Via Romea Germanica Day 113: Campagnano di Roma - La Giustiniana

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

- John Ruskin (1883)

The weather forecast for today kept changing, but there was one constant: rain. What changed was the amount of rain, and the time of day. When we were having dinner with Antonella and Walter last night, the forecast was for clouds in the morning, rain in the afternoon. So we agreed to set our alarm clocks for 6:30 and start walking at 7:30 in the morning. But when we got up, the forecast had changed: rain in the morning, stopping in the afternoon! We set off anyway, passing through the historic town centre of Campagnano.

A bit of history: Campagnano di Roma

Perched atop an outcrop of tuff stone above the Baccano valley, formed by a now-dry volcanic lake, Campagnano has been inhabited since at least 1500 B.C. The area was the scene of battles between the Etruscans and the Romans, and was repopulated by Romans in the third century B.C. Below the town was a post station on the ancestor of the Via Francigena, the ancient Roman Via Cassia, complete with a spa where travellers could bathe and rest, stables for their horses, shops and a market, as well as barracks for Roman soldiers, all in a complex known as Mansio ad Vacanas.

The crisis of the third century led to the gradual abandonment of the countryside around Rome, which was brought under cultivation again when the Pope began to govern the area in the eighth and ninth centuries. The town of Campagnano is first mentioned in a document dated 1076, around the time that construction of the fortified village began. 

Campagnano di Roma in 1547

When we were just outside Campagnano it began to rain, only gently, but we stopped to put our ponchoes on nonetheless. In a few kilometres we would be at the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Sorbo, where we could take sanctuary ourselves if the rain became too intense. I arrived there first, went into the church, stamped my pilgrim credential, and then sat down for a break sheltered by the loggia.  

The others didn't take the short but steep detour up to the Sanctuary, and the rain was still only a light patter, so I set off again, walking through a beautiful meadow with grazing horses which I remembered from walking this section of the Via Francigena ten years ago - also in the rain! 😅

Ten years ago, I stopped at a wonderful newly opened pilgrim hostel in Palazzo Chigi, right in the centre of Formello, which the town's current administration has unfortunately closed. The building, formerly a noble palace, is however still home to the town's museum, and to a library where you can get your pilgrim credential stamped. 

A bit of history: Formello 

In Etruscan times Formello was part of the town of Veio, a major political and cultural centre which historian Livy described as pulcherrima urbs. But Rome came to see Veio as a competitor for control of the surrounding territory and the important salt flats at the mouth of the Tiber River, and beseiged and conquered the city in the fourth century B.C.

In 780 Pope Hadrian IV founded the Domusculta Capracorum, a vast agricultural holding in the area, which became the feud of the Orsini family, who later sold it to the Chigi family. 

On this visit as on my last one, I didn't see as much of Formello as I would have liked to,because of the rain! The four of us took refuge in a café, where we were joined by Ilaria, a friend and fellow walker who lives in Formello. It was great to see her again, four years after our adventures writing the collective pilgrim diary on the Via Francigena during Road to Rome 2021!

Walter and Antonella ate their sandwiches and then put their ponchoes on and headed back onto the trail, but Mariella and I stayed in the café chatting with Ilaria. And we were glad we did, because the rain soon started to come down harder. Two French pilgrims, mother and daughter, came into the café as well. Eventually it was time for Ilaria to go, and as she had an appointment a few kilometres further down our route, she offered to give us a lift part of the way. We had a long way to walk today - in the rain - and so we accepted a lift for a few kilometres; it seemed a better alternative than taking a shortcut walking on a busy road. 

The archaeological sites at Veio are unfortunately closed to the public - at least on a Tuesday in October - but we did see the "Osteria del Gambero Rosso" from the classic 1972 mini-series of Pinocchio directed by Luigi Comencini :) 

We took a minor detour into the old hamlet that is the historic fortified village of Isola Farnese, named Isola (island) for its position on a rocky outcrop above the valleys around it, and Farnese after the family that used to own the land and the castle. 

After this came the worst part of the Via Francigena: walking along the sidewalk of the modern Via Cassia highway, zigzagging around overflowing garbage bins (the city of Rome is infamously unable to deal with its people's garbage), litter, discarded appliances, and even a dead deer, hoisted up onto the sidewalk and guarded by a couple of police officers until it could be collected 😫

We stopped by the Eurospin supermarket to pick up some snacks to tide us over until dinner time, then turned off the highway and crossed the railway tracks via an underpass to get to B&B I Luminari. Beside the railway tracks and close to the highway, it's not a place I would come to for a vacation, but it's ideally located for our last night on the road before we walk into Rome! 

Campagnano di Roma - La Giustiniana 

18.5 km walked + approximately 8 km by car

Via Romea Germanica Day 112: Sutri - Campagnano di Roma

Aiutami Signore a mettermi in cammino. 

A non giustificarmi quando non vedo i frutti. 

A non giustificarmi quando mi mancano le forze. 

A non giustificarmi quando non ricevo un grazie riconoscente.

