15.05 Wednesday. Passo Della Cesa to Pontremoli The mules are tired.

24km up 724m down 1433m lots of valleys to cross. And then after arrival at Castillo 33m up to our rooms in the tower!

The day is bright and dry and the 2km up to Passo Del Cesa pass quickly and the unusual church at the top of the pass can be entered. We now go along and up through mainly coppiced Hornbeam woods along very old mule trails. We are over 1000m here and it’s quite cold with a bit of wind but flowers are out and we bounce along. There are probably no bars or coffee on the way with the possible exception of the oasis of Marcia and Marco we find it and they are out so no sandwiches for donativo in Casalina. We press on up and down valleys and over bridges of varying antiquity, crossing Torrente of varying size.
We get a couple of hours of rain during the day and a cold wind in exposed places. Betsy is fuelled by Tony’s emergency nuts and raisins and cranberries. So we get to Pentremoli by 3pm and fall into the first bar we see. After rehydration and a packet of crisps we find our way up verticals alleys to the top of the hill and check into the castle.
We have never slept in a castle before. It’s amazing. Drafty but good for drying washing.
We have a walk about and see the town. Pontremoli obviously means says Ray we’ve got more bridges than you.

Link to where we are on Google Maps