Day Six - Monday, October 27, 2026 Altopascio to Ponte de Cappiano

- Weather-sunny & warm, High 69, Low 55, a few clouds during the day, but mostly sunny. 

On Route 9.39 miles, Total Distance 10.55 miles, 25,062 steps

The Walking, the Weather, the Country or the People?

It is only day two of walking I am beginning to wonder which trait makes this so enjoyable. Is it the walking-the rhythmic movement of one foot in front of the next, watching the world go by at a pace that allows us to see in detail all the nuances of the terrain, the vegetation, the soil, the manmade “improvements”, the architecture, the art and the changing perfume of the air?  Or is it the weather, being outside for the entire day, the sun warming the skin and squinting the eyes while cool breezes caress the skin?  Could it be the country that is so similar to our own and yet so different, kilometers vs miles, unusual signage, different customs, aggressive driving attitudes, cheap prices for food and lodging, and centuries of history behind each building/statue/monument? Or is it the people, the ones who own or work the shops who treat us as if we are ambassadors of good will as we plod through their towns, the other adventurers biking or walking who we meet along the route during the day or sit down to dinner with at night to compare lives and stories, the families on the parks and the school children in the school yard laughing and playing and jabbering loudly just like home, but making unintelligible sounds in a different language, the locals who socialize at the cafes on the street over pasta in all shapes? 

    One of these in particular?  No. It is the kaleidoscope of all these experiences tumbling prismatically together that combine to make each day unique, enticing and memorable. 

    Due to the unrecognized-by-me change to daylight savings time yesterday we were awake an hour earlier. Also, our roommates, though quiet as can be, were up and out the door before us, acting like a quiet and polite alarm clock. 

    There was no cooking facilities here, as well as no eating in the room. These conditions prompted us to pack up and return to the coffee/pastry shop of the night before for a croissant and Coca Cola breakfast. Sally was to regret her croissant decision. Her croissant had a little tuft of pudding on top that she thought would be a nice addition to her croissant. She came to realize there was a lake of pudding stuffed inside, overwhelming her pancreas and throwing her into hyperglycemia shock for the next two hours of walking. 

    The path bordered the highway for the next mile, then split off into the woods. Petra, a 49 year old woman who shared our rooms last night and left an hour before we did came walking up behind us, to our surprise. She had taken a wrong turn somewhere and it had taken her an hour to correct her mistake. 

    Last night Petra had passed by our beds and stopped to talk. Sally-The-Empath sensed her loneliness and engaged her in conversation for the next hour, giving her the comfort and companionship she was seeking. Petra walks Caminos about 8 months a year. This means she is by herself a lot. If you saw her on the streets you would think her homeless, or more appropriate to Europe, a gypsy. Her hair is in dreads wound into a top knot on her head with feathers protruding. Her skin is weathered and darkened by months of outdoor exposure. She often walks barefoot. Her voice is as weathered as her features. She is kind and thoughtful. 

     We walked with Petra for about half an hour, talking, comparing lives. Then she was off. Our pace was too slow for her and she had some time to make up after her misdirection earlier. 

     About an hour and a half later, after walking through fields, along highways, under forest canopies and on ancient cobblestone roads we arrived at about the midpoint of our day, Galleno. As we approached the town on a millennium old cobblestone road under heavy tree cover we glanced left through the trees towards a building and saw Roque and Belen from last night. How did we catch up with them? We greeted each other happily and after 5-10 minutes headed up the main road of Galleno together. A block up the road, urged on by a man sitting at a table outside a cafe we stopped in to get our credentials stamped. Out the door and on we went chatting with our new friends. 

    We realized it was time for lunch. We wanted to stop at a cafe to eat and give Sally a chance to put her feet up.  But, we had broken the maxim of walking caminos, always stop at the first place in town. We had, but excited about running into Roque and Belen we didn’t stop to eat. They now needed to move on. We found a small bakery just a few blocks further up, but no sandwiches, just bread and juices and no chairs or tables to sit and eat at. We got a slab of bread and some juice and walked half a block up the street, found a wall to sit upon and ate our lunch. 

