16 km — 28oC and cloudy/hazy — We met no more pilgrims on their way to Rome and we met 1 pilgrim again walking towards Canterbury.
(By Jim)
We left Hotel Alla Posta at 6:00 a.m. and stopped at the municipal office, where we filled our water bottles with acqua frizzante as well as bought yogurt from a dairy vending machine. Today’s trail would include four rocky summits for a total ascent of 803 meters. I was not sure if we were up to it and I was hoping that Laurel had not read the guide book recently.
As it turned out, we both found this stage to be one of our favourites; not too taxing at all. The path varied between ancient cart roads and rocky goat paths with some asphalt and village streets to mix it up. The views were stunning and the trees and clouds kept the sun at bay — I didn’t even bother with sunscreen.
The highlight of the day was bumping into Richard, an Aussie walking from Rome to Lausanne, whom we had previously met on Stage 10 in Aquapendante. Richard starred as Don Knotts in our Fellini Bus Adventure. He was surprised to see us walking the other way and we were surprised to see him so close to Aosta. It turns out that Laurel and I weren’t the only ones riding the trains. Richard had decided to skip the Po Valley. The thought of walking along busy roads through hot mosquito infested rice fields for six days did not appeal to him (it’s not appealing to me either, but we’ll see). We compared trail notes, swapped accommodation suggestions and bid a “Buon Camino.”
As we started our walk down into Verres, the sun found us and followed us all the way to Chez Sylvie in Issogne. Laundry and riposo finished off the afternoon. Later, while we cooked ourselves a pasta supper and sampled a local white wine, we watched a downpour from our dry stone cottage.
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