From: Campobasso

To: Bojano

Miles:15

Total: 523

We had a great meal last night. I had a really good steak, John had ravioli and we had a large plate with a variety of vegetables for a side. We also had another great spread for breakfast this morning, This hotel was as nice as a good hotel in the states. After breakfast we were ready for the day. We had a steep climb out of the hotel driveway and a few more climbs just outside of town, but most of the walk today was either downhill or level.

Initially we were on some side roads running along the main road since the main road had several tunnels. Once we passed all the tunnels, our route took us down to the main road which was really busy earlier, but it appeared their version of rush hour was over and the traffic was much lighter when we got there.

We saw snow capped mountains again during most of our walk today, but our weather was pleasant all day. At almost exactly the halfway point we found a roadside cafe/bar to rest and have lunch. We both had some foccaicia bread and a Fanta. The owner was really nice and was interested in our walk.

The rest of our walk was partially on backroads and then the final stretch was on the main road until we took the turn for Bojano. Initially we couldn’t see any of the town so we were hoping the town was as big as it looked on the map. It took a while but we eventually saw some big buildings and made it to the center of town.

We had directions directly to our B&B for the night but walked right by it the first time. It was a bit hidden along the narrow street. Once we doubled back and found it we rang the bell and knocked on the door but no answer. We were just about to walk away when someone answered the door.

It turned out to be the family who owns the B&B. The oldest daughter spoke English the best and was able to explain we wanted two rooms for the night to her mom and dad before she headed off with her dad into town.

The mom made us some tea and gave us some cake while she prepared the rooms. As this was going on her fifth grade son was using the English he learned in school to ask us questions about our walk. John showed him our webpage and explained our tracker so he could follow us every day.

We couldn’t have a better family as a host and the rooms of this B&B are modern and spotless. Again we lucked into a wonderful place to spend the night.

Have a great Friday and we will update you again tomorrow!

From:  SS 212 (Highway 212)

To:  Campobasso

Miles:  16

Total:  508

Today’s walk was an up and down trip along a major highway to the beautiful Italian town of Campobasso.  With a population of 49,000, it’s main attraction is a hilltop castle, Castillo Monforte, built in 1450. Campobasso is also known for the craftsmanship of blades including scissors and knives. 

The walk to Campobasso started at 8:45 after a fairly skimpy breakfast at the roadside hotel we stayed in last night. The weather was sunny, temperature around 40, and thank goodness, zero wind.  We knew from studying the route we had a 2000’ climb ahead of us. Luckily most of that climb was gradual as we walked along a good, yet busy, highway. We never passed a place to take a lunch break so we pressed on until we got within 2-3 miles of Campobasso where we reached what we thought was the top of the climb. We could clearly see the city ahead at or slightly higher than our current elevation. However, the road started to descend and we gave back several hundred feet of our climb only to start right back up the steep streets as we got into town. 

After reaching the city center, we found a great little mom and pop restaurant for lunch. After putting away some pasta and salad, we only had a short five minute walk to the B&B we had picked to stay the night. As has become the norm with B&B’s, the door was locked when we got there. We rang the doorbell, but no answer. I called the posted phone number and the owner answered. He said he had rooms but we could not check in until 6:30 because he was out of town and could not return until that time. Seeing how it was only 2:00, we thanked him for his time and went with Plan B; another B&B just across the street. We found the building, which was shared by some permanent apartment residents, but after climbing several flights of stairs, we never actually found the door to the B&B. So we moved on to Plan C;  a nice hotel on the outskirts of town, right along our route for tomorrow. This time we called to make sure they had rooms because if not, we would be walking back to city center to go with Plan D.  So we set the walking route in our phone and noticed there was a 300’ descent, then a 300’ ascent to get to the hotel. Not how we want to end our 16 mile day, but doable.  The hotel is quite nice with all the key amenities Dave and I need; a bed, a shower, a sink to wash out clothes, and free WiFi. 

Tomorrow we have another sunny day over the river and through the woods with almost twice as much descent as climb. That pumps me up just thinking about it.  Also, today was a double milestone; we passed the halfway mark both in days and miles for the first segment of our European trek. We’re now over halfway from Athens, Greece to Verona, Italy where we’ll pause our walk for 90 days on 13 March.  

In closing, we hope everyone had a great Thursday back home. Thanks for following along. 