    The rest of the way to Ponte di Cappiano wandered through forests on a mix of dirt roads and trails. We dropped 240 ft down to the Arno River flood plain and walked the last quarter mile into the town. We immediately found the open cafe and parked ourselves at a table with a beer for Sally and a fizzy water for me. It was a little after 2:00. The hostel didn’t open until 4:00. We moved to another set of tables on the other side of the bridge when our cafe closed at three and spent some time researching, writing and resting. Eventually we moved to the nearby park to stretch on the grass and nap on the park benches. At 4:00 we wandered back to the hostel which was just opening. 

    This hostel has quite a history, or at least the bridge that it resides on. It was built by Cosimo De Medici in the 15th century during the battles to control this part of the Arno River valley. 

    We got registered for the night, chose our two bunks out of the four in the room and rested for a few minutes. Two French girls, Mary Lou and Jan joined us, taking the two beds furthest from the door. They headed out for beers and Sally and I headed out to find food . . . except the girls had taken both sets of keys, thinking they were both for them. I stayed in the hostel while Sally checked the only open bar in town, found them there and retrieved our keys. There were no groceries available, so we joined the girls at the bar and had two plates of pasta and a couple of cokes for dinner. 

    Jan and Mary Lou were delightful dinner companions. Adventurous and excited for life, they exhibited all the traits we enjoy about the kids on the PCT. After an hour and a half we headed back to the hostel, but saw the grocery shop had opened. We stopped in for some bread, a chocolate bar and some cheese. By the time we got back, the girls had gotten back first.  I had not expected to be out so late and was in shorts and a tee shirt. I was freezing. I headed for a hot shower and soon was back to a normal body temperature. We FaceTimed Andy and Jeff, then called it a night and went to sleep. So did our roomies. 

Piazza in Altopascio where are hostel was

Sally in Altopascio

Petra joins us after getting lost

Barefoot Petra

On the route

Fracigena stuff in a front yard

We catch up with Belem and Roque

More route

Day Five - Sunday, October 26, 2026 Lucca to Altopascio - Weather-Overcast, High 61, Low 44, little rain in the evening. On Route 4.98 miles, total Distance 7.01 miles, 16,487 steps

At the train station in Lucca

Nice Train

In Porcari

First Francigena sign

Swine flu warning sign

“Crazy Abbey”

First stop

Signing in at Albugue

Roque and Belen

Oblivious

The room we have been staying in these past two nights in Lucca has blinds on the windows that are peculiar to only Europe. They are outside the windows, built into the frames and are slated metal. They are raised or lowered by a flat cord that appears to be a continuous loop. The loop emerges from the interior wall adjacent to the window frame at about the top of the window and then enters the wall at the bottom level of the window. Pulling down on the cord raises the blinds. A self locking clip devise at the bottom where the cord emerges from the wall grabs the cord each time it is released and holds the blind in the position that the operator left it at. To lower the blind one must manipulate this latching devise to release the tension to let the weight of the blind pull the cord and allow the blind to lower. 

    The blind itself is made of horizontal metal slats that interlock. When they are allowed to be lowered such that they completely rest on the outside window sill they form a tight seal with each other and allow no light to penetrate into the room. If one pulls on the cord just a little it raises the upper most slat while leaving the slats below it still resting on the window sill. With each small pull on the cord each successive slat raises above the one below it exposing a quarter inch gap that allows a little light through. Only when all the slats have been raised enough to provide this gap between each does the whole shade then begin to rise. Further pulling raises the blinds to expose the the outside world, I suppose rolling the blind slats on a spool in the wall at the top of the window. It is a very ingenious contrivance, mechanically, thermally and optically. 

     Why bring this window blind to our attention?  It played a pivotal roll in an event today that I have never experienced. More on that later. 

   We had set our alarm for 7:15 this morning, allowing us plenty of time to walk to the train station in Lucca, about a mile away, to catch our 9:39 train to Porcari. Our goal in riding the twin was two fold, 1. Bypass walking the suburbs and industrial areas on the outskirts of Lucca about 6 miles in length and 2. Shorten the 12 mile day to about 5 or 6 to give us a chance to ease into our walk. I raised the blind to allow the daylight into the completely darkened room.

