Day 24: Stage 19: Poggio San Lorenzo, 21 km, Sun 28°

Road Warrior?

I was up and away in good time this morning. I had a breakfast of two bananas, an apple, and two small containers of yogurt. I knew it wouldn’t carry me too long, but it was all I had available, and there wasn’t a bar along my route. 

It was quite beautiful as I crossed a bridge on my way out of town. There were some beautiful white geese adjacent to the bridge sitting on what I assume were the original pilings for a Roman bridge. I thought it odd that my online map called the bridge the Roman Bridge, when there was only a standard recently built structure. It has just dawned on me that the geese are sitting on what used to be part of the Roman bridge. I’ll make the assumption that the bridge was destroyed during WWII.


There was ground fog around today as well.

Exit out of Rieti wasn’t particularly nice, with lots of commuter traffic heading into town. The ground fog help to soften this.


After crossing the field I could see ahead of me a very busy main highway. I couldn’t imagine why they had routed walkers onto this dangerous road, but as I approached I discovered that there was a small dirt path running along side the highway. Great! At this point with all the lorries and cars going by I put my ear buds in, something I haven’t done in about 10 days



The vegetation along both sides of the tract and often on the floor of the trail was soaking wet.

By the time I finally left this trail my boots were soaked and my nice clean shorts were covered in yellow pollen.

I caught up to what turned out to be an Australian couple from Victoria state who are on their first day of walking, I assume to Rome. They were carrying tiny daypacks and showed me their Slow Ways itinerary on a small print out. Slow Ways is a tour company that runs group tours, or pre-books everything including transferring suitcases, etc. It suddenly dawned on me that Rieti would’ve been the jumping off point about 100 km from the Vatican. This is the minimum distance that someone can walk and still receive a testimonium at the Vatican. They seemed like a nice couple, they were trying to sort themselves out when I met them. They said they would see me later, and as it turns out, they were right because they’re staying at the same accommodation tonight. They just arrived and I can hear them in the hall. Perhaps I can have a chance to chat with them before dinner. Maybe they know our friends in Melbourne!🤣🤣

I eventually reached a country road and the walking became much easier.





It was a long, slow grind away from Rieti. Clearly the path has moved away from the mountains and into more hilly countryside. I expect this to continue for the next three days until I reach Rome. I remember last year not really enjoying the countryside as I approached Rome. I felt like the best walking lay behind me, and I hope that’s not the case this time. I guess I’ll find out!




At one point 2 big dogs raced towards me. I thought to myself, oh oh! Here we go again. But they turned out to be real sweethearts, and I made a video of them and sent it home to the kids. They were all over me and added muddy paw prints to my already pollen covered shorts! I didn’t really mind because they were such nice dogs and better yet, they didn’t want to tear my throat out!🙂
The white one followed me all the way to a Roman bridge

This is not the Roman bridge

This is. It’s not in as good a condition as many I have seen in Spain, France and other parts of the Mediterranean region, but it’s the only one I’ve seen on this walk.

Crossing over the bridge.
The trail then lead me up into the hills and I got my first real climbing in today. I must say, I could’ve done without it. However, I’ve learned that either you sit down and refuse to climb or you just get on with it.



The hills were actually quite beautiful

This is an old Roman mileage marker, or militario going back to Emperor Augustea’s time quite some years ago.

Then it was down into a deep ravine where of course there was lots of mud and big pools of water. However, I won’t post any pictures of that mess.

Parts of it provided really nice walking



I reached my stop for the night much earlier than anticipated. I messaged my host to find out if it was OK to come in at around noon. He very kindly said that my room would be ready by the time I arrived. So far I’ve been very fortunate on this trip because I’ve often arrived well ahead of the agreed mid afternoon check-in times. My hosts usually know I’m walking, so they have been very accommodating.

This area has very little accommodation. I was fortunate to get a room at this Agroturismo. I will be able to get my supper and breakfast here before continuing on early tomorrow morning. In Europe, these sorts of places are usually more expensive, but I find that by adding a few of them to my walks over the years that it adds a nice dimension to the experience. Annemarie and I have used them from time to time in Spain, France and England (am I forgetting any Annemarie?) and this is perhaps the third time I’ve stayed at one in Italy. You might recall that Costanza and I stayed in one last year. Usually a great experience!

I’m actually a couple of kilometres out of town because I couldn’t find a bed there. It turns out that my host has walked some of the Via Francigena. Hence the representative emblem on their signage.

As to today’s blog post title, there comes a point on every walk where seemingly quite suddenly the walking becomes almost effortless. I reached that point today. Of course, this doesn’t actually happen suddenly, but there’s a moment when I realize that I  could walk onwards almost indefinitely. Sort of like when Forest Gump walked across America until he hit the ocean where he turned around and walked back again. That piece from the movie often pops into my brain on a long walk. In 2014 while walking long stages on the Via de La Plata my French friend Didier and I jokingly called this state, Road Warrior. Of course we meant it as a joke, but there’s some truth in it. I remember reaching this physical and mental place last year while crossing Switzerland. This year it probably took me longer to find this space because as expected the Via di San Francesco has been challenging almost from the first day. Also, I took more tourist days than usual given the relatively short duration of this walk, but as I’ve said before, this walk wasn’t all about the walk! 🙂

When I arrived here there was nothing available to eat. So I pulled all of the bits and pieces out of my pack and ate something that I wouldn’t quite call lunch, but that filled a hole. Hopefully it will carry me to dinner time at 19:00🤞 Fortunately while in the store yesterday I picked up some lightweight breakfast bars to which I added two very small rounds of cheese and a Kit Kat bar that I’d picked up some days ago. I think there were more wrappers than food, but it will do. 

Tomorrow will be a day of ups and downs through the hills as I get closer to Rome. Three stages to go!