From: Crevalcore

To: Mirandola

Miles: 17

Total: 947

After a light Italian breakfast, not a lot to choose from, we headed down the road again. It was Sunday morning so early on the traffic was light in town and we were on crosswalks. It picked up a as we left town but a couple of miles after leaving town we turned off the busy road onto the countryside. The road went from paved to gravel and then to grass across a farmers field, but it was dry and we could see the connecting gravel road ahead. After about half a mile we turned off the gravel road onto a single lane paved road with absolutely no traffic. It was nice walking.

We knew from going over our route we would have very little chance for lunch. We came to a town at about the four hour mark. Our route ended up not taking us through town, but John recommenced taking a detour and heading into town to see if we could find a lunch stop. We were glad we did. The first place we checked out was by the village theater and it was closed on Sundays for lunch. We knew there was a cafe up ahead and it was open. We had our usual hot sandwich, chips and a coke and gave our feet a much needed rest. Leaving town we were able to take a nice walking and biking trail for about a mile. It was a picture perfect Sunday and there were lots of people out walking.

We tried calling our hotel, which was on the opposite end of town just before we got to town but there was no answer. That was a bit concerning since there was only one other hotel in town and it was closer to the side we were entering town. We decided to drop by that hotel first in case the one on the far north side was closed. The first hotel was open and had rooms so we got a number from the receptionist there to call a taxi in case we needed to go back to that hotel.

When we got further into Mirandola, our stopping point for the night, there was a big flea market going on downtown where you could probably buy almost anything. People were everywhere.

We finally got to the outskirts north of town and behold, our hotel was open. The people running it were just busy running the hotel restaurant at lunchtime and didn’t hear the phone. We considered going another 3 or 4 miles down the road and have a taxi pick us up and take us back to the hotel and drop us off at that spot again in the morning, but we decided it was easier to just stop at the hotel for the night. Although the hotel restaurant is closed tonight since it is Sunday, and there are no other restaurants close by, the receptionist said we could order a pizza and have it delivered after 6 pm. That was great with us since we don’t even have to leave the hotel or walk anywhere.

Two more fairly long walking days left before we hop on our flights home on Wednesday. The anticipation of seeing everyone soon will help us get through those long days. Thanks again for following along!

From:  Bologna

To:  Crevalcore

Miles:  17

Total:  930

Today was a straight walk from our hotel on the west side of Bologna to the small town of Crevalcore. Gone are the mountains of central Italy. Today, the highest thing we walked on was an overpass. 

We left the comforts of our nice hotel this morning about 8:30, but not before we had a good breakfast. When we got on the road we thought for sure the traffic would be light since it was a Saturday morning. That was not the case. Seems everyone outside of Bologna wanted to come into town, and everyone in Bologna wanted to leave. Suffice to say, the traffic was heavy most of the day. 

Our route today was literally a straight line with one little turn about halfway through the day. We found a good place for lunch at about noon and made it to our destination city around 2:45. Crevalcore is a nice little town with limited options for lodging. When we arrived at our desired hotel, there was no one there and the outside door was locked. We rang the doorbell but no reply. There was a phone number listed on the door so Dave called and a nice lady answered and told him there would be someone there to help us in 40 minutes. While we waited, we walked down the street to the only other hotel in town and it was also locked up. We couldn’t even raise anyone on the published phone at that hotel. So we went back to our first choice and waited, hoping someone would arrive to help us soon. Sure enough, a nice gentleman walked up right on time and checked us into their very adequate lodge, the New Europa Hotel. 

Tomorrow we continue north another 17 miles in the general direction of Verona where we’ll arrive on Tuesday.  We hope everyone had a good Saturday. Ours was fairly uneventful. Thanks for reading. 

From: Vado

To: Bologna

Miles: 16

Total: 913

After a good breakfast at the hotel, our day started with a walk back to the closest train station which was about three quarters of a mile. It was only one stop from there to the central station in Bologna where we needed to switch lines, but it was a fairly long ride there. Once we got to the central station we had to walk to the opposite end of the station for our next train. The train was comfortable so it was a relaxing ride. It took about 40 minutes and seven stops to get to Vado and start walking again where we ended yesterday.

The initial walk out of the train station was a sharp incline but it was only about half a mile or less. Most of the rest of the day was spent walking on fairly level ground or a slight decline. Initially the traffic was light. As the day went along the traffic picked up but after lunch we mostly had sidewalks or walking/bike lanes into Bologna.