     We prepared to leave, packing up and cooking scrambled eggs to eat with bread and yogurt.  We walked out the door, locking it and thereby locking ourselves out of the building about 8:15. We allowed ourselves 30 minutes to walk the mile to the station, thereby arriving a little less than an hour before our train. Some would say way too early, but we want that margin of time to correct any issues that might arise. 

    Our train was 20 minutes early and we boarded it to sit inside the heated passenger compartment to wait for its departure. It was new, clean and spacious. Very comfortable. 

    We exited after a 10 minute ride at Porcari and began our walk, first north about 3/4 of a mile to intersect the Via Francigena route as illustrated on my GPS on my phone, then east along the VF route. We walked on suburban sidewalks passing by houses, small businesses and churches on a surprisingly busy two lane road for a Sunday morning. At one point our route left the paved two lane and started down a gravel road and then veered onto a single track trail with signed warnings not to touch dead wild African boars and to wash your shoes and such after traversing this trail due to contamination from African swine flu. At the conclusion of the contaminated trail, about half a mile, we came upon an old, old church. This was the Abbey Pozzeveri, built back in 700. When I first translated the name it came back “crazy abbey”. Sally and I pictured the 70’s  movie “King of Hearts” from that description. 

    We stoped for a pastry at the first bar of the day and sat at an outside table for half an hour watching the comings and goings of the Italian men seated at outside tables and then wandering across the road to the church. 

     We walked the last 1.5 miles to Altopascio but were still nearly two hours early for our alburgue to open. We shared a salad at another outdoor table and researched and read for an hour. The promised good weather deteriorated a bit and a light rain began to fall intermittently.  We scooched under the big table umbrella a bit more to stay dry. 

     Eventually, about 1:45, we walked further into town, noticing nearly everything was closed. We were seeking a grocery store to buy fixings for dinner but none were open. We found an open Donar Kebab shop and bought one to share for dinner. We wandered and found our alburgue for the night, but it didn’t open until 2:30, about 20 minutes away. We sat down on the cobblestone curb to wait. While we waited a single women arrived as did a couple. When the office opened we formed a line of sorts and started talking to each other. The couple was from Spain and the single woman was from the Checz Republic.

    The woman running the office took us as a group and instructed us how to manage the keys for the building. It was all in Italian, but somehow I could understand her instructions. Of course I had some help from the woman from Spain. She interpreted in broken Spanish enough I got the gist. 

    Up to the third floor we went and were shown dorm rooms with bunk beds. Sally and I picked two lower bunks in the first room. The other three picked bunks in the adjoining room. 

     Sally and I headed out to continue our search of a grocery store. Out on the street we ran into the Spanish couple again. We had enjoyed meeting them in the line and at the room and found they were on a mission for food as well. We told them about the Donar Kebab place. They were excited at the prospect, confessing a love of Donar Kebabs equal to ours, so we walked to the shop for dinner. For the next two hours we compared lives over dinner and coffees in extremely broken English/Portugese/Spanish and Italian. The were wonderful and kind. He was about 64 and she 54, a couple these past 14 years having met on the Camino de Santiago in 2012. (How about that Tom and Susan!!)

     Here is where the slated blinds come into the story. As we sat conversing over our Donar Kebabs I noticed it was getting surprisingly dark outside. I glanced at my phone and noticed it was only about 4:30. I thought the weather must be really coming in for it to get so dark so early. About 5:30 the proprietor kicked us out. It was nearly dark!!  I was really confused. What was going on?  I mentioned it to Belen.  She kindly, and without judgement, told me the clocks had rolled back an hour last night. What!!  I was completely unaware. Because we tell time from electronic watches and phones tied to the internet that adjust automatically and because the blinds had sealed out what time it became light in the morning I was completely ignorant of the change. I felt similar to experiencing a total solar eclipse, a kind of optical vertigo. Oblivious.

     We moved to a coffee shop and continued our conversation, really enjoying their company. About 6:30 we walked back to our rooms and said goodnight. 

    We organized our stuff, slipped into bed and read and relaxed for an hour. Sally fell asleep. I watched a movie “Pressure” about weather forecasting for the D-Day invasion of France in 1944 before calling it a night. What a great day. 

