Eva on the Via Francigena (and beyond)

Song of the Day: Everybody’s Talking — Harry Nilsson

“I’m going where the sun keeps shining / Through the pouring rain / Going where the weather suits my clothes / Banking off of the northeast winds / Sailing on a summer breeze / Skipping over the ocean like a stone”

Did you know Harry Nilsson didn’t actually write this song? No, it was written by Fred Neil. I’ve not heard the Fred Neil version of the song, though he has a very particular voice which I imagine works well. Anyway, this is a good exploring song. It was a short day today, but still much to explore.

After a pretty big night last night (after getting home from dinner I was on the phone with my dad trying to get the documents I need for my French visa application, so I didn’t get to bed till midnight) I decided to sleep in until after 7. This gave me the added benefit of, hopefully, missing out on some of the rain that was forecast for the morning.

I rolled out of bed and immediately remembered that today was the release day for 1989 (Taylor’s Version). That album holds a place near and dear to my heart, as it dropped as I was in my freshman year in college. I was interested to see how the re-record would sound as I think the previous re-recorded albums have been a mixed bag. So, as I packed I was live texting a few friends my thoughts — apologies to Jhanelle, Gillian, and Theresa who would have woken up to about 30 texts about the album.

Just as I was heading to reception to drop off my key on my way out, I remembered that breakfast had been included in my room rate — and I was actually leaving late enough that breakfast was available. Turning on my heels I headed down to the breakfast room where I made a makeshift sandwich out of bacon and those sorta-gross hotel scrambled eggs (a luxury for me, no complaints here), which I wolfed down before leaving. I made my way once again through Viterbo’s medieval quarter, past the Palazzo dei Papi, out of town to the McDonald’s, which plays a key role in today’s navigation.

There are two (ehhh…2.5) routes out of Viterbo. The one recommended in the guidebook involves walking to this McDonalds and continuing on, left at the fork, for a few miles — or taking a short detour by heading right at the fork (thus the 0.5). This route is about 9 miles long and relatively flat. The other route is more like 16 miles long and hilly, and though the guidebook doesn’t mention it, the VF app treats this as the “official” route. Anyway, I was going with the guidebook route, so forked left at the Golden Arches.

The real reason for taking this route is not because it is short or flat (though that helps…) No, it’s to walk in the fascinating Via Cava that the path traces for the first hour of the day. Here, 2500 years ago the Estruscans carved these roads deep into the soft tufa stone, connecting their cities to burial areas. On a side note, I am very fascinated by the Estruscans, who were a very sophisticated pre-Roman society. This was such a cool way to start the day, with the narrow road curving between soft stone walls that got progressively higher and narrower, with a few protruding ominously at the top. I sang along to Taylor Swift as I walked, admiring once again the crazy history of this path.

After maybe an hour I unfortunately was out of the Via Cave and walking through fields, before connecting to a path along the highway. It was extremely windy here as I walked alongside cabbage plants, loudly singing along to Taylor’s “Clean” — a song that deserves to be sung loudly and into the wind. I waved at farmers in their tractors and watched trucks whiz by on the Autostrada just above me, before cutting through an underpass and eventually diverting off a paved road to a rocky trail. This trail cut through an olive grove, where I ran into three Italian women from Modena. The wind had picked up and was blowing dust into my eyes, even with my sunglasses on for protection, and I ended up spending the next hour or so with something painfully irritating my left eye, which encouraged me to speed up a bit.

After a quick vista over the Maremma plain, it was back to olive trees, carefully planted in rows in fields and backyards. Some of these must have been old — their branches extended out to radiuses of even 10 feet, drooping with the weight of ripening fruit. These began to be interspersed also with hazelnut trees — this area is one of the main hazelnut-growing regions in all of Italy, and an important source of the crop for Ferrero, who make Nutella. Eventually I found a fountain, the first I had seen all day, and after flushing out the dust from my eyes felt much better.

The rest of the walk was mostly on paved roads into Vetralla. I stopped briefly at a bench furnished by (or in memory of) a woman named Barbara. In addition to offering a stamp, they had a lovely wooden carving of the next stages, and some helpful information on points of interest coming up. I love to see these homegrown instances of hospitality — they mean a lot to a weary walker!

Up one more hill and I was in the “lower” part of Vetralla, where I pulled into an alimentari and asked the woman at the counter for a sandwich. I told her I didn’t care what was in it, just something local, and she happily pulled out a capocollo viterbese and some sort of young cheese. I added to that a pear and a chocolate bar (the kind with whole hazelnuts, yum) and a Gatorade, and climbed yet another hill to the upper town to have lunch on a bench.

It was a 10 minute walk from there to the San Francesco parish, where the pilgrim hostel is. By the way, they have made it very difficult for pilgrims to find this hostel but it does exist — there is a phone number on Gronze that works. The hostel didn’t open until 2 so I sat at a bar with wifi to work on editing the blog posts that went up today. This two a day cadence means I spend a decent chunk of time each afternoon editing, uploading photos, adding captions, etc.

At 2 I checked into the hostel, where I am the only staying tonight. After the normal chores, I headed back into town to another bar for an aranciata and free use of their wifi, so I could do the first stage (of two) of the French visa application. I stress-ate a full box of Tic Tacs while trying to navigate the site and ensure I had included all of the required information before paying the submission fee. All in all this took about an hour since the site crashed on me at one point and I had to start over. In the meantime a group of middle-aged women had sat at the table next to me and started smoking, so my head was spinning and I felt a bit woozy by the time I stood up and got ready to go.

After a quick break back at the hostel to try and figure out my accomodation for tomorrow, I was back in town in search of dinner. I ran into Ian and Ruth from Canada, who had been headed for the same restaurant as me but found it closed. We ended up going to a takeaway pizza place and chatting for awhile about family and life back at home in Canada and the US.

On the way back to the hostel I caught up with my dad, and then did some writing and reading before bed. Tomorrow will be back to a normal cadence of ~15 mile days, so no more late alarms for me.

Final mileage: 11.68 mi
Walking time: 4h 19m
Elevation gain: 1,115 ft

Accommodation: Ostello San Francesco. A bit hard to find the right contact, but the hostel itself is perfectly fine! On the far end of town from the way out, so add maybe 15 minutes to your estimate for the walk the next day.