Joanne's long walks: Via Romea Germanica Day 100: Arezzo

I would like to spend the whole of my life travelling, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend at home.

- William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830)

Today is my one hundredth day of walking on the Via Romea Germanica, since Stade (near Hamburg)! I divided it into three large chunks: 930 kilometres from Stade to Donauwörth, in April - May 2024, 730 kilometres from Donauwörth to Padova in May - June 2025, and now - the rest of the way from Padova to Rome, probably around 750 kilometres.

For information about the route, origins and history of this pilgrimage path, refer to my first post about it at this link.

My hundredth day on the Via Romea Germanica began with cappuccino and croissants at the Bar del Duomo, right around the corner from the seminary where we were staying in Arezzo. We then went into the cathedral, to see Piero della Francesca's beautiful fresco of Mary Magdalene and attend the morning service. Well that was actually a coincidence, the service just happened to be starting in a side chapel exactly when we got there, so we stayed and attended. The service was brief and the sermon concise but meaningful; afterwards, we followed the officiating priest into the sacristy to get our pilgrim credentials stamped. One of the benefits of being a pilgrim is that you have an excuse to go peeking into the back rooms, behind the altars, and into the sacristies of all the churches, in search of the church's official stamp!

The portait of Pope John Paul II in the cathedral reminded me of my trip to Arezzo in June of 1993, when we happened to be visiting the town on the same day as Pope John Paul II. We saw him step out of the cathedral doors and bless the assembled crowd, including me, my mother, my husband and our baby daughter.

We couldn't leave Arezzo without seeing Cimabue's crucifix in the church of San Domenico, also just around the corner from our lodgings.

We returned to the seminary to pick up our bags, but we weren't done with Arezzo yet: when we reached the lower, more modern part of the city, where the majority of shops and services are located, we stopped at a shoe repair workshop just a block off the Via Romea Germanica route. A seam on one of my boots was beginning to split just a little, and I thought I'd better get it repaired before it got any worse. At Marino la Calzoleria Artigianale they fixed it right away, for only five euros!

It was necessary to wait 20 minutes for the glue to set before stitching the shoe, so I put my sandals on and we went to buy lunch supplies. On the way back to the shoe repair shop we turned the wrong way - luckily, because this brought us to an excellent hiking gear shop, where we naturally had to take a look around! And thus we met Antonio, proprietor of the shop, licensed hiking guide, and owner/operator, along with his friends of the association A Piede Libero, of a small pilgrim hostel in the hamlet of San Marco Villalba, just after Arezzo on the Via Romea Germanica. We walked right past the hostel later, on our way out of Arezzo; all the shutters were closed, because, as Antonio regretfully told us, the hostel is currently closed due to issues with plumbing which need to be fixed. But here is Antonio's contact information, for future pilgrims who might be looking for a place to stay a few kilometres after Arezzo, a guide, or an item of hiking gear from a well-stocked store!

A Piede Libero hostel

At San Marco Villalba we left the road and climbed a steep path through the olive groves. The surface is rocky and irregular, as the guidebook warns, and I imagine it could be wet in springtime, as we appeared to be following a stream bed, dry at the moment. We passed a bright yellow house and then went into the woods, coming out onto a road which we then followed for several kilometres, winding our way up the hill. Near the top we stopped for lunch, spreading out my rain poncho on the grass as a picnic blanket. Only the grassy surface was slightly sloped, so that the plastic poncho caused us to slide gradually to one end! 😅

One interesting thing that we saw on the way up the hill: this tree with what looks like a cancerous growth on its trunk, which is actually the tree's reaction and way of surviving after having been hit by schrapnel from a grenade during World War II!

We came to a fork in the path where a sign indicating the Way of Saint Francis pointed downhill along a steep, rocky path while another, more faded indication pointed straight ahead on a broader gravel track for the Via Romea Germanica. A quick consultation of Mapy.cz revealed that the two paths converged again shortly after, and so we took the shorter and steeper route downhill. On a wet day, it would probably be advisable to take the longer, gentler descent, but we had no problems on the crumbly rocky path, which saved us about one kilometre.

Before taking this shortcut, however, I did walk a few metres up the longer path to a viewpoint over the valley: we are now on the edge of the Val di Chiana.

More of those winding Tuscan roads took us down, and then a long straight stretch climbed up to the belltower of Pieve la Sassaia. Hearing music inside the church, I went in and found a bearded figure dressed all in white, listening to the music and dozing in a chair beside the altar. Giovanni, the legendary Templar hospitalier of Rifugio la Sassaia, stood up and came to meet me at the door.

Giovanni

Fresco by Spinello Aretino (1390)

Giovanni used to be a businessman and fashion designer with his own sportswear brand: official supplier of the national football team of Cameroon. Twenty years ago he began a new life. After starting to walk long distances in Africa, he walked the Camino de Santiago eight times, and then opened a pilgrim hostel in the true spirit of the Camino, in the newly renovated premises of the former priest's home attached to the church. Giovanni hosts pilgrims on the Way of Saint Francis and the Via Romea Germanica as well as Scouts and similar groups. And he is an excellent cook, too!