Day Four - Saturday, October 25, 2026 - Lucca

    We wanted to spend time with our Camino friends in Rome the first two days. We pushed through the jet lag to do so. Yesterday we had a bus to catch and ride. Today, we had nothing pressing. We slept in. Our body clocks were adjusting, but not in sync with the sun yet. This morning we gave them a chance to catch up. 

Breakfast of scrambled eggs, yogurt and bread, then through the Elisa gate and into the inner town of Lucca. On the sidewalk as we approached the gate an 82 year old man walked with us, explaining to Sally in broken English the history of the town, where the SS had shot a catholic priest, the name Elisa was Napolean’s daughter and more. Very kind and thoughtful and energetic man. 

    We walked through the narrow high walled streets until we got to the central square, Piazza Anfitietro. This oval shaped piazza began as a Roman coliseum and then was modified over the years to shops and housing. On the street that circles the outside of the structure you can see how the original building was altered and reconfigured using stone from other buildings and rock from the area to fill in the arches and create living spaces. After enjoying a Coke at a sidewalk cafe in the piazza we were outside the square admiring the stone construction visible on the wall when an elderly man on a bike stopped to talk to us. We learned he was a former high school teacher here in Lucca, teaching history. He explained the walls and told us about his life in Lucca from childhood to retirement. At 79 he still rode his bike into town everyday. 

We spent the next few hours walking through town, paying our respects to Pucini and the many churches and marveling at all the tents being erected in the piazzas to hold the upcoming Comicon event next week and into Halloween. Then it was up onto the enclosing wall for a stroll halfway around the city before descending off the wall into the piazza once more for a lasagna lunch. 

    We wove our way back to the Elisa gate, then ascended the wall once more, found a nice sunny, grassy spot on top to lay down and watch the clouds, traffic and people whiz by as we just enjoyed a beautiful, sunny and warm afternoon. An hour or so later we descended and walked back to our apartment, cleaned up, cooked dinner of stir fry vegetables (the chicken brought from home had finally gone bad and had to be thrown out). We met a woman from Montreal traveling alone while we were eating in the kitchen. 

    We needed some cheese and chocolate to supplement the bread and carrot sticks we had for tomorrow’s walk so after dark we walked to the Lidl grocery, just 10 minutes away. A little confused at the self checkout due to the language barrier we had to have the attendant help us twice to finish up. 

    We walked back into the enclosed city to see how busy it was on a Saturday night after dark. There we people around, but it was fairly quiet. Home once again about 8:00 we watched a Ted Lasso as we organized for beginning our walk tomorrow. Lights out about 9:30. 

   It was a very mellow day. A day of wandering the environs of Lucca and relaxing at cafes and on the wall enclosing the city. Of cleaning up and preparing for the start of our walk tomorrow. A really nice day. 

Sally and 82 year old man approaching Elisa gate

Former teacher spends time telling us about Lucca

The old church contrasts with tents for upcoming Comicon

Getting our credentials stamped at Pope’s church in town

Statue of Puccini

Up on the wall surrounding Lucca

We enjoy a sunny, warm stroll up on the wall

A cattle egret graces a wall in town as we stroll along the path on the wall

Day Three -Friday, October 24, 2026 The Journey Begins

   We had a bus to catch today for the ride to Lucca and the beginning of our walk back to Rome. Now that the ride is over and I stop to think about it, i am a little intimidated. We spent  just short of five hours screaming up the freeway at 70 miles per hour to get to Lucca. Now, we have to walk back that same distance. It is a long way!! To increase the intimidation factor the sky was dark and raining upon our arrival in Lucca. Let the fun begin!

    Up and out of our room by about 7:50 this morning. Walk to the coliseum metro stop, then a 6 or 7 stop ride to Tiburtina and the bus station there. We left ourselves a large margin of time in case anything went amiss, so we killed an hour doing research for our hike. 

    Once on the bus, Sally slept nearly the whole trip. I dozed a bit, listened to my book, watched the scenery fly by and researched where we were going to walk to once the bus dropped us off. I predicted it would drop us near the train station in Lucca. I was right.

    We walked into this walled city and found a cafe to have a pop and contact our hosts for tonight’s lodging. A few exchanges on WhatsApp and we had the entrance code. We needed to walk through the old city. Enroute we stopped at the museum and bought our credentials for the Via Francigena. The ladies at the museum gave us our first stamp. 

