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!
