Author: Tim Digger

Some km flat lots more by train.
We leave the hostel about 7.30 and progree across the flat lands of sub urban Liguria, we left Tuscany for a few days yesterday. There is little of interest along the banks of the Canale Lunense, except some olive oil butts in an olive grove and Tim is struggling. It gradually becomes apparent that a very slight stroke is in progress! Symptoms remain minimal but make rucksack carrying difficult. At a coffee stop Tim decides he should go home before the team heads back into the Tuscan hinterland far from help. The team agree this is an uncharacteristically sensible thing for him to do. The station for a train to Pisa is only 500m away a flight back to Bristol is booked for Sunday with easyJet, he should be home tomorrow evening. We spot a huge marble quarry up in the hills from the trains later find out where most of it went. The whole team have an unexpected day visiting the leaning tower of Pisa and cathedral before leaving Tim in a small hotel next to the station. The internet is wonderful when you know how to use it! The blog goes on posts should be done by Ray on Betsy’s phone.

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25km . up 973m down 996m and it feels like it.
The day begins as before with 500m straight up, but at least it’s early in the day. We spot another, dead this time alas, slow worm and learn that mating among slow worms is a vicious process. The two yesterday, one was biting the other, this one may have been a loser in the evolutionary battle.
Fairly soon we reach a little Tuscan hill village but this is only the first of two climbs through the woods on the second we spot 3wooly bear caterpillars and some cistus last seen in South Spain. Eventually we descend again to reach Ponsano Superiore a ridiculous village on an hill where reputably there is a shop and a bar, we fail to find it and spend time going though hobbit tunnels where it is difficult to tell the difference between the street and someone’s back yard.
Completing our descent we see the sea and an island and get a beer finally in the centre of Sarzana with an historic castle in it with magnificent machiolations.
Tim and Ray are nattering in the rear and miss a turn and so arrive a bit late at the ostello in Caniparola. But all well at the end of the day.

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35km Yes 35 up 500m down 700m the guide book says this was only demanding not very demanding.
A comfortable night in our castle, after we were shown our room in the castle walls. Ray was a little late leaving and waved from our room.
Today is much more relaxing with none of the steep valleys across our path just a steady passage down the valley of the Fiume Magda. Ha Ha!
The day progresses slowly though pleasant woods but by midday we have not secured a bed for the night. Though we have found a lizard that refused to leave it’s rock in the stepping stone a large caterpillar and a pair of slow worms mating. The ultimate town of Aulla is a long way off, various plans evolve. We meet a young German walking this section by himself. We all enter the town of Terrarossa together. There used to be an Ostello here but no more, even the tourist information office next door is open but no one is there except two computers in a darkened room! We have now done 30km it is another 5km or so to Aulla we have planned to get the bus and bus back from the ostello there in the morning. Where is the bus stop,Ray asks A Politzi Municipal. He points 10m away! We, that is Ray and Betsy, chat to him. He and his mate are nonplussed, why do we want a bus it is only 2km to Aulla by cycleway. Eventually we accept there is no room in this town for pilgrims. We agree we can walk but since there is a bar a beer and snack fist seems a good idea. Our Politzi friends are waiting and show us across some scrub 200m to the cycleway it is a short 2km to Aulla across the bridge! And the first time any of us has been escorted out of town by police!

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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.

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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!

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15km up 955m down 422m. Up and down steep slippy limestone paths.
Onward today from the nice ostello with the well equipped kitchen and the lady Hospitalero with the loud voice under the bells that toll at 8pm and 6am for 30 rings! So an early start then. The Australian and Dutch group in the ostello beat us by road to Casio. Not by much though it is a bit further.
There was a rumour, unfounded, that it had stopped raining. But it’s not as much as yesterday. We go up the road to Bardone where there is a church of variable antiquity certainly Christian since 6C but quite possibly a pre Christian site on this ancient route across the north Appennines. Moving on we slip and slide up and up a path through the woods until we arrive at Castillo do Casola which has a fortified church.
It’s then down a path with discesa pericoloso signs, not for the last time today. We start towards the Devil’s false teeth they seem not far but well below. The next path is even worse and signs direct pilgrims with loads around a slightly less pericoloso route. We spot a few wild peonies and one of the non chlorophyll symbiotic plants we have seen before. Eventually we reach the teeth, a set of pinnacles guarding the valley up to Casio and have our sandwiches at picnic tables less than a km from the village.
We enter the village through the archway by an interesting fountain and quickly find the ostello we are booked in. The Hospitalero is there he shows us our rooms. Men and women, Betsy lucks in and is next found nearly asleep with her feet warmed by a fluffy creature of indeterminate type.

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18km Down into the valley of the Taro and back up out again. down 508m up 430m.
A good night inspite of the thunderstorm raging overhead. There’s a lovely rocking horse that we Betsy has to restrain herself from riding and bizarrely an Italian constitution on the bedside table. One cat looks a bit wet in the morning. We get a good breakfast from the farmer’s wife whose barn acts as a wind tunnel and had our clothes dry in no time. She urges us to stay on the road and avoid the path by the stream as it will be over its banks. It is still raining when we set off and this continues to a greater or lesser extent all day.
We pass a garage selling Jeeps, a popular make including one with high exhausts and air intake, which may be indicative of the countryside around here. The model on sale is called a Rubicon. Ray says it can’t have a GPS system as the position of the Rubicon is unknown today.
Unsure of feeding arrangements in Sivizzano on a Sunday we shop in the supermarket at the end of the bridge in Fornovo de Taro. In fact there is a good bar that would have been happy to cook is a meal.
We are 8 in the ostello tonight us pluse two Aussies a Dutchman and an American with a trolley.
Tomorrow is a big ascent but only 15km. There is no phone signal or WiFi in the valley so this post will be late. Found WiFi in the bar!

