👣 20 km by foot – Monday 6 September

After a day of rest in Viterbo – a well-deserved break for our legs – we started walking from the city center with a massive group of walkers! We said a few goodbyes yesterday, including to our ambassadors Mary Jane and Marguerite, and EAVF’s director Luca Bruschi (he’ll be back in a few days); we instead welcomed a lot of new people: our new ambassadors Crisula, with her @nonsoloporridge page, and Federica and Andrea, a beautiful couple that together works under the name of Trip ‘n’ Roll. EAVF’s project manager Luca Faravelli also joined us, and Alessio, Massimo and Daniele caught up with us again – we’ve been meeting them along our way since Arras, France! Having all these new people with us, many of which are familiar faces, was very refreshing, carrying a lot of good, renovated energy! 💪

CAI Viterbo is currently in the process of making variations to the GPS track in this stage, so we followed their new route, we tested it. This alternative trail goes through San Martino al Cimino before reaching Vetralla, and, instead of being mostly flat and in the sunshine, it is hilly but in the shade of the forest, which, for us, was very nice. We had a refreshment stop at the wonderful B&B ‘Lento & Contento’ (literally ‘slow & happy’), which welcomed our huge group with a proper buffet – thank you Paolo and thank you Pro Loco Vetralla for organizing this for us!

Also, San Martino al Cimino is a very cute town that the Via Francigena now allows you to discover. The previous GPS route didn’t go through any town, it was mostly in direct sun, and had no water fountains available. This new itinerary passes through villages with water, pharmacies, bakeries…allowing us to stock up again and feel safer. It makes a lot of sense to me to make this variation, thank you CAI Viterbo for the updating work you are doing.

We arrived quite quickly to our destination today, given that we had no meetings along the way. Here, we visited the recently restored Santa Maria in Foro Cassio church, which might soon become a hostel (Sigeric apparently slept here – he explicitly wrote this down on his diary, back in 990 A.D.).

And right now, I’m kind of craving for dinner…more news tomorrow, bon apetìt!

HIGHLIGHTS

– Meeting a big lot of new, beautiful people

– Great refreshment and buffet at ‘Lento & Contento’

– Discovering a new trail, which will soon become the official Via Francigena GPS route!

TODAY’S WALKERS

Myra Stals, social media manager (EAVF)

Marika Massotti, social media assistant (EAVF)

Luca Faravelli, project manager (EAVF)

Silvio Marino, Regione Lazio

Trip n’Roll (Federica and Andrea), RTR ambassadors (@tripnroll)

Crisula Barbata, RTR ambassador (@nonsoloporridge)

Enrico Baroni, videomaker

Members of CAI Viterbo

Linda Tambosi and Angela Raggio, Ragazze in Gamba

Alessio, Massimo and Daniele, pilgrims and friends, with important social projects

Members of the Via Francigena in Tuscia association

Members of the Amici della Via Francigena a Viterbo association

Several local walkers