It was a nice sunny and warm day for walking with no issues. On a historic note, Bologna is home to the oldest university in the world, the University of Bologna, established in AD 1088, and that’s not phony baloney!

Have a great Friday!

From:  Montepiano

To:  Vado

Miles:  23

Total:  897

Today’s walk was a long one. Luckily for us, it was mostly downhill with a strong wind at our back. Unfortunately, our day did not end at the end of our walk. 

We knew we had a longer trek than usual today so we got on the road at 8:00. The wind was forecast to be 20-30 in the town where we started and 10-20 as we descended later in the day.  Well, it was every bit of 30 MPH when we started walking. We had some tree cover most of the time, but when we were in the open, it was hard to walk a straight line. We almost immediately started a descent on switchbacks down the mountain with only an occasional climb. Traffic was fairly light on our two lane road.  After about three hours of walking the switchbacks, we started a more gradual descent along a ridge line into a valley. 

Today’s lunch break, which we try to take about halfway through the walk, came at about 12:00. Because we started walking earlier today, we were whipped and ready to stop after 4 hours without a break. Things were looking pretty questionable for finding a place to stop when  we happened upon a gas station with a cafe attached. Unlike most cafes in gas stations, this place actually had a lunch menu. Dave and I both had pasta and bread. 

So with lunch out of the way and 11 miles left to go, we were back on the two lane headed down hill into the valley.  We knew before we left this morning our lodging options were going to be limited for tonight. Therefore, we had a backup plan in mind in case we couldn’t find a place to stay. The backup was to walk to a train station along our route in Vado and take the train 15 miles into Bologna, which is tomorrow’s destination. Before we got to the train station, there were two B&Bs we had our eye on. When we got to them, we could not get anyone to answer the doorbell or phone at the first, and we couldn’t even find the second. We asked a man that ran a bar next to the address listed on Google Maps about the location of the second B&B but between the language barrier between us and him, and the fact that we were running out of time to walk the rest of the way to the train station to catch our once-per-hour train to Bologna, we gave up on the B&B option and hurried to the train station. 

While I was in the parking lot taking care of sending our end-of-day message, Dave went in the small, unattended train station and bought two tickets. The train was right on time so off we went to Bologna Centrali station. Once we got there, we switched to another train that took us to the west side of Bologna near our hotel. From there it was a 15 minute walk to the hotel. So with all that, we ended our walking day at 3:45 in Vado but didn’t get to the hotel until 5:30. 

Tomorrow morning we’ll catch the train back out to the little train station in Vado where we stopped walking today and walk from there back to this same hotel west of Bologna. So tomorrow we can “slack pack” which means we can leave all nonessential stuff here in our hotel rooms and just take with us what we need for the 15 mile walk. That lightens the load some. 

So that was our Thursday. One last thing. About an hour into our walk this morning, we passed a sign saying we were leaving the Tuscany Region. It was all we thought it would be; especially the food and scenery. We hope your day was a good one at home. Can’t wait to see everyone next Wednesday!  

From: L’Isola

To: Montepiano

Miles:  14

Total: 874

After a wonderful Tuscan meal for my birthday last night and a good nights rest at our hotel we headed out about 8:45 this morning. The walk was a relatively short 14 miles but our google maps showed an almost straight up incline at the end of the day with a 2300 ft climb. We weren’t looking forward to the end of today’s walk.

The first half of the walk was easy and we made our usual halfway stop for a sandwich, chips and a coke. It was a lively place. One of the ladies behind the bar was singing. John said it was a bit early for a karaoke night. After being seranaded at lunch we were back on the road.

The entire second half of the walk turned out to be a climb. The good news was that it was a steady climb all the way to our hotel. The google map directions were wrong and we didn’t have a super steep incline at the end. The road was relatively nice the whole way as well.

The village we are staying in tonight, Montepiano is built on a pass at 2600 feet above sea level in the municipality of Vernio in the Italian region of Tuscany. The village has a population of 600, but due to tourism the population triples during the summer. It is common for people living in the nearby city of Prato to have summer homes in Montepiano.

Our hotel tonight is somewhat spartan, but it is clean and modern. It also has a restaurant. Since it is the off season for tourists and the only hotel in this town we called ahead and made sure it was open.

Thanks again for following along and we will see everyone back home one week from today!