From: Motta Montecorvino

To: SS 212 (Highway 212)

Miles: 17

Total 492

After a nice meal last night at our hotel, breakfast was a bit sparse this morning but we still had a enough to eat and headed off for today’s adventure. It was a cold and windy morning. The temperatures were in the mid 30s with the windchill in the mid 20s. The winds were blowing about 20 mph and gusting quite a bit higher. Once we got out of town we had no protection from the wind since we were at the top of a small mountain. We also had a steep incline as soon as we left town. We got to a tree line after about a mile that protected us from the wind, but we still had another half a mile or so of steep climbing on a gravel road.

Eventually we turned right onto a nicely paved road that had almost no traffic and a gradual incline. It was very nice walking along that road. Off to our left through the trees you could see a very large valley and the city we we planned to stop for lunch off in the distance. It was breathtaking scenery.

Eventually we entered our city for lunch. There were several restaurants on or close to our route but each of them that we went to was closed. Eventually John asked someone where the grocery store or minimart was so we could at least grab a snack and something to eat. After a couple of people gave us directions, we wandered back into the town and found it on the left side of the road. There also appeared to be a small bar open across the street so we decided to try it first and see if they had any food.

They were open and we were able to get some hot dogs in croissants (piggies in a blanket) that the bartender had just made and some snacks and drinks.

It also must have been the local hang out for colorful characters in town. The most interesting character looked like he just walked out of a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western. He was wearing an old worn out cowboy hat, some really pointy old cowboy boots, an old leather jacket and had a scowl on his face. He reminded me of “The Ugly”, from the movie “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.”

After our entertaining lunch and nice break we headed out of town. As soon as we left town our walk quickly became a steep decline for a few miles until we hit the main highway. Once we got to the highway it leveled off nicely for the last few miles until we reached our hotel. Our hotel is basically at the intersection of several highways. It is kind of like what you would find off an exit on the interstate where there might be a hotel or two, some restaurants and a few other small businesses.

The hotel is very basic, but also very inexpensive. They also have a pizzeria that will open at 8 PM, so we don’t have to go looking for any food tonight. John made another video, “The Walking Aggies in Central Italy”, so please check it out on our webpage under the video tab. That’s a wrap for today. Have a great hump day!

From:  Lucera

To:  Motta Montcorvino

Miles:  13

Total:  475

Today’s hike was our first taste of what’s to come for the foreseeable future.  Elevation changes, both up and down, will be the norm for the next several weeks. 

The day started off in Lucera where we had a nice breakfast at the hotel at about 8:15. After we ate we asked the hotel receptionist to help us contact the hotel operator in Motta Moncorvino where we planned to stay tonight. The reason we needed to talk to the hotel was because it’s the only place to stay in this town and the next hotel is five miles away in another town. In addition, the other hotel was not on our route so we wanted to make sure the hotel at our intended destination was open. Luckily the manager answered and confirmed he would be here. We told him we’d be arriving at 2:00. 

So off we went from our Lucera hotel at 8:45 with a spring in our step after our day off on Monday plus only 13 miles to walk today. The air was cool at 45 degrees and a north wind at 20-30 MPH blowing from our right side. We could immediately see our destination in the distance because it’s on top of a hill to our west. Our first planned stop was for a break and some lunch at a restaurant along the main highway. That didn’t happen because it was closed. So we pressed on, leaving the main highway and started climbing on back roads up to our destination of Motta Montcorvino. It’s about a 1000’ climb from the highway up some winding switchbacks. 

With all our huffing and puffing we made it to town and our hotel about 1:15; 45 minutes ahead of schedule because we missed our lunch break at the closed restaurant. Of course, the hotel was not expecting us until 2:00 so there was no one here and the door was locked. So Dave and I sat around outside the hotel in the freezing wind until 2:00 when the nice owner, Gianni di Iorio, drove up. He was dressed like he had either been hunting or farming; we couldn’t tell which. He spoke zero English but we were able to communicate to him that we were hungry. He called a pizza restaurant a few miles down the road to see if they were open, but no luck. So he said no problem; he’d cook us some lunch. Immediately, Gianni had the fireplace going, brought us home made red wine, bread, and big pieces of parmesan cheese to get us started. Then we had pasta with cinghiale (wild boar) that Gianni had killed himself.  It was all very tasty and Gianni was pleased that we liked his cooking. 

So now we’re hunkered down in our rooms for the night. I’m pretty sure we’re the only ones here. We’ve got 17 mile of back roads through the mountains tomorrow. The wind is forecast to be strong again but no rain so we’re thankful for that. Thanks for reading. 

