Saint Gallo’s remains live in a church not too far from here, and a few years ago a group of locals reunited the friends by bringing Gallo’s skull to visit Colombano’s skull in Bobbio.

Following our history lesson, we made our way to Danilo’s house, where he brought out a massive book and what looked like a wooden doorknob. As it turns out this was his massive credential stamp. We wrote our names, ages, departure points, and destinations in the book. I believe I was pilgrim number 828 that he has ferried this year. He also asked our occupations which gave me a bit of a crisis (I forgot that I could simply put “unemployed” as an option, and also I don’t remember the word in Italian). After some internal debate I put “Consulente d’affari” which is a semi-accurate description of my last job at WFP. We stayed chatting with Danilo for awhile and he shared his statistics that he keeps, going back to 1998, when he ferried 2 pilgrims. Around 10am, we needed to get going, so we thanked him and headed on our way.

On our way to Calendasco, I walked with Joanne and Mariella walked with Daniel (the Austrian woman had left hurriedly as soon as she got her stamp). We remarked on how unique of an experience it was — and how we hope that there will be someone to carry on Danilo’s legacy when he decides he can no longer operate the ferry. It really is one of the most memorable moments of the pilgrimage.

After 30 minutes or so the four of us arrived in Calendasco, where we took over a table for a second breakfast. I had a donut that was tasty (if a bit rubbery) and no coffee today as I was still feeling a bit queasy. We chatted for awhile, but by 11 decided we needed to get on the road. It’s still hot — no signs of the heat breaking — and the late start meant we would be walking in the peak of the heat. Plus, the rest of today promised a not-very-inspiring bit of road walking.

I walked with Joanne for awhile, into the next town where we saw a road sign for Puglia (if only, I would love to go to the beach!). After awhile the distance between us pilgrims began to stretch out, and unfortunately I never really got a chance to say a proper goodbye and thank you to the three of them.

Head down, I made my way along a quiet country road onto a bike path that bordered a nature preserve. Then, a series of confusing signs encouraged pilgrims to follow the road up a hill to cross a bridge. I didn’t realized I needed to go under both bridges, and ended up on the wrong side of a busy road. I waited for a break in the traffic and nervously ran across to the bike lane on the other side without incident. I followed this road for 20 minutes or so, and then decided to follow the app which suggested a turn-off, which made me think this road walking would get more dangerous.

In the end, I kind of wished I had stayed on the road — this detour added another 30 minutes with limited pay-off, other than passing a fountain where I could douse my bandana and quickly stop in the shade to reapply sunscreen. But, it is what it is, so I put on a podcast and powered through he remaining 30 minutes of suburbs before entering Piacenza’s charming historical center.

In retrospect, I think I have been dealing with a minor virus the last few days, which would explain the extreme exhaustion and the constant waves of nausea. By the time I got into Piacenza, I was feeling pretty ill. Luckily I didn’t have to wait too long for my Airbnb host, who showed me around and then took his leave. After a few minutes of rest, I headed back out to grab a late lunch: chicken and rice felt like all I could stomach, which I ate over FaceTime with my parents as they had Sunday breakfast. After a shower and laundry I passed out for maybe an hour, read my book for a bit, and then headed out for dinner.

My Airbnb host had recommended a place called Osvaldo as the only one likely to be open on a Sunday night — it was a bit more upscale than I expected, but they had a bar counter for singletons like me to sit, thankfully. I had a small but delicious dinner of anolini in brodo. I love pasta in brodo, it’s one of my favorite Italian dishes, and it was exactly what I needed this evening. After dinner I went for a quick walk around the city center, and then headed back to read before falling asleep. Tomorrow is a much-needed rest day. Looking forward to it.

Final mileage: 10.03mi
Walking time: 5h 13m
Elevation gain: 571 ft