- 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
No comments:
Post a Comment