From: Lucera

To: Lucera

Miles: 0

Total: 462

Today was a rainy and cold day outside so it was the perfect time to take a day off. We headed to breakfast at 8:30 and also dropped our laundry off to be washed. The laundry looks and smells much better than when we wash it in the sink with body wash or shampoo.

After a satisfying breakfast we spent the morning relooking at the route. I just examined our route for the next few days while John was relooking our long range route where hotels are sparse. We are confident on our ability to find places to stay, but want to make sure we verify the places are open if at all possible.

We opted for a late lunch/early dinner at a restaurant that is owned by the same company as the hotel. There was a free shuttle to take us there and back so we didn’t have to walk in the rain.

I had reviewed their menu online earlier and the pizza looked cheap and good but when we were seated the waiter handed us the menu of the day and tried explaining the items on the menu. John asked for a bit more time, so we could figure out what was on the menu. We used Google and at least had an idea of what the two courses were. I ordered a cheese pasta with sausage and John ordered a pasta with red sauce and spinach as our first course. For the second course we both ordered sausage which had been simmered in red wine along with a side of french fries. Both courses were very good but more than we needed to eat.

We took the shuttle back to the room and are going to relax the rest of the evening while it continues to rain. We might go over the route a bit more. The Wi-Fi is a bit spotty so it’s a somewhat frustrating trying to go over things on the Internet but overall the hotel is nice.

On a historical note, our hotel appears to have been part of one of the residences of King Fredrick II of Sicily (1194-1250), who enjoyed hunting and falconry in the area between here and Foggia which was the capital of the Kingdom.

We will be back on the road tomorrow. It is going to be a short day but we will be walking into a headwind and uphill most of the day, so we are thankful that it is not too long. I hope everyone enjoyed the Super Bowl last night or at least the commercials. Take care and we will give you another update tomorrow!

From:  Foggia

To:  Lucera

Miles:  12

Total:  462

Today’s walk from Foggia to Lucera was very uneventful. With only 12 miles to cover, we took our good old easy time with it. 

After a great night at the very new and modern Hotel Up, we were up and at ‘um this morning; breakfast at 8:30 and out the door at 9:15. After some weaving through the streets of Foggia, we were back on the highway with a straight shot at our destination of Lucera. Because we’ve started a bit of a climb already, we could see Lucera from 10 miles away. We spent part of the morning walking on the shoulder of the 4-lane, but occasionally there was a service road that made it safer. 

By about 1:15 we had made it to our hotel near the city center. Because it’s Sunday, there was not very much activity around town. We got checked into the Hotel Federico II. It’s a little dated compared to the cool Hotel Up, but it’s clean, warm, has WiFi and a comfortable bed, and the rate is good, so we’re happy. After checking in and dropping off our packs in our rooms, we went looking for a place to eat lunch; something we have learned can be difficult at 2:00 in the afternoon in Italy. But we found a nice restaurant open a few blocks away and the food was great.  

Tomorrow we’re taking a day off.  It’s the first one since we got to Italy.  We’ve been saving a day off until we needed it for bad weather.  So tomorrow there’s a 100% chance of rain in the afternoon and we’re staying put right here until Tuesday. Then, we’re starting a climb over the mountains (tall hills) between here and Rome. The back roads we’ll be walking will be very crooked with a lot of ups and downs. Luckily after the rain tomorrow, the forecast looks good for the next week. 

We hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoys the Super Bowl. The kickoff is at 12:30 AM Monday morning our time. I may tune into some of the European sports channels and see if anyone is carrying it, but I’m not very confident in that. Cheers!  

From: Orta Nova

To: Foggia

Miles: 15

Total: 450

So another good pizzeria last night for dinner, although it didn’t open until 8:30 pm. John had a salad and a great margarita pizza and I had bruschetta and a cheese ravioli with sage, butter and ham. It was a wonderful dinner. We had a good sleep on full bellies.

Our B&B made us a nice “English breakfast” with fried eggs and bacon as well as some fresh croissants. As usual they had cereal too.

It was a fairly short walk out of town. Initially we were on a narrow but busy road. Once we got past that we were on a nice new double lane road with almost no traffic. It appeared to be a large industrial area. There was an aviation industry building as well as many other businesses along the way. As we got closer to town the road got busier and got narrower. With just under a five hour walk we ended up not stopping for lunch and were hungry and tired.

