Reality doesn’t always match expectations. You can get in your mind how you think the world will be arranged and walk into it with those expectations only to find the two don’t mesh . . . at all. That might have happened to me today. Sally, with her forward looking research, always looking toward the next day had a more accurate picture of what lay ahead. Me, spending my time looking back at the previously day to write this blog might have missed some important information. Catastrophic? No. Vexing? Perhaps.
We were awake at our usual 4:30 this morning. What happened to sleeping in when on vacation? Me writing about yesterday. Sally planning the days ahead. Our host (he told us his name but neither of us could pronounce it or remember it) had breakfast for us at 7:00. Croissants, bread, meat, cheese and a lemon dessert to die for. A few minutes into our meal he proudly brought out bread drizzled with olive oil. His olive oil from his trees. This year’s. Using the translation apps we found out he produces about 2000 liters of olive oil from his trees. This was a sample.
During the course of our interpreted conversation he got a wry smile on his face and talked into the phone. Upon reading it we found he jokingly said “Sally, I bet you would prefer I drive you to Spoleto and let Chuck walk”. He grinned when we both laughed at his joke. I told him this walk was Sally’s idea and her joy.
After eating we returned to our room to finish preparing to walk, then headed out through the dining room into his office, said our goodbyes and headed for the door. A few steps in that direction he reminded us that we hadn’t paid yet. Yikes. Embarrassed, I handed him the €70 for the night and breakfast. Here you pay at the end for everything compared to home where you pay first.
We exited, goodbye’d again and were walking down the drive when we heard him running after us and calling out “Chiave”. I had the room key in my pocket. Opps.
The walk this morning stayed on the valley floor for the first couple of miles. It was pleasantly cold, about 45° and level walking. We turned slightly left and approached the mountains, stopping to have a snack of croissant left over from breakfast before beginning a 600’ climb up to the town of Brazzano Superiore. The route was steep up a two track trail that only a 4WD could negotiate. We were early enough and a on north slope so we were in the shade the whole way, enjoying the coolness during the climb. We emerged on the ridge top into the bright sun and the picturesque town. No services.
We were traversing the flat road to the church set back in the town when we met a woman of about our age walking her dog. While talking to her I realized I had dropped my hanky and excused myself to run back a few 100 yards to find it on the road. The woman spent summers on an island in Greece and winters here in Bazzano Superiore.
We followed a trail through the woods down a couple 100 vertical feet over the next mile to Bazzano Inferiore. Cute town. No services.
We climbed out of this town up into olive groves. At the top of our climb we found a sunny, warm, dry grassy spot with a great view into the valley to take our lunch break.
Now my misconceptions come into play. We have been hiking along the edge of the Spoleto Valley on the hills to the east side. Spoleto is at the lower end of the valley. In my mind, that meant Spoleto was on the floor of the valley, a flat town.
From our lunch spot we descended into the town of Eggi, a suburb of Spoleto. No services. We headed for Spoleto, just a few kilometers away.
An intersection of three issues converged on us. 1. I was surprised to find we had to climb a bit into the outskirts of town. I thought this was a flat bottomed valley town. 2. Sally had to go to the bathroom. We were not in the country anymore where you can just go in the woods, yet we were in the suburbs where there are no services. 3. We were also getting thirsty and a little depleted on blood sugar.
We walked near a large grocery store, but Sally was convinced they would not have a bathroom (???) and didn’t want to get something to drink that would exacerbate her full bladder. We soldiered on.
We plotted our route to pass by the San Salvador church so we could see this UNESCO site noted for its paintings. It was closed, shrouded in scaffolding, being repaired from a recent earthquake. No available bathroom or services. Onward.
Now in town, this “flat, end of the valley town”, we followed our GPS toward our place to stay. It said to take the stairs to to left. “Can’t be too high, being a flat valley bottom town”, my subconscious said. Sally pointed out an escalator sign. Why escalators in a river bottom town? We decided to take the stairs. The first flight wasn’t bad, we rounded the corner to see hundreds of steps above us, stretching upwards out of view. Too far back and too tired to search out an escalator so up we trudged, thirsty, full of urine and without energy. We topped out one flight below the Duomo. Sally found a park bench while I conquered the last flight, I found expensive Cokes in an expensive hotel bar to solve the two issues of depleted blood sugar and thirst.
That afore mentioned earthquake caused a lot of damage and elicited a lot of relief money for reconstruction, meaning our route to our hotel was blocked numerous times by construction before we finally arrived at the Piazza Mercato where our room was.
We texted our landlord Feliciti via WhatsApp. She met us 20 minutes later on the piazza and spent an half an hour with us explaining the town’s history and sites. We moved inside. She spent another half an hour showing us how to use the funky room we were renting. When she left Sally finally got to use the restroom. How did she hold it that long?? She is a woman of hidden talents and strengths.
I don’t want to disparage Feliciti. She was awesome. Energetic. Friendly. Fun to be with.
At five we walked next door in the piazza to the grocery. We met a forty something women in the grocery that spoke broken English. She lives in town. Has for 15 years. Loves it. With a little help from her we bought veggies and ravioli for dinner. Returning the 200 feet to our room, we cooked it for dinner.
The kitchen is in a funky cupboard. Everything about this place is funky. We really like it.
The room has one of those washing machine/dryer all in one devices. We used it to wash our clothes for the first time since leaving home. Very nice.
With that load out and folded, it was time for sleep.
I knew sleeping would meet my expectations.
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