(Help me, O Lord, to set out walking.

Not to make excuses when I don't see any results.

Not to make excuses when my strength fails me.

Not to make excuses when nobody thanks me or appreciates what I do.)

- Pilgrims' prayer, posted in the hostel in Vetralla 

Today let's start with...

A bit of history: Sutri

A strategic location overlooking the only road between the Sabatini mountains to the south and the Cimini mountains to the north ensured that Sutri played a prominent role from its foundation as the first Roman colonial outpost in 384 BC until well into the Middle Ages. The town stood at a crossroads where the territory of the Etruscan cities of Veii to the south and Caere to the north met the Faliscan region, on the road towards Tarquinia and Orvieto: the ancient Roman Via Cassia.

The city's most impressive sight is a Roman amphitheatre cut into solid rock, part of the same compound as the necropolis and the "Mithraeum", now the church of the Madonna del Parto. I have yet to see any of these recommended top sights, as the archaeological zone is open only in the hours in which pilgrims are walking, between 10 and 4, and closed entirely on Mondays (i.e. today). It is possible to peek into the amphitheatre through the locked gate, but impossible to see anything of the inside of the Mithraeum other than the pictures on the information board. 

After the archaeological zone, we walked through the forest, at first the wrong way following a Via Francigena sign that pointed down the wrong road, and then the right way when we realised it didn't correspond to the gps track. The forest path took us onto a busy road, the SP40, which became less busy after it met the Via Cassia highway and most of the cars turned off. But it still wasn't very pleasant walking on the road, with long grass and weeds preventing us from walking on the shoulder. Four kilometres out of Sutri we finally turned off the road onto a dirt track, and found ourselves back among the hazelnut trees we had seen so many of on the previous day.

The dirt track came out onto the pavement at a fountain, where I met a group of three walkers from Bazzano, a village near Parma that is home to the best bread in the world, they claimed. The baker of the world's best bread was in fact one of the walkers, while the other two were wearing high-visibility vests advertising her bakery 😄

The baker in Bazzano must bake a special high-energy bread, because the three of them walked very quickly! I managed to keep up their pace as far as the café at the entrance to Monterosi, where we all stopped for coffee and croissants. Mariella, Walter and Antonella caught up with us and joined our pilgrim gathering at the bar. 

"Chi conosce il Latino elogia l'acqua ma beve il vino"  - and she's a Latin teacher 😅

Monterosi

Coming out of Monterosi, I recognised the church I had passed by ten years earlier, the last time I walked this section of the road to Rome. And then I recognised the part walking alongside the modern Via Cassia, now grown into a four-lane dual carriageway, on a raised pedestrian walkway with wooden railings. We passed through an area where workers were busy installing optic fibre and turned off onto a side street. 

The rest of the walk to Campagnano was fairly unexciting, on minor paved roads through rural areas. The presence of a racetrack in the distance made itself constantly heard. We stopped for a lunch break near the Monte Gelato waterfall, an unimpressive and inhospitable spot: on one side of the road is the waterfall, a short way down a path off the road we were walking along, where there are no benches to sit on and a sign prohibits picnicking. We were about to picnic anyway when along came a film troupe, filling the area with people, cars and equipment ready to start filming a scene. So we moved to a park on the other side of the road, where there were picnic tables and benches but also signs saying "Ticket: 10 euros" and "Entry without a ticket is strictly prohibited". The walkers from Parma had said there was no-one around to enforce the rules except a peacock, so we went on into the park and sat down to eat our lunches. Before we had finished, a car came heading toward us, careening over the grass of the picnic area and squeezing between the children's slide and the bench. Uh oh, we thought! He's here to demand his 40 euros! But the man in the car simply told us he needed to close up, if we could move along as soon as conveniently possible, which we naturally did.

Not quite Niagara Falls

The view when you go behind a bush for a pee

Rome that way - Rome on the Via Francigena this way 😄

Finally Campagnano di Roma came into view - perched on a hilltop high above us, of course! We climbed the road up to the top, past caves dug into the rock and filled with - garbage! 🤢 This and the skeleton of an abandoned unfinished building standing out against the sky did little to improve our initial impressions of the town as a rather unwelcoming place. But when we got to the top of the hill and settled into our accommodations at La Casa del Camminatore - B&B Ostello di Campagnano, that impression was reversed! The name is indicative of the fact that this pilgrim-orientated accommodation is more of a B&B than a hostel, in terms of both facilities and price, but it is one of the best accommodations we've had so far: each unit is a seperate little apartment, with bedroom, living area, kitchen and bathroom, all decorated with great care and in good taste, providing everything you could need. Ours even has a proper bathtub! After a good soak, we went next door to Antonella and Walter's apartment for a drink and ended up staying for dinner. The owner of the B&B, Monica, provides basic ingredients for cooking a quick supper and for breakfast, but our friends had been shopping and added some fresh ingredients and a bottle of wine. So we dined together before retiring to the sleeping loft in our own quarters for the night.

Two more days to Rome!

Sutri - Campagnano di Roma 26 km