Day 17: Stage 13: Lenano, 23 km, sunny, 24°

A Passing Community👋

This is my view as I write this post today!

From where I sit, this is pretty nice! I’ve just finished my lunch on the back patio of the B&B I’m staying in tonight. There aren’t any places available in this area, so I was pretty happy to get a bed here. My laundry is all washed and hung to dry, but there are some massive rumblings just above where I sit and I fear the rain that was predicted for this afternoon will be arriving momentarily. This will result in a mad scramble to get my laundry inside! In the meantime I’ll sit here and write this post keeping a close eye on the very black clouds floating into this Umbrian valley. The first massive crack of thunder! I have a front row seat!

Last night as I sat in my room looking at today’s weather I decided that I’d best make tracks very early this morning. I was up and out the door without breakfast (too early) with a plan to walk 12 km before stopping to eat in Trevi. I like getting up early and either training or walking as is my practice when at home. So I can get by until about 9:15 most mornings.

Storm update; not long now until the rain hits here. It’s sweeping in from the east and also coming up the valley from the south. Here’s what I see from my perch

Anyway, I set off out of the city and followed the highway until it took me up towards the hills. I decided last night that I wanted to walk the higher route today because the sun was going to be out all morning and the views would be well worth the effort.

Enough! I’ve rescued my air drying laundry and moved in doors. Too much lightning and I can watch the fun from the window in my room. 

A nicer time just a few sunny hours ago. 

I was basically loved to death by this cat. Usually they keep a low profile until I’m past, but this one decided that I was ok and followed me down the road looking for me to scratch it behind the ears, which I did🙂

I passed a village that had a clothes washing area that was still active after many years. The photos on the wall are basically a historical collection from this huge wash basin. As I passed, a young woman arrived with bags full and ready to be washed. No matter how often I see this sort of thing it always served to remind me that this is still a way of life in so many places. Often those places are not as nice as this one is.

As I climbed, my breakfast destination came more into focus. A very good thing because my stomach was beginning to make rumbling sounds.

This is the mediaeval city of Trevi. This hill town dates back to the Umbrian civilization and contains 20 churches within its walls. That’s probably more churches that I wanted to see today.
Instead, I found a nice little café bar and had my breakfast. Everything was nice and fresh! I also picked up a couple of items for my lunch. You have to really appreciate a culture that puts a little hat on your tea cup! For information purposes, I had a cornetto crema. So good!

As I suggested, I wasn’t really wanting to look through a bunch of churches today. I did have a look around and bumped into a German couple who had walked to Assisi last year and were continuing on this year. Not unusual. They told me that they walked for 10 km inside the city boundaries of Filigno trying in vain to find the train station. What would’ve been €1.50 each turned into a €30 taxi ride to Trevi this morning. I behaved extremely well, and didn’t ask them if they had ever heard of Google maps. Anyone who walks that far in a small city without success deserves to be left alone. I’m growing.🥳

As I was leaving Trevi I saw five young people with packs on, and rather than engage, I simply waved to them as I passed. I decided that they wouldn’t want this old guy walking with them today.🙂 Besides, this way there would be no pressure for them or for me to keep up. No worries, I saw them pass my accommodation an hour and a half after I got here. They must’ve stopped to take more pictures than I did.😇 With the number of flies buzzing me today, you wouldn’t want to stop for anything else!

Trevi is a pretty picturesque hill town. It looks even better from the southside.










I bumped into three more walkers coming towards me. We stopped to chat and exchanged our particulars about where we started, where we’re walking to, and where we live. It turned out that they were from Sicily, and one of the fellows seeing my Via Francigena patch on my pack, asked if I had walked in Sicily. I told them that Annemarie and I had crossed Sicily in 2018 and that we’d loved it. They were delighted having walked it themselves. One of them had even walked the new mountain route along the north east range. He said it was challenging, but very good. I think that Costanza has plans to walk that new route. We talked everything Sicily for about 10 minutes before parting ways. I liked Sicily, particularly the people.

This is the gate to the monastery across the valley from me. You might’ve noticed in my photos that there’s a big circular wall around it. I assume for defensive purposes in past times.

I noticed that the clouds are starting to build across the other side of the valley. They were also beginning to grow just above and behind me.



Yes, things were beginning to get interesting. 


This place was pretty cool! 


I bumped into another couple coming towards me. Turns out that they are from the Parma area which I visited on the Via Francigena last year. We had a fairly long conversation about all the usual things and how they would love to retire so they can walk more. They had been away walking this past week and just stopped to walk one stage of this route before returning home later today. 

It does appear that there is a walking community along here. The problem is that there are so many different versions of this route that keeping a community together is almost impossible. My new friend Tom from Germany and I were discussing this last night. I plan to meet with them for a beer tomorrow night in Spoleto. While I will continue along the main route to Rome they will walk a four day variant before turning their minds towards Rome. As such, I won’t see them again on the Via Francis. Speaking of different variants, he and his wife are walking the lower route today. 

Having some sort of community here, as abstract as it is, is better than no community at all. Most of the interactions I’ve had have been with people coming towards me versus people I met going the same direction. On most of the main walking routes, particularly in Spain, most pilgrims walk in the same direction which helps to facilitate a community structure. Even on the Via Francigena where I met just a few people there seem to be more of a community than here. I know that this is sometimes just the luck of the draw, but this has been my experience. Really great to see and speak with other people today on such a beautiful day of walking. 
And then I was in. Interestingly, my guidebook says I was going to climb 900 metres vertical today. However, my video below indicates that I walked something over 700 m vertical. Obviously they measured this differently, right?

I definitely climbed today. It seemed to be mostly up. Tomorrow there are several climbs, but the stage in to Spoleto should be shorter. I have arranged a little apartment there and will take a day to see what is supposed to be a very interesting place. Looking forward to it!

That’s it for today. My hose will drop me down the hill to a place where I can get dinner and then the restaurant guy will drive me back up the hill.