    A 15 minute walk exiting the walled city brought us to our hostile for the night. We have a private room with a shared bath. We dropped our gear in the room, rested a few minutes and then navigated to the grocery store a fifteen minute walk away. The road we were following went underground and so should have we, but we didn’t and consequently added about half a mile to our trek navigating around our mistake. The grocery, Esselunga, was a Walmart style monster grocery store. We bought enough vegetables for two nights of home cooked stir fry, a dozen eggs for two scrambled egg breakfasts, some chocolate, yogurt and a loaf of bread. Our food for the next 36 hours came to €16.00. Obviously our hostel has a fully equipped kitchen. I made the mistake of only bringing a hand bag to the store to carry the groceries home in instead of my empty back pack. We had to limit our buying a bit due to weight. 

    The route home was much quicker now that we understand the lay of the land. The street lights were popping on as we walked home and darkness settled in around us. 

    We cooked a wonderful stir fry for dinner. I added a chicken breast I brought from home to mine, Sally was afraid they were too old and would make us sick (they smelled great!). 

    More research, some washing up and it was lights out on this transportation day. The lightning and thunder accompanied the hard rain that fell after dinner. We were happy to be comfortably sheltered for the night. The forecast ahead looks great!

Sally in Lucca

Me in Lucca

Day Two -Thursday, October 22, 2026

    My heart attack of August 26 combined with Jeff’s impending surgery 2 weeks later put an end to our walk from Great Saint Bernard Pass to Lucca. We cancelled flights, cancelled room reservations and weeped big tears at the lost chance to visit iconic places in Northern Italy. But, the biggest loss of all was the lost chance to reconnect with our wonderful Camino friends Tom, Susan, Jonathan,  Franny and Nikki who were hiking the same route.  They had started in Switzerland a month before us and would be days ahead when we started from the pass, but we had plans to train or bus ahead to visit with them and then return to our walk. 

    Thankfully, no damage occurred to my heart, my clogged cardiac arteries were opened with stents and pains I had experienced for years melted away with the blood returning to my heart. 

Invincible Sally immediately took action to revive our walk in Italy. The fact that we were now six weeks later in the season for our starting date made starting at 8000’ up Great Saint Bernard pass a less desirable option, so we decided to do the next section from Lucca to Rome. We timed our arrival in Rome to coincide with the ending of our friends walk, we would arrive by plane a day after they arrived by foot. Last night was the reunion. Today was a continuation of our journey in seeing such wonderful people and friends. 

    Sally slept the whole night through last night. I know, because I lay awake next to her listening to  her gently snore. Doesn’t she know about jet lag? I do, because I lay awake hour after hour as my body ignored local time and insisted it was early afternoon through most of the night. I did sleep an hour or two just before my alarm tried to wake me at 7:30. The night wasn’t a complete loss, but I would have benefitted from more sleep. Sally woke refreshed and ready to go. 

    We breakfasted on boiled eggs we had prepared in our electric tea kettle last night and a yogurt, then headed out the door a little before 9:00 to rendezvous with our friends at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore at 9:30. We walked in reverse the same road we had taken yesterday, climbing back up toward the Termini train station. At the church we waited a few minutes for the rest to arrive then spent 10 minutes in line to have our bags scanned before entering the church. Sally was particularly excited because this is the church that Pope Francis chose to be buried in. The church was first built in the 300’s and has been added onto through the years. There was quite a crowd in the church. We wandered around, viewing Bernini’s and Francis’ places of rest, seeing a relic from the manger of Christ’s birth and enjoying the artwork throughout. 

    After an hour we headed out the door, then down the street to a sidewalk cafe to have something to drink. We found a couple of empty tables we could slide together to accommodate all seven of us, then enjoyed coffee, Cokes or lattes and pastries. Periodically the discussion would turn to what we wanted to go see or do as a group. The consensus was, we were doing now what we most wanted to do, be together. We spent an hour sharing stories, experiences and ideas. They were good about pointing out places on our upcoming route that they had found meaningful as we peppered them with questions. 

