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!
The Apulia Molise Lake off to our North
