Day 18: Stage 14: Spoleto, 20 km, Sun, 26°

Finally. A Pilgrim Moment!

This was the view from my window last night! 

The people I stayed with last night, drove me down the hill and dropped me off at a local restaurant. A very good restaurant! As I walked through the door I began to wonder what I’ve gotten myself into. Did I have a credit card with me? This wasn’t my usual cheap stop for dinner

They sat me down at a really nice table and brought me several appies to get me started. The menu arrived, and it wasn’t as expensive as I feared it might be😅Phew!

I asked them to select me a glass of good quality Umbrian wine. They did and it was actually quite spectacular!

Other people much better dressed than me (everyone in Italy is better dressed than me) began to arrive. Whole families. Fun to watch! 

Then it was on to ordering the main event. I ordered the pork tenderloin in Annemarie’s honour and also because pork is a major specialty in Umbria. I’ve actually been wanting to try some, but most restaurants oddly tend to focus on beef which I don’t generally eat. I also ordered a mixed salad to balance things out and then set to enjoying the best meal of my trip. The tenderloin came with two large cooked plums with a very tasty plum sauce. There were also some wonderful potatoes.

Then came time for dessert. The only thing on the menu list that I really was interested in was the cheesecake with local fruit. I messaged Annemarie about this and she said to go for it because it would be unlike the cheesecake we have at home and made with much lighter ingredients. It was delicious!

The owner of the restaurant drove me back up the hill to my accommodation where I had an incredible view of the mediaeval walled town just across the way.

This morning after a short, but decent sleep my host made me breakfast. A couple of eggs, some really good salami, a wonderful cheese and tea. There was also a piece of typical cake that is customary with breakfast and this. An amazing truffle filled with Nutella! I eventually pleaded with her to stop bringing me food, claiming that I wouldn’t be able to walk today if she didn’t stop😮‍💨

Instead of leaving early as I had hoped to, we ended up talking for another hour about our families, kids, and of course, grandchildren. We then moved onto the topic of global warming and the things that our respective countries are doing to try and improve things. She told me that they had not used gas to heat their house for some years as they had moved to a quite unique method. She took me to a building beside the house and showed me their heating system. Essentially they buy dried and crushed olive pits. As you could probably tell from my photographs, there are a great number of olive trees in this part of Italy. They put the crushed olive pits into the orange machine on the right where it’s slowly and efficiently burned. This process allows them to fully heat the house and even the hot water. It’s a very unique method with the only downside being that the price of the fuel has gone up significantly since Covid. That said, it’s really interesting to learn about some of the innovative ways people are changing their heating methods in light of global warming. In many ways it’s the same at home with solar panels being put on rooftops in our neighbourhood. Three weeks from now we will have a heat pump installed in our own home. Things are changing. 

This is where I stayed last night.

I did eventually manage to get out the door at around 9 AM to begin my day. Today’s destination was Spoleto, far off in the distance. While not a super long stage, my guidebook did point out that I should expect several steep climbs again today. I must say the author was spot on!

It was already warm when I started, and I stopped very early on to put on my sun hat. Better safe than sorry.


As you can see, the broom in this part of Italy is in full flour. Beware if you suffer from hayfever!




I like the dogs who don’t bark aggressively as I pass. As a matter of fact, this little pup allowed me to give him a pat and was patient while I made a video for my grandchildren.

I passed through some lovely old villages today. Not a whole lot going on, but quite pleasant to walk through. There is generally a lot of pride and care in most of the homes I pass by in Italy. 


The same cloud patterns that I’ve observed each day this week again started as we approached noon. Can the thunder and rain be far behind? I was actually able to watch the weather on BBC yesterday, and it showed that the southern part of the EU has been extremely wet from Spain right through to Greece. The northern part of the EU has been sunny and dry. Quite the reversal from normal weather patterns at this time of year. Everyone’s talking about it. 








I ran into quite a few walkers, all coming from the opposite direction. Early on I met a couple from Balsano in north east Italy where Costanza lives. They were walking from Spoleto to Assisi. We had a nice chat and then went in our own directions. I also ran into a group of at least 20 Italian walkers. I thought of Costanza’s Italian alpine group, and wondered if this group was attached to that and perhaps walking for a week? I had no idea where they would all find a bed because where I came from the pickings are pretty thin. Perhaps they were later picked up by a bus and taken back to Spoleto for the night? I’ll never know.


It was pretty clear today, and I could see all the way back to Assisi.



Don’t adjust your set. The sound in this next video is basically from a cuckoo bird. At least that’s what I think it is. If you think back to Pinocchio and the cuckoo clocks then this sound should be familiar. I’ve heard these birds for days and I’ve been meaning to look them up. Sounds just like a cuckoo clock, right?


I came across these two beautiful rows of cypress trees. I was so intent on them that I missed the turn, and instead walked down between the trees.

And as I walked the noon time bells began to ring

I made a little adjustment and picked up the route again about a half a kilometre onwards.

After a really odd route into town with all sorts of ups and downs and arounds, I found myself at the foot of the old town

I found this really great looking escalator that I thought might save me further climbing to get up into the center.

The escalator goes up a long way. As I looked at my Google maps, I realized that I’d have to get off at some point and transit the city to find my, what turned out to be, quite unusual apartment.
The old city wall

I did eventually find my place, and I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow. Here’s the entrance.
I met my new host who walked me around the apartment before leaving. I got all my laundry washed and had a shower and then remembering that today was a national holiday, I looked for a place to buy groceries. I went straight out and was lucky enough to find one of the Supermercados open. I’m staying in town tomorrow, so I got enough groceries to get me through until Sunday morning. It cost a fraction of what my dinner did last night.🫤

You might recall that I bumped into my German friend Tom and his wife quite by accident a couple of days ago. We agreed at that time to get together for a beer when we all arrived into Spoleto. We exchanged email addresses and I’ve been looking forward to connecting ever since. We made that connection late this afternoon. We agreed to meet at the Basilica and to go from there. We had a nice reunion and found a great little place to sit outside where we ordered drinks. They then proceeded to bring us all sorts of appies that we hadn’t ordered. We have all walked numerous routes, and finding common ground was dead easy. We all retired within one year of each other, each have three kids and now several grandchildren. 

We spent a really nice two or three hours together visiting and just having a really typical Cammino connection. They will walk on tomorrow and be a day ahead of me for sometime before they then walk a variant that I do not plan to follow. I will actually be in Rome about two or three days ahead of them. I have a very sneaky suspicion that our paths will cross again, though not on this particular walk. When we parted Tom said to me that we definitely have a kindred spirit, and that our accidentally bumping into each other again a couple of days ago was so unusual the way it happened that it was basically beyond coincidence.

And that’s why my blog is late today. I’ve been sitting here eating some salmon and cheese on crackers together with a nice glass of red wine as I write this post. Not a bad way to end what is been a very good day.

Before I finish up here, I’d like to congratulate my mate, Neil, who just completed a long trek into Santiago today. I sent him an email with congratulations, but I’m pretty sure he won’t see it until tomorrow, as he will be out celebrating with new friends as we’ve all done many times in that wonderful city. Well done Neil!

Now it’s time for me to get to bed. I have no urgent business to attend to tomorrow, so I will be walking around this quite amazing looking town. Report to follow tomorrow. Good night!