Via Francigena nel Sud Day 21: Giardinetto - Ordona

Road to from Rome Day 21: Giardinetto - Ordona 

A walking tour should be gone upon alone, because freedom is of the essence; because you should be able to stop and go on, and follow this way or that, as the freak takes you; and because you must have your own pace. 

Robert Louis Stevenson, Walking tours (1876)

Today I went alone, at my own pace. I set off from Posta Guevara at 7 in the morning and walked across the flat farmland of Puglia, between ploughed wheat fields and olive groves. At 9:30 I was already in Castelluccio dei Sauri, watching the preparations for the
cyclists due to arrive from Troia. After a break at the local bar, I was just setting off again when I was waylaid by an elementary school class in matching blue uniforms. One of the teachers pointed me out to the children and they all swarmed around me asking questions, awestruck when they heard I had walked all the way from Rome. They wanted to pose for a group photo and even asked for my autograph, on bits of paper they produced from their pockets.

Castelluccio dei Sauri 

Monument to peace in Castelluccio 

After talking to the children I took the local people's advice and took a shortcut towards Ordona on the shoulder of the road rather than following the roundabout route taken by the Via Francigena on dirt roads. I would not recommend this route, as it is much more pleasant to walk on a dirt lane through the fields, but it reduced the distance I had to walk today and allowed me to rejoin the Via Francigena close to Ordona and arrive not long after the cyclists, who were coming from Troia, where I was yesterday afternoon. In Ordona I was thus able to participate in the festivities surrounding their arrival, received by the mayor and offered a buffet lunch in tbe garden outside the archaeological museum, along with local groups of cyclists and an Italian television celebrity who is riding with them for a few days. This is one reason for the crowds that gather wherever the group goes! 

Streets of Ordona at twilight 

In the evening we travelled by car to nearby Ascoli Satriano to visit the archaeological museum and dine in a local restaurant - once again a series of appetisers featuring plenty of vegetables and legumes, followed by pasta made from grano arso: burnt wheat, originally eaten by peasants so poor they survived on the kernels of wheat gleaned from the fields after the stubble had been burnt. This is now considered a gourmet specialty of the area, and the dark toasted wheat flour is used to make unique varieties of foccaccia and pasta.

Treasures from ancient Daunian tombs in Ascoli Satriano