Tom and Susan had an afternoon flight to catch, and so our fellowship had to disband before noon. Nicki, Sally and I headed for the Metro stop to ride across town to St. Peter’s Basilica. Susan had made reservations for a tour of the basilica for the three of us the day before, guided by an organization I was never really clear about. We needed to be in front of the facade of the church at 2:15. 

    We had a little time to spare so we stopped at a cafe for cokes and a bite to eat, then got in line about 1:45, hoping we would make it through security and up onto the front of the church by 2:15. As we stood in line we noticed people trying to cut into the line in front of us. Once inside the fences that guide the crowds a few people tried to pass us and cut the line. Both Sally and I admired and enjoyed the way Nicky matter-of-factly shooed them back, telling them quite loudly that everyone here had waited and so could they, so get back to the end. The end was a good 100 yards behind us. 

   As it turned out our timing was perfect. We arrived right on time and met Michael, a priest and our tour guide. 

   The next two an a half hours we were treated to Michael and his explanation of the history and meanings of St. Pete’s. You might think 2 and a half hours a long time, but Michael was so sincere, so engaging and so knowledgeable that the time slipped by unnoticed. The 15 or so people in our group really enjoyed the tour and complimented Michael. Sally paid him the ultimate compliment when she said we would be excited to see him as pope. 

We stopped at another cafe, this time for two beers and a fizzy water, then we walked the 1.3 miles back to our room. Nicki came up to see our place and have Sally try on a lightweight jacket she wanted to give her. 10 minutes later, amid sad goodbyes we parted with Nicky. We have hopes of getting together again, perhaps when we visit in Australia, maybe when she comes north for another adventure. 

    Time to get busy planning our walk. Primed with ideas from the group and using their guidebook they gifted to us, we planned the first three days of our walk, making reservations for places to stay, all three pilgrim Osterias. We take a bus to Lucca tomorrow, spend two nights there, touring the town and resting, then Sunday morning we begin our walk. Because the first stage spends 7 miles passing through the outskirts of Lucca through the industrial area we decided to take a short train ride two stops to avoid it and then walk the final 5 miles into Altopascio. We then split the next stage, an 18 miles distance into two nine mile days, staying the second night in the town of Ponte A Cappiano. Ponte is Italian for bridge and our accommodations for that night are literally on the bridge, a structure built by Cosimo de Medici in the late 1500’s. After that, we plan to spend day three walking the 9+ miles to Miniato, a hill top town. 

We are saddened to have our friends gone, and Rome now seems a little empty and a bit lonely, but we have our adventure in front of us and are both excited to get walking. 

Jonathon, me, Susan, Tom, Franny, Sally and Nicki

Us outside St Pete’s waiting in line to enter

Jonathan, Franny, Susan and Tom

Sally, Nicki, Susan and Franny - Camino Ladies

Nicki, Sally and me before parting ways

Tom and I in Santa Maria Maggiore 

Day Two -Thursday, October 22, 2026

    My heart attack of August 26 combined with Jeff’s impending surgery 2 weeks later put an end to our walk from Great Saint Bernard Pass to Lucca. We cancelled flights, cancelled room reservations and weeped big tears at the lost chance to visit iconic places in Northern Italy. But, the biggest loss of all was the lost chance to reconnect with our wonderful Camino friends Tom, Susan, Jonathan,  Franny and Nikki who were hiking the same route.  They had started in Switzerland a month before us and would be days ahead when we started from the pass, but we had plans to train or bus ahead to visit with them and then return to our walk. 

    Thankfully, no damage occurred to my heart, my clogged cardiac arteries were opened with stents and pains I had experienced for years melted away with the blood returning to my heart. 

Invincible Sally immediately took action to revive our walk in Italy. The fact that we were now six weeks later in the season for our starting date made starting at 8000’ up Great Saint Bernard pass a less desirable option, so we decided to do the next section from Lucca to Rome. We timed our arrival in Rome to coincide with the ending of our friends walk, we would arrive by plane a day after they arrived by foot. Last night was the reunion. Today was a continuation of our journey in seeing such wonderful people and friends. 

    Sally slept the whole night through last night. I know, because I lay awake next to her listening to  her gently snore. Doesn’t she know about jet lag? I do, because I lay awake hour after hour as my body ignored local time and insisted it was early afternoon through most of the night. I did sleep an hour or two just before my alarm tried to wake me at 7:30. The night wasn’t a complete loss, but I would have benefitted from more sleep. Sally woke refreshed and ready to go. 

