Day 65: Stage 51: Acquapendente, 24 km, Sun! 23°

Arrivederci Bella Toscana!😢

We were up early and as you can see pretty excited to get on the road!



We wandered down the street to Rob‘s favourite bar for breakfast. Rob sent me a picture yesterday while I was slugging up hill with a nice café Americano and a croissant. I think my response to him was very appropriate😅

Day 5: Rob with his morning coffee. We are on a streak!



After a 12 km climb yesterday to get to town, we started today with a 10 km descent. I’m not sure where the other 2 km went?🤔

Nice soft orange light this early this morning. 





Looking back. 

A much clearer morning today without very much mist or fog. 





Selfie practice!! 

Reversible too!😂 I’m making sure that we stay on course, hence the phone. 







I was able to make several videos for Saiorse! It’s her second birthday today!🎂





After 10 km we arrived at the highway where we had to make a decision concerning which way we were going to go. We had two options; one along the highway which is the official route and the other up through some hills which is intended to try and keep pilgrims off what is supposed to be a very busy highway. I’d read that many people reported an extremely busy highway with considerable danger from the speeding trucks and cars, but I’d also read that others had breezed right along it with no problems at all. It seemed to be really quiet so we decided to take the shorter road route after yesterdays somewhat vigorous stage. 

It wasn’t all highway walking as there were a number of parallel trails that took us some ways away from the highway.





That said, the majority of the walk was along the highway. Some people reported that it was so busy that they had to walk in the ditch through garbage as trucks raced by. I think perhaps they were creating a little bit of fiction because there wasn’t much of a ditch anywhere and the majority of the trucks and car drivers were extremely courteous providing us a reasonable amount of room. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I had experienced further north in Italy on earlier stages. Thank goodness for that! 

We eventually came to a parting of the ways with Toscana. The past two weeks have been a wonderful experience from the top of the Cisa Pass through Lucca, San Gimignano, Siena and beyond. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of it, even a bit of rain was mostly ok. I have travelled through Toscaana two or three times previously, but I’ve never had the sense for this region as I do now after walking its length, some 350 km. I’ve enjoyed some really wonderful experiences and I would recommend it to anyone who loves to walk. I don’t think there’s a better way to really experience Toscana. Great people, scenery, food and of course the wine!

And then we were in Lazio. Hey, it’s almost exactly the same! 

I talked to arrange of accommodation in a little castle up on the hill there to the right. The plan was to walk the variant and then stay there the night, but the accommodation was about €250 each. Yup, just for the very wealthy. That’s OK, we have a tiny little room tonight, but it’s got everything we need. And it’s only €30 each. It even has its own restaurant downstairs where we had lunch when we came in.



We stopped at this pilgrim oriented bar for a little rest close to town. It’s pretty well known and even in my guide. Rob even found a chocolate ice cream bar! That’s OK, in a few minutes I’m heading out to look for some gelato! Rob has already had his ice cream quota for the day.😂



And then we were in. There was a great little market going on.

Acquapendente is a nice town that the tourists seem to have largely missed. Their loss, our gain! 





As promised to myself…lemon and strawberry!

So after I self-imposed so much shorter stage today we are delighted to be able to say that we have three quite a bit shorter stages just ahead of us. It’s been kind of nice coming in here a little earlier than usual and getting lunch at a reasonable time. Also time to do other things plus see that the place were staying. It’s nice at this place is off the tourist map and we really enjoyed walking around the streets here