From:  Florence

To:  L’Isola

Miles:  16

Total:  860

Today we left the beautiful Tuscan capital city of Florence behind and are now on a four day walk to Bologna. To get there we will be walking over the Apennine Mountains that run perpendicular to out route. That means three days of climbing and a decent down the other side into Bologna. 

We got off about 9:00 after spending two nights in Florence at the Hilton Garden Inn.  It was a nice break, but as usual after a day off, it was hard to get the feet and legs moving again.  But after about an hour of hobbling along like a couple of old men, we were back in the groove and walking our usual 20-minute miles. 

Today’s route took us through several small towns west of Florence and along the Fiume Bisenzio River.  Most of the towns along the river had walking/bike trails so we spent about half the day away from roads and traffic. Eventually we turned north toward the mountains and picked up our road route, SS 325, which we will be on all the way to Bologna. It had quite a bit of traffic on it today, but that will probably slack off as we get farther away from Florence.  Tonight we’re staying in a very nice B&B in the tiny mountain town of L’Isola. The rooms are great and the staff was very welcoming. 

Tomorrow we have a relatively short day of 14 miles, but most of the walk will be uphill. Also, we have entered our last week of walking for Part 1 of this trek across Europe.  We’ll be finished with the first 1000 miles next Tuesday and fly home on Wednesday.  Lucky for us the weather forecast looks pretty good for the next week so we’ll knock this next 140 miles out, head home for our mandatory 90 day exodus from Europe, and pick back up in early June where we left off.  

I guess that’s all for today.  Thanks for following along. 

From: Florence

To: Florence

Miles: 0

Total: 844

Today turned out to be a total day of rest. Our plan was to hop on a train and spend the day doing a tour of Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. It is comprised of five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate and it was raining and overcast in that area. We decided three hours on a train there and back in the rain wasn’t a good idea.

Florence was overcast but with no rain. John and I had been to Florence before and although I haven’t done all the museums like John had, my feet were telling me to stay put and just rest today.

The good news is we picked the right hotel to just spend the day relaxing. While we have had overall good experiences with our hotels and B&B’s with just a few misses like our “historic” 30 year old mattresses we slept on just the other night, none gave us the feeling of being in a good US hotel until last night. We are staying in a Hilton Garden Inn. The staff all speak English, they had a full American breakfast buffet as well made to order items and most importantly the beds are super soft and they have a full bathtub so I can soak my feet. It felt nice to be pampered.

So no excitement or wonderful Italian culture to pass on today, just a nice relaxing day, a quick meal this evening, finished off by a stop for some Gelato. We are back on the road and have a big climb ahead in the next few days so the day off came at just the right time. I hope everyone has a great Monday!

From:  Burchio

To:  Florence

Miles:  16

Total:  844

What a great day we had today.  The weather was perfect, the breakfast at the B&B in Burchio was excellent, and except for the very poor quality of the mattresses we experienced last night, and a slight false start by me this morning, it couldn’t have been much better. 

We stepped off at 9:00 sharp and as I always do as we’re walking those first few minutes every morning, I started going over in my mind everything I packed in by backpack.  Clothes bag, check; toiletries bag, check; jacket, check; cellphone/iPad charger, ?????  Wait. I didn’t  remember packing my charger this morning. So Dave got into the top compartment of my pack, and sure enough, no charger. So back up the hill I went to retrieve my charger. It was still plugged in where I left it. Good thing we didn’t get farther down the road than we did. 

We had a fairly significant climb for the morning, but it was downhill all afternoon. You probably are thinking “that’s nice; downhill is good.”  Well not so fast. Downhill can be a real pain, especially steep downhill. It puts strain on muscles in you back and legs you didn’t even know you had, not to mention how your feet go pushing toward the front of your shoes. Let’s just say we’d much rather have level terrain or a little uphill than steep downhill. 

By lunchtime, we were in the edge of Florence and stopped in a small cafe for a quick break and a bit to eat. From there it was straight down city streets and across the Arno River into Florence. 

