Day 26: Stage 21: Monterotondo, 32 km, hot/humid, 30°

Via di Francesco; One Last Gift! 

A longer stage today, so I was up earlier than usual because I had promised my host to arrive before 14:00. I hate my cold pasta and meat sauce and drink the rest of my rehydration water. I never did get to enjoy a cup of tea, but perhaps one day, maybe.

It was slightly cooler when I stepped out the door. It didn’t last, but it was a nice way to start.

This was the stage where I was to leave all the climbing behind and transition to a lower elevation as I approached Rome. Generally, this was true, but the Via di Francesco threw a couple more good climbs at me before becoming a bit more reasonable the rest of the way. They weren’t long climbs, just sharp. 



I found a friend today in the middle of nowhere, but it was pretty brave and didn’t run away


It was a beautiful walk today, at least the first 2/3 were excellent. After that the traffic picked up and things became much less enjoyable. I expected this as I got closer to Rome. Rob and I experienced the same last year. It’s the same anytime you approach a major city, and Rome is a pretty major city!
The walking ranged from small grass trails all the way to busy highways as I closed on my destination
The first view of greater Roma!

The first time Roma showed itself today! 

As I came up into a town, the front of a particular type of shop caught my eye.🙂 I went in and two lovely ladies welcomed me and asked all about my walk. One of them had a little English, and together we had a nice chat and many smiles. Come to think of it, I received more greetings today than I have in the past week. One young couple even drove up beside me to ask where I had walked from. We had an impromptu chat, and it turned out that they had walked the Camino de Santiago. They were pretty excited! It was actually very nice

Getting back to my bakery visit, I got myself a little treat to make up for my very cold breakfast. Surprise, surprise there was Nutella inside the pastry! It was brilliant!

There were lots of olive trees as I descended. I thought of my mate Neil who had walked through countless miles of olive tree plantations in Spain this year. Interesting at first, exceedingly tiresome as one proceeds. I’ve had that experience in Spain as well. Some of these trees are very old, as evidenced by their larger trunks. In 1975 on my first travel I learned a fair bit about olive trees under the tutelage of a number of people I met. Some of the trees there are exceptionally old, hundreds of years.

I enjoyed watching as the mountains dropped behind me. 

The olive trees eventually gave way to vineyards. A welcomed transition!


What a beautiful fixer-upper! Clearly, this was a fairly nice house at one point, considering the beautiful arches on the main floor. I wonder if this is where the animals lived while the family resided upstairs? It would certainly take a lot of money and work to restore. I have enough on my domestic to do list waiting for me at home!

Clearly this was something left behind from Roman times. 




Shortly after climbing out of this valley I ended up on progressively busier roads. The walking became less enjoyable and considerably more dangerous as vehicles flew past me without giving me much space on the side of the road. I’ve been through this many times before, but it’s never enjoyable.

As today’s post title suggests, the Via di Francesco provided me with one last special gift. As I said, I went out fairly early this morning. During past Caminos I have found some of the best experiences happen early in the morning. While walking up a dirt road with my polls carried in my right hand I was surprised to see a good size animal on the road ahead of me. I immediately knew that it was a wild boar! And there were two piglets as well. 

I knew from my walking in Japan, Spain and France, that they can be extremely dangerous, particularly the males. In Japan there are signs posted warning of their possible presence and to stay completely away. I’ve seen them in all three of those countries early morning, but usually at a distance. On this walk I seen their hoof prints almost every other day, but until today I hadn’t seen a single animal. 

I stood there trying to figure out how I was going to get around them. And then things went from interesting to exceptional!

during my encounter, I counted between 20 and 25 Wild Boars! I was standing completely still, and I felt that I must be down wind from them. They seemed to spook a little and I thought it was over, but it wasn’t

They just moved a little further, down the road and started digging in an olive orchard. At this point, I still don’t think that they saw me. So I just took a series of videos and photos. Finally, I knew that they had seen me, and most of them took off in a hurry. 

A couple of bigger 🐗 watched me very closely until they were sure that the rest of their group had left the area. Then they took one last look at me and took off in a hurry. I moved forward, but they were all long gone. I’ve seen the move like the wind when I was walking on the Via de La Plata early morning. They just crashed through the bush, seemingly without regard for themselves. 

I knew that I’d come close today to what could’ve been a very bad situation, but somehow I never felt really at risk. I know in Europe, they are hunted, particularly in the fall. Their meat is prized everywhere. Annemarie and I have witnessed the organized hunting parties in both Spain and France, and I saw the same thing last year coming down the Via Francigena. 



I can assure you that I made considerably more noise as I walked out of that area! That said, I couldn’t help but think what a special experience I had been granted. I’m sure this will never happen again on future walks.

So that was my day. Tomorrow I’ll enter Rome. I think I mentioned that I have no plans to stay there, except out of the airport. I will post tomorrow. It’s been a long day and I still have to cook my dinner. So I’ll sign off now, and I likely won’t proof what I’ve written, so apologies for any typos and punctuation problems. I often don’t have the energy to do this at the end of the day, but I try.