We have a good meal at our ostello yesterday evening and then after the washing up is done we all have to share our thoughts of the Francigena with the other pilgrims and all have a hug.
This morning there is a walking marathon with about a thousand participants doing 42 k along the Via Francigena. The police are out in force to marshal the traffic, and whilst we are having a break, the tail markers go slowly past.
We are walking through fields of corn and sunflowers beneath a blue sky with high cloud, there are occasional breaks of woodland, the birds are singing, a few butterflies are about and the lizards are warming themselves.
We turn onto an hot road and slog up it until we reach a bar where we encounter Fred and Christophe, the young German, later 10 Irish walkers with daypacks pass through.
As we walk out of the town, Lake Bolsena appears, a large blue lake surrounded by low green hills and a few strategically positioned pines, they do know how to do landscapes here.
A pleasant woodland walk brings us to tonight’s lodgings in an agrotourismo with a lovely garden in which we will apparently be eating our breakfast tomorrow.