I was rudely woken up this morning with the call of “It’s 6am” :)“Who cares, it’s still dark!” I managed to mutter as I rolled back over…“And it’s still fucking freezing”!!!
Not to be deterred Steph managed to commit me to getting up at 06:30, so I snuggled up for my last thirty minutes of warmth. It was 06:45 before I finally managed to drag myself out of my sleeping bag, but at least now the Sun was up.
Luckily the first town was only 3kms away so I didn’t have to wait long before gaining comfort from a cappuccino. Aahhh yes, the simple things...
We were then once again in to the mountains. The road was peaceful and the view was beautiful! It was great!…until I started being a dickhead anyway ;)
Having spent the last year mostly traveling by myself, and then doing the last month of the Via Francigena alone, I have found that my ability to relate to people has diminished considerably. I find it hard to empathise with other people’s problems; I just don’t see them as problems :)
As I am always on the move, and rarely have an interaction with anyone that lasts more than a couple of days, this hasn’t been causing many problems. But I can see if I want my mother to hang around until Istanbul then this will have to change ;)
Luckily we have a strong relationship, so after a few serious words we were soon once again laughing and enjoying each other’s company.
I was looking forward to getting to the top of the ridge as the only town we would pass in 20kms was situated there; and I was starving! Unfortunately, it looked like the last time anyone had a meal up here must have been before WWII, and then the Allies must have taken a disliking to it. Needless to say, there wasn’t much left…and certainly no food. I wasn’t happy!
And then to top it off it started to rain!
The only good thing was that this finally gave me the chance to try out one of my new toys…the waterproof casing for my video camera. I love it!
So, wet and exhausted we finally staggered into Gorano Sicoli. There was no sign of life anywhere! Steph was too tired to move so I headed off to do the rounds of the churches, hoping to find a bed for the night. It wasn’t to be…and not only were all the churches locked, but I didn’t come across a bar or restaurant in my travels either.
Things weren’t looking good…
But then we saw a sign for a hotel which lifted our spirits immensely.
The owners weren’t very keen to have us stay, as they were trying to take a weeks holiday. Funnily they still said they were open, but then tried to give us numerous reasons why we shouldn’t stay. It was very amusing but with the rain still falling outside we weren’t moving ;)
They then warmed up to us and since there were no restaurants in town, made us some ham, cheese and tomato sandwiches for dinner.
And then just before bed, I finally worked out how to get the video from the tapes on to my camera. It was great to finally get a chance to view what we have been recording.
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