Oh what a beautiful morning. Oh what a wonderful day.
19km up 761m dowm 592m
It has stopped raining! The sun comes out intermittently but at 900m it is still cool. We descend out of Casio along the road south towards Passo Del Cesa and get good views back of the Devil’s False Teeth we passed yesterday. Then it is up in the mud and puddles through mixed decidous forest with hornbeam, beech, Oak and sycamore. As we get higher a few juniper trees appear in the mix. Eventually we emerge on to a grassy ridge covered in orchids and cowslips. We cut a corner across a field of long grass and flush a couple of hares who should have stayed still and not been spotted.
We descend into Barchetto past a large wooden cross with a pilgrim book to sign, where we get cappucini and some pizzas for lunch later. We enter the cathedral with a lot of stone carvings outside and inside, and some of the best stained glass since Switzerland. There are lots of rampant lions around due to the coat of arms of the Rossi family whose castle is currently seeing a little refurbishment.
Unfortunately we have to go back up again to our lodgings in the ostello 2km and nearly 200m below the Cesa Pass at 1029m. Domani!