Quale motivazione ci invita a camminare? Per quale ragione lasciamo il comfort di una casa per andare, per spostarci? Che senso ha lasciare alle spalle ciò che conosciamo per andare verso l’ignoto?
C’è forse, sotto a questo impulso, un insito ottimismo che ci porta a pensare che l’ignoto possa essere migliore di quanto già sappiamo.
(What makes us walk? Why do we leave the comfort of home to go somewhere, to travel? What is the sense in leaving behind everything we know, and heading into the unknown?
Perhaps what is behind this impulse is an inherent optimism that leads us to think that the unknown might be better than what we already know.)
- Daniele Matterazzo, long-distance walker
I was awake early, but dawdled in my comfortable miniature house in Alberto's back yard, delaying departure in the hope that the rain would stop. And it did - by the time I had breakfasted with Alberto in his section of the main house, written a few words in his guestbook and packed up my things, the rain had stopped! But the world was still wet, so I put on my waterproof trousers in anticipation of walking in wet grass, and my rain jacket in case of further showers. Then I set off, stopping at a bank machine and a small supermarket, where the cashiers were very curious and asked a lot a questions about my walk!
They were pretty much the only people I talked to all day, until I arrived at my destination! I spent the whole day walking along, or beside, the embankment by the Reno river, and met only one cyclist and one dog-walker.
The sun came out and I began to roast in my black plastic rain trousers, so I sat down in a small patch of shade beside the church at Palazzo Tamba, a huge 19th-century villa that now stands abandoned and crumbling. Only the chapel beside it has been restored and revived for use.
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| Abandoned elementary school |
It was monotonous walking in a straight line all day, with no villages, cafés, not even any people to say hello to, except for that one dog-walker, whom I met twice. The second time he advised me that there was a water fountain coming up just after the bridge, if I needed it. I was just entering the final stretch of the day's walk, as the bridge at Madonna del Bosco marks the turn-off for the hostel in Anita, two kilometres off the Via Romea Germanica route.
When I stopped to refill my water bottle at the fountain, I saw that there was a bus stop right beside it, and went to check the schedule. A bus was scheduled in less than ten minutes! I had no qualms about taking the bus the rest of the way to the hostel, as it is two kilometres off-route. So I stood by the bus stop sign and waited, coins in hand... but the scheduled time passed by, and no bus appeared. I waited another fifteen minutes and there was still no sign of a bus, so I gave up and set off on foot.
The last kilometre was rather hairy, on a narrow road atop an embankment with no shoulder at all and occasional motorists travelling much faster than they should have been. But I made it safely to Anita (population 545) and my hostel in what used to be the village school.
A bit of history: Anita
Following the land reclamation project that began in 1921 and the assignment of the plots of reclaimed land, a need arose for towns to serve these rural areas, and the Mussolini government ordered the construction of a number of "rural villages". Anita was one of these villages, officially inaugurated on December 20, 1939 in a ceremony attended by top representatives of the Fascist government. It featured three public buildings - a casa littoria (Fascist party headquarters), a school and a church - in the Rationalist style of the 1930s, arranged around a large, grassy square. Under a redevelopment and revitalisation project with EU funding, what used to be the Fascist party clubhouse is now a fancy seafood restaurant; the church is currently covered with scaffolding and being restored, and the former school is my hostel, operated by a non-profit cooperative. As it so happens, the engineer who designed the school building was the grandfather of my host in Argenta last night!
The hostel in the school building is a great deal, at 21 euros for a private room with en-suite bathroom, plus an optional extra 15 euros for a three-course dinner! When Saura, who cooks as well as running the hostel, heard that I didn't eat meat, she said she'd make me some pasta with tomatoes. But when I came down for dinner, she said, I found some smoked salmon! She'd made me penne al salmone, plus a filet of fish with green beans, a salad and fruit. All served with a jug of wine and another of water - I'm full to bursting!
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| The casa littoria, now Ca' Anita seafood restaurant |
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| The church - in the same style as the train station in Siena |
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| My hostel, the former school |
Anita: the name
The town is named after Brasilian revolutionary Ana Maria de Jesus Ribeiro, better known as Anita Garibaldi, companion in battle and in life of the freedom fighter and "hero of two worlds" Giuseppe Garibaldi. Anita died not far from here, in Mandriole.
Following the fall of the short-lived Roman Republic of 1849, Garibaldi set out for Venice to help defend the Republic of San Marco against the soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Anita set off from Rome on horseback to join him, even though she was gravely ill with typhoid fever as well as pregnant with the couple's fifth child. Together they followed a complicated route designed to evade capture; but by the time they reached the marshlands of the Valli di Comacchio, Anita was so ill she had to be transported on a mattress aboard a small boat. On August 4, 1849 she was brought ashore at a farm near Mandriole, where she passed away, aged only 28.
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| Anita Garibaldi being carried through the marshes by her husband and his right-hand man |
Argenta - Anita 25 km
Tomorrow: to the sea!!!
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