The forecast called for rain all day, starting about 6:00am and running until 6:00pm. During the night we heard it drumming on the roof. Our apartment is on the top floor with a vaulted roof. There is no insulation. Any raindrops hitting the roof are directly heard below. Lying in a warm bed in a warm room, it sounded wonderful. The thought of walking in it all day . . . not so much.
We slept in until 6:30am. No rain was falling then. We could pack a day pack and catch a bus to Poggio Bustone and hike back to our apartment, about 11 miles, but the forecast of rain, the sound of it on the roof last night and the fatigue from yesterday’s long miles convinced us to spend the day exploring Rieti and taking it easy.
After a breakfast of fried potatoes, onions and hot dogs with fried eggs, we donned our coats, grabbed our credentials and headed for the tourist office to see if we could get them stamped.
We got to the tourist office on the main town square about 9:15am and found the door locked. We asked some workers outside when it would open. They didn’t really know, but suggested 9:30? We walked down the square a bit and saw another building with tourism listed on the sign on the outside wall. We walked up to the second floor and found a uniformed guard at a desk and an administrator. We asked about getting our credentials stamped. The uniformed guard disappeared down a hallway and returned a few minutes later, then lead us up to the next floor and into an office where a nicely dressed official looking women rummaged through some cabinets, produce a stamp and stamped our credentials. She seemed quite pleased to have been able to help us. We got photos with both the guard and the women.
Back in the square we walked to the duomo, entered and marveled at its interior. As we walked around we saw three of the side chapels being worked on, all artisans repainting the walls and artwork. We were impressed with the attention to detail, working on a little tiny area in an enormous room.
We walked over to the fancy hotel on the main square. Seated outside we had the kid waiter bring us pastries and a Coke to share. Next, over to the post office to mail the postcards we had written to the kids over a week ago but hadn’t found a post office to send them from.
What a busy morning!! So much accomplished. We returned home to rest and the rain fell for about twenty minutes. For the next few hours I wrote and Sally researched.
About noon we headed to the grocery store for a few items, mainly Cokes and other incidentals, then while out and about and no rain was falling we thought we would explore where to pick up our bus for tomorrow’s ride back to Poggio Moiano, trying to get a bus that would take us directly there.
I had downloaded the Cotal bus app and found our 7:37am bus to catch, we just needed to find the bus stop to grab it at rather than walking all the way to the train station to catch it (10 minutes away. Big whoop). We found our spot, I marked it on my maps app for a quick return in the morning.
Stopped by the apartment to drop off the food I had been carrying all over town and then we walked to the Donar Kebab place I had spotted, right next to the train station, for lunch.
Learning from our last encounter, we split a Panine Kebab, avoiding the pain of over eating. We ordered a second to go, planning to eat it tomorrow while on the trail.
We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on research, watching Stephen Colbert monologues we had missed and soaking in our jacuzzi bathtub.
We had stir fry vegetables and spinach tortellini- to die for.
Sally has been mentioning for the past week that we need to find an American to spend Thanksgiving Day with, or at least share dinner with them, in Rome, where we expect to arrive on Thanksgiving. What are the chances of us meeting an American in Rome on the day we arrive at the Vatican from Assisi. If only we knew of an American in Vatican City . . .
Oh yeah! The Pope!!
Inspired at the prospect we used a sheet of paper, half blank (the other half a printed page from our guidebook) to write a letter to Pope Leo, of Chicago, asking if we could spend Thanksgiving with him:
Dear Pope Leo,
My wife and I are walking the way of St Francis from his home in Assisi to Vatican City. I write this from Rieti, on our 12th day of this walk. We expect to walk into Vatican City on Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 27th. We are away from our family back in Toledo Washington, two sons aged 43 and 41 and our four grandchildren ages nine, seven, five and three. We are both retired school teachers, 33 years myself, 24 years for Sally.
We were hoping to find an American to spend Thanksgiving Day with in Rome. You are the only American we know in Rome and would love to spend Thanksgiving with you. I know this idea is outrageous, but we thought maybe you would enjoy a meal with two Americans as well. I am 71, my wife, Sally is 70. Although we are not Catholic, we are on this walk on a jubilee year searching for hope in a world that often seems going in the wrong direction.
Thank you for taking the time to consider our proposal. We look forward to meeting you.
Sincerely,
Chuck and Sally Caley
chuckcaley@gmail.com
sallylcaley@gmail.com
Italian Phone Number: 329 0884075
Once I had it handwritten (the Pope doesn’t accept email), I walked to the Post Office in the piazza (open until 7:05pm), took a number, got in the short line and was soon at the window. In Italian I asked for an envelope with stamp “Posso avere una busta con un francobollo?” she understood and said I had to go across the street to the Tabacco shop to get those.
I walked across, bought a stamp and envelope, addressed it to the Pope,
“Secretariat of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV 00120 Vatican City
00120 Vatican City
Italy
and returned to the windows, handing a clerk my stamped and addressed letter. She took it and I watched her walk it over to someplace and put it somewhere, hopefully the outgoing mail, not the trash. As I walked out of the post office I got a text from Bill and Pat Caldwell, wanting to know what time our flight home was. I sent the information, then thought, what the heck and called them. I sat in the beautifully lit main piazza of Rieti talking with them for 10 or 15 minutes, laughing at the absurdity of asking to spend Thanksgiving with the Pope and sharing other news.
I returned to our room, did preliminary packing for leaving tomorrow, then off to bed. Our last night in this amazing apartment. Back on the route tomorrow, and only five days walking to reach the Vatican. It will probably take us 7 due to really nasty weather in the forecast, but all the nasty predicted so far hasn’t materialized, so who knows?
Our spacious apartment in Rieti
The bedroom
Bathroom with jacuzzi type tub
Entrance on a narrow alley but well lit
Woman who stamped our credentials
Rieti main piazza after dark on a Thursday night
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