Joanne's long walks: Via Romea Germanica Day 99: Subbiano

Life was very different when you walked through it.

- Rachel Joy, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

We took our time leaving our warm and cosy apartment in Subbiano. By 8:30 the morning chill had dispelled and we set off through the town of Subbiano and across the bridge over the river Arno to its sister town, Capolona, which has a Roman bridge over the river.

It also has a train station, and we had to stop at a level crossing and wait for a train to go by. Then we left the town on a road that gradually became smaller and smaller until it turned into a narrow forest path, coming out into the fields just before the settlement and church of Sietina.

Pieve di Santa Maria Maddalena a Sietina

Built in the tenth century on the site of an even older early Christian church, which was most likely built on the site of a temple to an Etruscan fertility goddess, the Pieve was decorated with frescoes of various saints in the late 14th and 15th centuries. In the 1700s the church was, unfortunately, given a new façade, by somebody who couldn't draw a straight line: everything is a bit off-centre and out of alignment!

The church is kept closed, in a tiny hamlet with a population of 16 people, 6 dogs and a number of carp, according to our guide: the man who lives next door to the church and keeps the key. He is not only happy to show people around the church, but actively involved in the maintenance of the trail of the Via Romea Germanica in the woods between Capolona and Sietina. He happened to be out walking his dog, Gus, when we arrived, and offered to open the church for us.

We are finally coming into an area where the Via Romea Germanica is somewhat better known. Coming out of the village of Giovi onto the main road, a motorcyclist stopped to tell us that he was also a pilgrim, and had walked the route. He gave us some tips for the next couple of stages, wished us Buon Cammino and went roaring off down the road; we crossed the road to stop at a café and use the facilities, buying some crisps and a sandwich to justify the stop. Then, just after turning off the main road onto a dirt track, I found forty euros in the ditch! Twenty on one side of the road, and twenty on the other. So the friar at La Verna was not entirely right: sometimes it literally pays to keep your eyes on the ground! 😅

A few hundred metres later, we came to a "natural swimming pool" in the stream (a tributary of the Arno) with an open-air art gallery and picnic tables, where we stopped to eat our sandwiches.

From here we zig-zagged across the fields on dirt roads and grassy tracks, and soon the bell tower of Arezzo cathedral came into view. After crossing a highway which would have taken us directly to Arezzo in only three kilometres, but had too much traffic, we found another route into Arezzo, on dirt tracks and small paved roads, without taking as roundabout a route as the official track.

I believe this corresponds to the normal route of the Via Romea Germanica, before the roadworks on the main road into Arezzo made it necessary to come up with an alternative route. The main road has now been reopened, the only inconvenience bring a short stretch where there is no sidewalk, as there are construction sites on both sides of the road. But there was no work going on, and we had no problem walking through!

We arrived at the parking lot below the cathedral, where my husband and I parked the last time we were in Arezzo, for a cycling event a year and a half ago; a series of escalators took us effortlessly up from the parking lot directly to the cathedral square!

At the exact spot where the cycling event had started, another event was about to begin, involving racecars instead of bicycles. The police were clearing the road, so we hurried on out of their way and around the corner to the Seminario Vescovile, where the Rector Don Andrea had kindly agreed to host us. He wasn't there yet, but the custodian let us in, and after a while another priest came to show us to our room. We did not meet Don Andrea until later, when he happened to drive by as we were walking down the street.

Once we had the key to the big, heavy wooden door of the Seminario, we wasted no time there but hurried out to see some of the sights of Arezzo. Particularly the Church of San Francesco, which was closed for restoration work the last time I was in Arezzo, to see Piero della Francesca's Legend of the True Cross fresco cycle.

A bit of history: Arezzo

One of the twelve most important Etruscan cities, conquered by the Romans in 311 BC, Arretium became a military station on the Via Cassia, the road that allowed Rome to expand into the Po Valley. By the age of Augustus it was the third largest city in Italy, renowned for its widely exported pottery manufactures. In the third or fourth century the city became an episcopal seat, and we have the full list of names of all its bishops since that time, partly because they were also feudal lords of the city in medieval times. Arezzo was an independent city-state between 1098 and 1384, when it fell under the domination of Florence. This was the time when the great fresco cycle was commissioned of Piero della Francesca (1415–1492).

The city's economic decline after this time is what saved its medieval centre from being heavily altered or reconstructed. Arezzo now has a population of almost 100,000 and is a popular tourist destination, especially since Roberto Benigni's film La vita è bella came out, with scenes shot in the city's streets and squares.