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24km Up and down several ridges and valleys. Maybe up 860m down 620m.
We leave the stoney carved city of Fidenza with its church and fine ostello rapidly getting into fields and soon, very soon the route goes up and along a very straight track between two rows of ancient black mulberry trees. A church named for St Thomas Beckett appears above us and then we are down and the day of up and down begins.
The bird life has changed no more egrets or herons but kestrels and a buzzard. Nightingales are still singing in the trees and butterflies, more blues and occasional Red Admirals flit in the patches of sunshine between clouds.
It remains cool thankfully and we climb up and down to around 300m in Miano. On the way delights such as a large hairy spider Tim prevents being run over by a tractor, to the bemusement of the farmer driving it. And a very long horned beetle. The bar in Costamenzzano is just 300m off route but we’ll worth the visit for a gratuitous timbro with a squirrel among other things on it. A lunch spot by the church in Cello has seats and a water fountain our lunch is consumed. 100m further there is an unexpected bar well it would be ungrateful not to use it. Shortly after we encounter the second ford of the trip but no film crew this time.
On the final climb Ray spots a fine orchid in flower new to us it may be one for our on call botanist Paul.
By 3.30 we get to Santa Nicola a farm B&B whose lady does all our washing and then climbs a ladder to hang it to dry in the barn. We are not even allowed to wash our coffee cups and the shower has a digital thermometer in the showerhead! Luxury, we are usually very happy if it’s mounting bracket holds it vaguely in the right direction. The dogs are very friendly the cats all seven that we saw, slightly less so.

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ONLY 20km.
We stayed last night in an Agri Tourismo these are country located privately run places to stay and have a range of prices, ours is still in the development phase and was a cheaper than many. Farm buildings have been and are still being converted and it has a friendly black Labrador just recovering from an operation on its back leg.
Today hopefully we have a somewhat shorter day along the Via Aemilia and are in no hurry to start. We have been following the route of this Roman trunk road for some days, presumably in the days of Empire it was straight now it is like the labradors bad leg as many centuries of agriculture using every inch of fertile ground have resulted in a route that resembles the squashed snake we see on the road. Several more nightingales sing along the way and Betsy manages to spot one of these secretive nondescript looking birds. It’s all tarmac again today as we zig zag again across these fertile fields
There is a fine Cistercian Abbey in Chiaravalle della Colomba we stop for a while and enter wondering if we are respectably enough dressed as the sign outside requests.
Around 1pm we get to Bastelli which has a community recreation area next to the church. It has benches and a table ideal for lunch. Our bread is very crumbly and we hope the clean up squad in the shape of a sparrow flock going in and out of a brickwork hole can cope.
After a couple of railway and autoroute crossings we arrive in Fidenza with church with its flamboyant carved stonework. After a beer just round the corner from the tourist office we check in and get keys to the ostello which is just back round the church. Walking back we once again are starring on Italian TV. The film drone follows us around the church but we are not up to our usual standard and have to Take 2. We are still quite early so washing and shopping are relaxed. Tony thinks perhaps mozzarella may be worth eating.

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32km AGAIN!! flat but we can see hills to the south. The rain gradually stops and the sun comes out.
We share the neat and well provided for ostello with an Italian from Turino. He seems quite clued up with organising himself for walking. We discover he walked back to Italy from Bali via the Silk Road more or less. Two years. Now he wants to see something of Italy! We spend an interesting evening swapping travel stories.
The cafe across the road provides breakfast and we are off across the flat lands on the south side of the river that will not be mentioned. The irrigation system is not as advanced pumps and lengths of hose snake across the fields. Hills loom in the south we turn from them racing across the plains first southern East and North crossing several small fiumes and torrentes. The good news is that coffee and later beer present themselves at regular intervals. We eat oranges outside a closed church with a benevolent looking creator in terracotta on the gable end.
The highlight of the day is turning down a grit track to a ford with partly submerged stepping stones and mud at each side. The Torrente caused by yesterday’s rain is subsiding. There is an Italian film crew awaiting our crossing. We hope we put on a good show.
Eventually we get to the unpronounceable town beginning with F.As we cross the footbridge, our Italian film friends are waiting to film us crossing under a Via Francigena sign,no explanation is given and no contracts signed we just wave to them as if they were long lost cousins It has a modestly interesting not very gothic church, We have a beer in town as we have now done the planned 28km with two more to go out of town (eastwards, why are we going east? to loop around and go up a SW running valley across the northern Appennines). We find our accomodation an Agro Tourismo looks quite plush! They have never heard of us. We try to explain we are film stars and will be on TV soon. It is no good we eventually realise it is the wrong Agro Tourismo. Our booking is just up the road. You guessed it another 2km! But happily no more fords.

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