I can’t say enough about Florence, Italy. It’s my third time here and Dave has been here before as well. Florence is the capital of the Tuscany Region of Italy. Back in Medieval European times, Florence was one of the wealthiest cities in the world. It was the birthplace of the Renaissance and just about everyone who became famous in the arts from that period have some ties to Florence. Probably the most famous was Michelangelo, who was born just outside Florence in 1475.  Many of his paintings and sculptures are displayed in the museums in Florence, including his famous sculpture of the biblical hero David.  There are many famous buildings and museums to see here. One in particular is Santa Maria del Fiore, also known as “The Duomo.”  Built between 1296 and 1436, it’s one of the most popular tourist attractions here. Dave and I walked around The Duomo today, along with thousands of other sightseers. 

Tomorrow is scheduled as a day off from walking. The weather is forecast to be beautiful again so we’ll take advantage of that and see some more of the sights. Meanwhile, we hope your weekend was as enjoyable as ours was. 

From: Montevarchi

To: Burchio

Miles: 13

Total: 828

We had a bit of difficulty finding a place to eat last night. The first place we tried was recommended by our hotel, but they were having a private party. The second place we went by was the number one rated place in the town according to trip advisor, but had just opened for the night, no one had any food yet and it was packed. We skipped it. The third place had no available tables. All of them were reserved. Finally we went back to a takeout pizza place we had walked by and decided to eat there. They had a few small tables. John had a large slice of their Margarita Pizza, which is basically a cheese pizza, and I had a loaded Calzone. They were both great. I guess it was just a busy Friday night.

After a good nights rest and a nice breakfast we were ready for the day. It started out a bit foggy but cleared up and turned out to be a beautiful day. Our route told us to take a bicycle/walking route to cut off a few minutes and the road looked good so we took it.

It was nice and quiet along the river. It was all going good until we saw a construction crew. When we got close we noticed the road was washed out at the creek and they had it blocked. It wasn’t too deep, but the creek bed was steep so we decided just to walk across the field in front of us to the bridge we saw ahead and go over it. The field was dry so that was an easy walk until we got to the bridge and noticed it was a train bridge.

That was still no problem, since the bridge was less than 100 ft long. It was really wide, with plenty of room on the sides and completely made of concrete. It was also used for the slow trains, not the express ones. We could see for a couple of miles each direction and no trains were coming so we crossed it quickly. That was easy!

Our only issue turned out to be when we reached the other side and went down to the road we were fenced in by about a 6 ft high fence. The fence was made of concrete so it wasn’t easy to get over. John noticed there was a metal gate but unfortunately it was locked. It was made out of square metal wire that we could just barely stick the toe of our shoe in. John decided we could get over it and went first. It took a bit of balance and making sure we had our shoes securely in the fence, but we both made it over without a mishap.

That was our excitement for the day. It wasn’t really too much of an issue. We just had to work our way through it and be safe about how we navigated that challenge. The rest of the walk was not bad with another typical climb into town and to our hotel.

We had the receptionist at our hotel this morning call to make sure our hotel tonight had rooms since there is only one other B&B in this small town. There are also only two other restaurants in town but luckily the hotel restaurant is open tonight so we don’t have to walk anywhere. Another bonus was that they had a washing machine we could use so we don’t have to wash our clothes in the sink like we usually do and can wash a whole load of laundry at a time.

We are looking forward to arriving in Florence tomorrow and hopefully taking a day off to see some of the sights. Enjoy your Saturday!

From:  Monte San Savino

To:  Montevarchi

Miles:  20

Total:  815

Today’s walk was a nice 20 mile stroll in the country. The skies were overcast all day which kept the temperatures down a little, and there was no wind; just like we like it. 

The day got started with a good breakfast at the hotel in Monte San Savino. We got out the door to start walking at 8:30 and after navigating through the streets of town for a short while, we were on our way down hill on a good road with very little traffic. The entire morning was spent on what would be a farm to market road back home. Because of this, the climbs and descents were a little steeper, and we had a fairly long climb in the morning, but it wasn’t too bad and overall we went down in elevation today. 

By about 1:00 we were about to give up on finding a place to get some lunch. But then, out of the blue, there was a bar/cafe along our road. We stopped in and had a sandwich and gave our feet a break. 

After lunch, we transitioned to a much busier road, and for the most part, it had no shoulder. As we got within a few miles of our stopping point for the day, we were walking on sidewalks through some small towns. We’re now within about 20 miles of the outskirts of Florence. The roads should start getting busier until we get to Florence mid-day on Sunday. 

That’s about it for today. It was a pretty straight forward walk through the Tuscan countryside. With this being Friday, we hope everyone back home has a good and relaxing weekend. Cheers!