    We breakfasted on boiled eggs we had prepared in our electric tea kettle last night and a yogurt, then headed out the door a little before 9:00 to rendezvous with our friends at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore at 9:30. We walked in reverse the same road we had taken yesterday, climbing back up toward the Termini train station. At the church we waited a few minutes for the rest to arrive then spent 10 minutes in line to have our bags scanned before entering the church. Sally was particularly excited because this is the church that Pope Francis chose to be buried in. The church was first built in the 300’s and has been added onto through the years. There was quite a crowd in the church. We wandered around, viewing Bernini’s and Francis’ places of rest, seeing a relic from the manger of Christ’s birth and enjoying the artwork throughout. 

    After an hour we headed out the door, then down the street to a sidewalk cafe to have something to drink. We found a couple of empty tables we could slide together to accommodate all seven of us, then enjoyed coffee, Cokes or lattes and pastries. Periodically the discussion would turn to what we wanted to go see or do as a group. The consensus was, we were doing now what we most wanted to do, be together. We spent an hour sharing stories, experiences and ideas. They were good about pointing out places on our upcoming route that they had found meaningful as we peppered them with questions. 

Tom and Susan had an afternoon flight to catch, and so our fellowship had to disband before noon. Nicki, Sally and I headed for the Metro stop to ride across town to St. Peter’s Basilica. Susan had made reservations for a tour of the basilica for the three of us the day before, guided by an organization I was never really clear about. We needed to be in front of the facade of the church at 2:15. 

    We had a little time to spare so we stopped at a cafe for cokes and a bite to eat, then got in line about 1:45, hoping we would make it through security and up onto the front of the church by 2:15. As we stood in line we noticed people trying to cut into the line in front of us. Once inside the fences that guide the crowds a few people tried to pass us and cut the line. Both Sally and I admired and enjoyed the way Nicky matter-of-factly shooed them back, telling them quite loudly that everyone here had waited and so could they, so get back to the end. The end was a good 100 yards behind us. 

   As it turned out our timing was perfect. We arrived right on time and met Michael, a priest and our tour guide. 

   The next two an a half hours we were treated to Michael and his explanation of the history and meanings of St. Pete’s. You might think 2 and a half hours a long time, but Michael was so sincere, so engaging and so knowledgeable that the time slipped by unnoticed. The 15 or so people in our group really enjoyed the tour and complimented Michael. Sally paid him the ultimate compliment when she said we would be excited to see him as pope. 

We stopped at another cafe, this time for two beers and a fizzy water, then we walked the 1.3 miles back to our room. Nicki came up to see our place and have Sally try on a lightweight jacket she wanted to give her. 10 minutes later, amid sad goodbyes we parted with Nicky. We have hopes of getting together again, perhaps when we visit in Australia, maybe when she comes north for another adventure. 

    Time to get busy planning our walk. Primed with ideas from the group and using their guidebook they gifted to us, we planned the first three days of our walk, making reservations for places to stay, all three pilgrim Osterias. We take a bus to Lucca tomorrow, spend two nights there, touring the town and resting, then Sunday morning we begin our walk. Because the first stage spends 7 miles passing through the outskirts of Lucca through the industrial area we decided to take a short train ride two stops to avoid it and then walk the final 5 miles into Altopascio. We then split the next stage, an 18 miles distance into two nine mile days, staying the second night in the town of Ponte A Cappiano. Ponte is Italian for bridge and our accommodations for that night are literally on the bridge, a structure built by Cosimo de Medici in the late 1500’s. After that, we plan to spend day three walking the 9+ miles to Miniato, a hill top town. 

We are saddened to have our friend gone, and Rome now seems a little empty and a bit lonely, but we have our adventure in front of us and are both excited to get walking. 

Jonathon, me, Susan, Tom, Franny, Sally and Nicki

Us outside St Pete’s waiting in line to enter

Jonathan, Franny, Susan and Tom

Sally, Nicki, Susan and Franny - Camino Ladies

Nicki, Sally and me before parting ways

Tom and I in Santa Maria Maggiore