35 km
A long and somewhat monotonous day walking along the coast!
The four of us who were sharing accommodations last night set off at 7:30 in the morning, along with Marco, the blogger from Milan who was also staying in Torre Santa Sabina. We walked along the beach, and then on a dirt road just above the sand dunes and the beach, winding our way around the edges of giant puddles, for it had rained hard during the night.
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| Torre Santa Sabina at dawn |
When we reached a nature reserve for sea turtles, the Via Francigena left the sea and followed the service road by the highway in order to leave the turtles in peace. After an hour or so of walking this road, with the raised highway on one side and the forest of the nature reserve in the other, we returned to the coast. But even here we continued to walk on the pavement, as large signs continually warned us that the sand dunes and cliffs of the coast were subject to erosion, unstable and unsafe to walk on. This meant we had the scenic coastline on our left all the way, but still had to walk on asphalt, which is tough on the feet all day. A strong cross wind dissuaded us from stopping to take a break, and all the cafés we passed were seasonal businesses open only in summer. This meant we walked 30 km with practically no breaks! Marco had not even had any breakfast. So when we came to a field of beautiful yellow melons, perhaps we may be forgiven for helping ourselves to a small one, which we carried until we found a suitable surface on which to slice it, a milestone marker by the road. Whil carrying the melon we heard a siren approaching, and the banana theft scenes in "Johnny Stecchino" came to mind; we jokingly urged Marco to conceal the evidence of the crime behind a bush, but when the siren turned out to be an ambulance, we decided the owner of the field must have had a heart attack when he realised one of his melons was missing!
In any case, it was the best melon I have ever tasted!
As we neared Brindisi airport, we spotted some figures down on the beach: it was the rest of the Road to Rome group! They had had a tour of the sea turtle nature reserve and a proper lunch, consisting of more than just stolen fruit, but then they had taken a lift to stay on schedule. We walked the last few kilometres together, around the airport grounds to the church of Santa Maria del Casale, where we were welcomed by the priest, given a special commemorative stamp on our pilgrim passports and shown the frescoes on the walls.
A local guide then accompanied us all to the monument to the sailor on the seafront, and from here we took a motorboat across the harbour to the Roman columns that mark the end point of the ancient Roman Appian Way. We walked up the steps to the columns as a group, behind the Road to Rome banner, to the strains of a string quartet plus flute playing the Ode to Joy - hymn to European unity and therefore appropriate as a symbol of a Long Walk that unites four nations in Europe.
From here it still took us a while to finally get settled in our accommodations, washed up and ready to join the others for the evening's programme of events, which culminated with a buffet dinner of local specialties accompanied by traditional Apulian pizzica music and dancing! All organised for us by the association Brindisi e Le Antiche Strade. They gave us a testimonium attesting to our arrival in Brindisi, one of the traditional ports of departure for Jerusalem. And they even gave us a medal!
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| Puréed fava beans with chicory, a local specialty |
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| The dessert buffet |
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| Selfie by Alessio at the pilgrims' table |
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| Didier, vice-president of the Via Francigena association in France, dancing the pizzica |
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