Sticking with our plan to use Rieti as a base camp to work from, we decided to walk from our apartment to the town of Poggio San Lorenzo for the day, a stage of the way of St. Francis. Our apartment is only about 100 yards from the route so unlike yesterday when we had to ride a bus 20 miles to get on route, we were on it from the get go.
The forecast was for fog this morning with clearing in the afternoon. We stepped out at 7:08 and headed up the Lago de Turano river drainage.
The first 9 miles were up hill, but barely noticeable as we were in the relatively flat flood plain. The weather was as advertised, thick fog and cold, about 45°. Sally had trouble keeping the front of her thighs warm so we tied my puffy coat arms around her waist and draped the jacket across her front. That helped her warm up.
Do to the fog, there wasn’t much to see as visibility was only about 75 yards. I am not sure that we missed much, sometimes walking just a guardrail away from the highway, other times a couple hundred yards away. Flat river bottom alternately used for industrial purposes and farming.
The sun poked through about 11:00am bringing warmth and brightness just about the time we started climbing up the last 4 miles.
At one point we came upon a bridge right out of Roman times. It was, built in the 2nd century AD making it 1800 years old! It was part of the salt road across Italy. It was in some disrepair and renovated in 2021. Now it looks awesome, like it was only a couple centuries old. We stopped to sit on one of the massive limestone blocks to have a snack and take photos.
Up up we went, at times very steep, sometimes on cement roads, sometimes in the woods until we topped out and started the 1.4 mile descent into Poggio San Lorenzo, itself perched high on the ridge top. Of course we reached it at about 2:30pm, meaning everything was closed in this tiny town with a cool central piazza. They have an olive mill in town that has been operating for 2000 years. Of course, it was closed.
As we walked down the street toward where we climbed up to the town yesterday we saw a bus!! Yes, we had seen the bus stop yesterday but none of the bus routes showed it coming up the hill. We quickened our pace, dreaming of a cushy ride down the hill rather than the knee jarring asphalt 300’ descent. We watched as the bus disgorged a gaggle of school kids and sped off down a side a street. Bummer.
We sat in the bus stop resting (we had 13 miles on us so far) hoping the bus might just be turning around. Nope. Down the hill we went. Just like yesterday, except this time I didn’t have my full pack.
We took up station at the bus stop and about ten minutes later a bus went screaming by, earlier than expected. We waved it down. The driver stopped up the road, similar to a hitch hiking ride. We scurried up the shoulder of the highway and climbed on board, Sally offering €2 for each of us. The bus driver seemed angry and said we must have a ticket. We said where would we buy one. About then she saw my pack and Sally’s trekking poles and softened and told us to sit. The bus was completely empty.
The ride back to town was again uneventful. We got off at the same place as yesterday, but walked to the grocery store for food before dragging ourselves up three flights of stairs to our apartment.
Dinner of frozen lasagna (it was terrible-and I am not picky and I was hungry), a salad and an orange.
Sally was beat. For some reason I felt good in spite of our 15 mile day, although an hour and a half later I was comatose. We were both asleep by 8:00pm. A long, but very satisfying day.
Sometimes in the muddy woods. We could her a herd of sheep bleating nearby.
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