We got to the hotel that I had plugged in. It was the number one hotel on trip advisor although it was an older hotel. It had a restaurant attached to it as well. When we arrived the door was locked. I hit a button but no one answered. John saw another button that was more like a doorbell and someone that appeared to be a maid answered. At first she didn’t seem too interested in us. She didn’t speak any English and we couldn’t communicate at all In Italian.

John figured out enough to understand that a lady would be there in a few minutes to show us the rooms. When we went inside and saw that the couch in the lobby had no cushions we were already doubtful of staying at this hotel. We went upstairs and looked around and it was no better than the 30 euro rooms that we had stayed at in Greece and they wanted 65 euros.

I had looked at another hotel online last night that was brand new, cost 44 Euros like our last new hotel and it looked nice but I was concerned that the mattress may be too hard like the last new hotel that we stayed in. We decided after looking at the first hotel that we should go on and look at the new one.

We were very glad we did. The new hotel is nice and modern. It is also right in the middle of town. The lady at the desk was extremely helpful. We asked her where a good place to eat was nearby that was open and she pointed us to an Osteria, which is a simple inexpensive restaurant in Italy.

When we got to the restaurant it was completely full. That is always a good sign. After about five minutes or so we were seated at a table. There were a bunch of young high school age or maybe college aged people in the restaurant. The owner didn’t speak any English but after looking at the handwritten menu it was obvious it was a set menu for the day. You had a choice of a first course which was a pasta, and the second course which was a main or meat course. Included was water, soda or wine along with bread and a dessert.

John and I both had a really good cheese pasta and then a kabob with pork, grilled peppers and onions for the second course. The wine was a half liter of the house red wine and was very good. The bread was homemade and the desert was a chocolate tart.

Of course when we were done they brought us both some brandy and I had some grappa to wash it down. This was the type of wonderful Italian dinner I had expected in Italy and I hope to have many more. I hope everyone has a great Saturday!

From:  Cerignola

To:  Orta Nova

Miles:  13

Total:  435

We had an easy day of walking today. While just 13 miles makes it feel like a wasted day, it’s another 15 to the next town so our plan had us stopping here in the quaint little town of Orta Nova. 

On yesterday’s post, Dave mentioned that our hotel last night in Cerignola was new. It was very nice except for one problem.  I think we’re back in the land of rock hard mattresses and pillows. In Greece, almost all the places we stayed had mattresses that were so hard I could hardly sleep. Several times I had to get the extra blankets and bed spread and fold them into a thick pile on top of the mattress just to soften it up enough to get some sleep. Last night I had to do the same trick at this new hotel.  Also, the pillows were hard too. After looking around I discovered a brand new pillow, still in its original plastic wrapper, in a closet in the room.  It was labeled “soft.”  It’s my lucky day I thought. But not so fast. It was hard as a rock too. So with all that, I was glad today was a short walk because I didn’t get any sleep last night. 

Most of our route from Cerignola to Orta Nova was once again a busy, two lane road with no shoulder.  We got on the road at 9:00 after a good breakfast.  By lunchtime we were in the little town of Stornara where we took a short break. With only 1.5 hours left, we made it to Orta Nova by 1:30. We had picked out a B&B to stay in near the center of town.  When we found it, the gate to the property was locked, but there was a phone number to call. Dave got Tonya on the line. Unfortunately, she said there were no rooms available tonight. We had just started to walk away, thinking about plan B, when a man drove up, spoke zero English, but was able to communicate enough to confirm we wanted rooms. He called a gentleman on his cell phone, and then told us there would be someone here to help us in about an hour. So we sat around on the sidewalk and in a bit Tonya and another lady drove up. That’s the same Tonya who told us there were no rooms available. She said she and her helper needed some time to clean the rooms.  They were nice enough to make us coffee and tea with cookies while we waited. So after another hour of waiting, we got into our rooms at the B&B. They’ve got everything we need except WiFi, but we’ll suffer through by using our cellular data for the night. 

Tomorrow we’re walking to the large city of Foggia. The route is relatively short and flat with many lodging and dining choices when we get there. Also, we’re looking forward to a day off coming up on Monday when it is suppose to rain.  We hope everyone has a great Friday and Super Bowl weekend. 

From: Andria

To: Cerignola

Miles: 22

Total: 422

After a nice stay at our hotel in downtown Andria we had a 22 mile day ahead so after a good breakfast at the hotel we were on the road by 8:15. After we left town we were definitely off the beaten path for the first half of today’s walk with little to no traffic.

