This is at the laundry area from past times. Inside are the places the women would scrub their clothes and most likely those of their families. A different time!
The old town is pretty interesting dating from Byzantium with Arab and Frankish influences. As you can see, the city was originally built into a cliff hollow which provided excellent protection and as we discovered walking in and later out of the city, tremendous concealment.
These photos are taken from the high cliffs above where the Byzantine fortress was situated. The city is below these cliffs.
Looking out the other side to the NW.
With Annemarie writing a bit of a feature bit for today, I'll wait until I receive it and add my photos from our dinner to illustrate. In the meantime I'll post photos from our walk today. It was a pretty nice day for walking with cloud and sunny periods for the majority of the time. Definitely not too hot considering the steep climbs today. We have really found our legs these past two stages (tappe in Italian) and generally speaking the jet lag is in our rear view mirror. A last look back at town as we walked out. You can see the fortress in the upper centre of the photo and perhaps get a better sense of the way the old town was enveloped by the U-shaped cliff face.
We enjoyed a nice down hill piece at the beginning of the day, but it was to be a false sense of security! Here we are walking through a field of flowers. Almost impossible to see the trail. Very cool!
A sharp rise brought us back to reality and we wondered why we couldn't just walk around this hill following the road. But ours not to question why:) a nice view back to Castronovo.
We passed into an area that Francesca told us we would reach, it being her parent's farmstead Colle San Vitale, and we walked through the olive trees until we reached the Neocropolis of Capelvenere with tombs from far in the past.
This would be the bath or pool I suppose.
However the best part of the farm by far was Francesca's instructions to help ourselves to the oranges in the orchard. They were amazing! So sweet! So juicy! One wonders what one must have done along the road of life to have experiences like this? I don't understand, but I'm just thankful to have them.
Peter, the only thing that would have made this a better experience would be to have someone peal, separate and hand feed the pieces one at a time into your mouth as you reclined in said ancient pool. Strangely the Princess was having none of it?
...Annemarie smartly decided to soak her feet in the cool water. I'm a slow learner:)
A very short time later we arrived at a famous discovery, the Casals di San Pietro that was excavated by universities in York and Rome. It's felt that it was built on top of the grounds of an ancient Muslim settlement. History all around us!!
Sadly it was either closed or condemned. Not sure which, but we walked on in the increasing heat and humidity. And we found the next climb. Oh joy!
Ah, but the early part was really pretty with the flowers punctuated by the ever present barking of dogs of all shapes and sizes as we passed by. It's been like this the entire walk. We chat nice things to them like, "nana, can't get us" as we pass. Of course it's ok because we have it on good authority that the Italian dogs don't understand English. Then the climb gets really interesting and you know you're going to pay some sort of price. The old adage that we've used in the past, "just think of the views" wears thin:(
But you know deep down inside that no matter what, your going to climb, so swear a few times if you like, then climb the god damn thing!
Then climb the next section...
...and the next...
Then there's more climbing, but at some point you look to your right and see where you started from...
...and wonder to yourself if there wasn't a more direct easier way to get here?! But then after another period of grinding up hill suddenly...the rain starts to fall. Yup, it rained all the way into town. This town.
Needless to say we made it. And in the best traditions of The Camino Provides, our other three pals drove by us in a van in the middle of town and picked us up and took us to our hostel!! Does it get any better than this after a long Tappe?
Francesca’s story
She first welcomed us on Facebook; her first Canadians
She is young, and savvy on social media - it makes sense
Her story is an example of the hopes on which this Camino is built
Bringing new life to these villages without guilt
Her grandmother recently passed at the age of one hundred and four
Little did Francesca know what was in store
She had recently graduated with an economics degree
It was time to find a job, but in these parts that’s not easy.
The Magna Via Francigena put out a call
They were looking for accommodations for pilgrims last fall
Her grandmothers house was renovated with care
While protecting the character that was already there
Francesca would offer this home as a unique b&b
With an option for dinner of Sicilian specialties
She joined us for dinner, offering pasta with sardines,
Home made bread and wine, broccoli, and garbanzo beans
Fresh squeezed orange juice and stuffed artichoke hearts
And olives of course, all grown locally in these parts
The meal was tasty, beautiful Mediterranean flavours
The tastes and the memory will song be savoured
She welcomes pilgrims, new ones each day
She adopts them as family during their short stay
For those she connects with she offers special treats
Views from the castle on the hill, and a guided tour through the streets
Her future holds travel and a masters degree
As a digital marketer she can work from home you see
She wants to walk this route herself to better connect with her guests
But she’s concerned it may prove too much of a test
This delightful young woman shares her home, hopes and dreams
Making this place even more special than it initially seems
To summarize Saturday, April 28th We would say that:
ReplyDeleteIt was another special day - a different tune for sure - a pleasant experience - plus ups and downs (your choice) along the way - a history lesson at every turn - plus challenges, some good but not all the same - but in the end a usable experience and you are now tuned up for another day!! Give our regards to Francesca who impresses us as being an enterprising and responsive person who has an ability to adapt to a challenging task !! And we loved your poem Annemarie. Onward and upward tomorrow!!
Francesca was indeed a lovely young lady who has a good business plan, and no doubt will succeed. The walk today was very hot and pushed Annemarie a little, so not likely a poem in the offing today. Maybe tomorrow!
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