Via Romea Germanica Day 88: Casalborsetti - Ravenna

Sweet hour of twilight! – In the solitude
Of the Pine forest, and the silent shore
Which bounds Ravenna’s immemorial wood,
Rooted where once the Adrian wave flowed o’er,
To where the last Cæsarean fortress stood,
Evergreen forest! which Boccaccio’s lore
And Dryden’s lay made haunted ground to me,
How have I loved the twilight hour, and thee.

Lord George Byron, Don Juan, Canto 105 (1821)

Taking advantage of the cooking facilities in my hut at Camping Reno, I cooked pancakes for breakfast, from a single serving packet of high-protein pancake mix I had picked up as a  free sample in a pharmacy back home. With jam in lieu of syrup, yogurt and instant coffee, this made an excellent pre-hike meal! Washing the dishes was a bit more problematic, as neither dishcloth nor dish soap were provided in my cabin; I dissolved a bit of hand soap on a paper towel and did as best I could. Then I left the campground and walked along the cycling path beside the road to the Lamone canal. 

I crossed the canal on the road bridge and then turned right to follow a grassy track beside the canal. When it got a bit too grassy - the waist-high grass was damp from the morning's brief rain shower - I crossed over the smaller canal to my left and walked along the side of the road instead. 

Zigzagging between the road and the path, I reached the spot where the two possible Via Romea Germanica routes converge: where those who were ingenious enough to find accommodations at Mandriole and walk the shorter route rejoin those who walked all the way to the coast to find accommodations in Casalborsetti, like me. Here the route turned off the road and into the beautiful Pineta di San Vitale: a vast thousand-hectare pine grove planted around the year one thousand by the monks of the Benedictine monastery of San Vitale, to stop the advance of the salty sand dunes while ensuring themselves a profitable harvest of pine nuts every year. 

The trail proceeds through the pine grove for approximately six kilometres; about a third of the way through is an old house, built by the monks, now home to the guardian of the grove, with an information office, a water fountain, a picnic area and toilets. 

I stopped here for a break and talked to Sergio, who said he was not the guardian of the grove, so I assume he was a volunteer on park ranger duty; he gave me some information and advice on the next part of the route. 

Two thirds of the way through the pine grove was another big old house, which now appears to be used as the headquarters for maintenance of the park; here too there is a water fountain, and a place to sit down. I didn't stop again, though, as the mosquitos were getting very annoying; spraying myself with "Off Adventure", the strong stuff, did not seem to deter them, so I put on my long-sleeved shirt and mosquito head net - the first time I've actually used it - and continued briskly on my way. I passed through a large clearing, and then met a couple of wild horses on the trail; they came right up and nuzzled me.

Leaving behind the pine grove, and the mosquitos, I walked along the side of a canal and through an underpass below a branch of the SS Romea highway. I stopped for a lunch break under the pine trees beside the canal; it was a bit noisy with all the trucks rattling over the bridge, but at least there were no mosquitos! I then crossed another road bridge over the canal - rather a hairy experience as there is no sidewalk and there are giant trucks on this one too - and followed the route of the highway, walking on the grass between the road and the parking lots of the shopping centres beside it. This unpleasant but short stretch was soon over when I turned down a side street and into the first suburbs of Ravenna. 

It was beginning to sprinkle when I reached Parco Teodorico, where I found a small café with a comfy sofa, wifi and fresh-squeezed fruit juices, operated by a cooperative for the inclusion and employment of young people with disabilities. The same cooperative also runs a small hotel, called Hotel del Cuore, which I passed by later in central Ravenna. It would have been nice to support them, but it looked a bit posh for pilgrims! At the café, I rested and wrote up this first part of today's blog, until the rain had stopped and I was ready to move a hundred metres further on, to the Mausoleum of Theodoric.

Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths and ruler of the "Independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy" from A.D. 493 to 526, commissioned the construction of his own tomb in the year 520. It is made of blocks of Istrian stone and has a lower cell and an upper cell containing the porphyry sarcophagus.

When I came out of the tomb it was raining quite hard. I recovered my backpack from the ticket office and bookshop, where I had left it with the ticket seller, a lady who looked like she didn't really enjoy her job. I stopped for a while on the covered porch of the ticket office, wondering if it was going to stop raining; it didn't look like it was, so I covered myself and my backpack in plastic and continued on toward my accommodation, about two kilometres away. As soon as I had got my poncho on, the rain slowed and then stopped. I proceeded through the town centre wrapped in bright orange plastic, arriving a half hour later at Opera Santa Teresa del Bambin Gesù: an institution which includes a home for elderly priests, a student residence, and an adjacent home for people requiring rooms, such as migrant workers... and pilgrims!

Here I have a bedroom and en-suite bathroom with access to a shared kitchen and laundry room, all on a donation basis. They'll even allow me to stay two nights, so I don't have to rush around seeing the sights of Ravenna this evening after walking from Casalborsetti: I have all day tomorrow, and part of Sunday too, seeing as I only have to walk 12.5 kilometres to my next stop. 

I'll get to Rome... eventually!! 😄

Casalborsetti (Camping Reno) - Ravenna 21 km