Day 20: Stage 15: Macenano, 24 km, Sun & Cloud 27°

I Was Looking For Adventure, Right?

A moment ago I was sitting outside starting on this post when a blast of wind alerted me to look up the side of the mountain. It wasn’t there! A thunderstorm had blasted through the valley, and it came down the side of the mountains in a matter of seconds. It was incredible! There were mountains, 

and then there weren’t.

This forced me to move inside from my nice sunny seat. I brought my laundry with me just in case you were concerned.😂

Today has been quite the day! The only thing I read in my guide about the stage was how to get out of town. There are usually three options out of Spoleto, but of course the bridge is basically out of service. The recommended option is to swing northeast of town and back around to the far side of the bridge. That’s what I had planned to do, but late last night I reread the instructions for getting out of town and determined that the only reason the author recommended that route was because the other route (option 3) crossed a busy highway. So I’m sitting there thinking, just how busy could the highway be at 7:30 on a Sunday morning?  My logical conclusion was that it wouldn’t be busy. And it wasn’t. 

Knowing that there was a real risk of rain today by around 11 o’clock I was up and away early. I had the streets to myself. Who else is dumb enough to be up really early on a Sunday morning?

I crossed the highway safely and congratulated myself on deciding to take this option. This was going to be a piece of cake.

It was for a while, that is until I came to the point where I was supposed to join the trail. Unfortunately, there was a huge fence blocking my access. It turns out that this is where all of the construction materials and workers are brought for the bridge repair. I asked myself why the author of the guide that was just published hadn’t included this small detail? 

There was no easy way to climb over the fence, so I very carefully climbed around the outside of the fence. It was ridiculously steep there because of the deep gorge the bridge spans, but I managed it. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. With an Italian gesture I thumbed my nose at the gate and carried on. Looking back at the 2 1/2 m gate and where I’d had to climb over the garbage pile on my way in. 

I took a brief look around the worksite, and then began to work my way up to the watch tower where according to my GPX tracts I would join the trail. 

This is what awaited me. Another 2 1/2 m high gate! I tried to figure out how to climb this with my gear and I actually made an attempt, but it was too high and there was going to be no easy way over it. However, there was no way I was going to walk all the way back to town, across the city and around the other way. That would take an additional hour and a half that I didn’t have

I have no pictures of where I finally managed to get back up onto the trail because most of that time I was holding on for dear life! I can assure you it took me about 40 minutes of uncomfortable climbing before I was successfully back on route. At the end of it all my clothes were pretty much covered in dirt, but I had made it! Said clothes are presently drying. 

I was pretty exhausted after my efforts and I still had a long climb ahead of me. Fortunately, the trail was pretty good and there were switch-backs much of the way. It was still a real grind, but I promised myself that I would make up time going down the other side. 

There were absolutely no views back to Spoleto all the way up. Very disappointing. Who do I complain to?

I am not sure how steep this looks to you, but I can assure you that I was pretty bushed by the time I made it to the top.

I read in the museum yesterday that during Saint Francis’ time there were quite a few hermit like people wandering in the hills. They would find caves or other sorts of places to stay, and over time little churches or settlements would form in those locations. I found a number of them as I climbed.

I eventually reached a farm operation. The trail goes straight through the farm and there were chickens and sheep running around everywhere. I got some great videos for my grandkids.





From this point on whether I was going up or down, mostly down, the trail ranged from decent to goat track.

Looking ahead from the top of the pass.

My pictures probably don’t show it well, but these trails are pretty high up, and as I was to soon discover I was often walking along the tops of some pretty high cliffs. This is why I don’t read ahead in my guide. I find it easier to arrive and then just deal with the height issue in the moment.😵‍💫






There was no way that I could make real time going down. Much of the trail is pretty scrambling with a lot of loose rock. It seemed to take forever to get down.

I’m not sure if you can call these alpine flowers? But there were lots in some areas and they were very beautiful. 







Eventually I made it down to the valley bottom and found my way onto some paved roads where I was able to make better time.



They route the walkers and cyclists onto a Greenbelt gravel road that follows the river. 

It took me all the way into town. 

As I arrived in town I met three other people walking towards Spoleto. They won’t cross the pass until tomorrow as it was late in the day. There was a Canadian and his South African wife who have lived internationally for the last 25 years and now live in London. With them was a cousin who lives in Cape Town, SA. They kindly hosted me to a beer at the bar/hotel/restaurant where I’m staying and we had a great visit for about 45 minutes. I learned a bit more about the present situation in South Africa which unfortunately continues to deteriorate. Lots of corruption, economic troubles and a recent alignment with Russia. However, it was nice to get some first-hand information. Annemarie and I have plans to travel in a direction in the next few years, and now we have a contact who said that she would help us get organized when we decide to go. It’s always nice to know someone on the ground! She told me that South Africa is really good travel value right now because of the  hugely depressed value of their currency. She was pretty clear that there are only certain areas of the country that are presently safe to travel in. I’ve been trying to stay up-to-date with the South African situation for many years mostly because it’s been on my travel radar for far too long.

We said our goodbyes and they walked on another seven or 8 km. I hope they didn’t get caught in that huge rain storm. It would’ve soaked them to the skin, no matter how much wet gear they had. They have a long day of climbing ahead of them tomorrow. I shall have considerably less climbing tomorrow than I did today. Something to be happy about! There is something quite special on the walk tomorrow, but I won’t comment on it now. I may not even see it, but I certainly hope to. 

I am staying at the AI 3 Archi Hotel which is quite well known to walkers on this route. There is not a tremendous amount of accommodation through this section, and I was lucky to get a room here. This isn’t like the Spanish Caminos where you can walk in and basically get a bed in an alberge or municipal. There just isn’t that sort of infrastructure on this route. You generally have to pre-book a lot of your accommodation or risk being without. Most people I’ve met arranged their accommodations before leaving home. Just a different style of walking though it isn’t quite as spontaneous, but there are just not the volumes of walkers/pilgrims here. 

Lastly, there was a big birthday party in New Westminster yesterday. Ciara turned one, and I understand the party was a huge success. I was really sorry to miss it, but I had a chance to talk with the birthday girl yesterday. Well, it was sort of a talk.🙂 Apparently the icing was a huge success! 🎉🎂🥳 She even permitted her big sister Saoirse to help out!

That’s it from Italy for today!