There was a small town almost exactly half way on our walk but since we were skirting the north part of the town we were concerned there might not be a place to stop for lunch. We rounded a corner in town and we thought we saw food trucks at the bottom of the hill. When we got closer we realized it was basically a mobile fleamarket. There were probably a couple dozen vans along the side of the road with anything from clothes to vegetables. Unfortunately none of them were a food truck.

After a climb up into the last part of the town we spied a café open across the street. It was just what the doctor ordered. When we walked in there really wasn’t anything at the counter we saw for lunch but when we asked the lady behind the counter she said she could make us a Panini. We weren’t sure what was going to be on it, but when we asked, she brought out the different types of meat you can put on it along with the cheese. It turned out to be really good. After a nice rest and full bellies we were off for the last three hours of the walk.

Like John said yesterday, the last few hours are a bit of a grind. This time the road was straight as an arrow and had a slow incline where you could see at least three miles down the road. As we walked along, the road kept climbing and we could see further and further up the road. Basically the road was like this the rest of the way until we got to our town for the evening.

Our hotel for the night was on the side where we entered town which made it nice and cut our walk down by at least a mile and a half, otherwise it would’ve been a 24 mile walk today. We found this hotel last night on the web and the reviews said it was new. When we rounded the corner the first thing we saw from the hotel was an American flag. There were a few other flags on flag poles as well, but it was nice to see an American one flying high in the breeze.

The hotel itself looked very new and modern. When we walked inside the hotel manager said they had only been open since the first week in December. We are very happy with the hotel facilities as well as the great price for the room. There is a restaurant in the hotel so John and I only have to hop on the elevator and go down to the restaurant. We don’t have to walk around the town at all tonight which is nice after a 22 mile day. Tomorrow will be a much shorter walk and we are definitely looking forward to that. Have a wonderful Thursday and we will catch up with you all again tomorrow.

From:  Morfetta

To:  Andria

Miles:  17

Total:  400

24 days down; 126 to go.  Today we turned away from the Adriatic coastline and headed inland. We won’t see the sea again until early August in Denmark.  Basically it was a fairly straight forward day except for the crazy highway we were on most of the day. 

We started out the door this morning about 8:30 after some breakfast at our little seaside B&B. Our first destination was the local Decathlon sporting goods store. Decathlon is similar to our Academy or Dick’s sporting goods and there was one just one hour into our walk. I needed a new pair of shoes and Dave needed some gloves. We both found what we were looking for, but not without a very overzealous security guard in the store who kept an eye on us the whole time we were there. I guess he thought we were going to stuff something in our packs and leave without paying.  

After leaving the store we had about an hour to walk into the one and only town we would see the rest of the day along our route. It was a little early for a break and lunch but we’ve learned not to assume there would be another opportunity later so we stopped in a small cafe for a bite and a break. 

After lunch we started walking on one of the worst roads we’ve had to date. The road was actually a main highway with heavy car and truck traffic, but there was very little or no shoulder. With it being a main highway the traffic was going pretty fast so we had to keep a constant watch to make sure drivers saw us. One thing we’ve noticed in Italy is that drivers take a lot of chances passing other cars on two lane roads. We’ve seen several incidences where a car has been passing another vehicle and barely made it around before they had a head on with someone going the opposite direction. 

We made it into our destination of Andria about 3:30. We saw several groups of high school-aged kids walking through town on their way home from school. One group on the opposite side of the street were laughing and talking when suddenly they ran across the street to talk to us. They wanted to know what we were doing, where we were from, where were we going, etc.  They were very nice kids, but had no clue where the nearest hotel was in town. Turns out it was only one block from where we were talking to them. So we took a selfie with them and were on our way. 

We were planning to go to a local B&B again tonight, but because it was further out on the edge of town, and we had not confirmed it was even open, we opted to stay at a nice hotel in the city center. It adds a little to our 22 mile day tomorrow, but we avoided the walk back into town if the B&B had been closed. 

So tomorrow we keep moving inland. We’re headed straight for Rome now, where we plan to be in 18 days.  Hey! Don’t laugh!  It’s 270 miles down the road. We’ll get there eventually, even if we have to crawl. But seriously, Dave and I are both having a great time and taking all this in. The last few miles are a grind every day, but it’s all well worth it.  Each morning when we get up, we’re rested and looking forward to what that day might bring. So thanks for reading our blog. Hope all is well at home.