Walking Across Italy

Today we hiked the 12 miles from Treia to San Serverino, Italy. My Fitbit says that I took 28,500 steps, climber 157 flights of stairs, and burned 3,944 calories.

The morning was bright and fresh as we prepared to leave Treia. The piazza near our hotel had a magnificent view of the region we had hiked over the last 3 days. It also showed how high we had climbed!

Since Stephen determined that there would be no town to stop for lunch today, we found a little grocery store in Treia and asked the proprietor if she would make us some paninis for the road. She sliced the prosciutto and carefully placed some fresh mozzarella on each panini roll.

While we watched our lunch being prepared, I noticed another customer who was sitting next to the meat case, patiently waiting for the proprietor to finish with these foreigners who had invaded her grocery store. She smiled politely as JP, who was in full Colombian charm mode, made small talk with the owner in Italian. As we were leaving, I asked the patient lady, if I could take a picture with her. The owner of the shop encouraged her to smile, but the lady declined, saying that she had too many broken teeth!

Most of the hike today was spent traversing a giant valley that leads to the Apennine mountains. The valley is called “La Valle Del Vento” (The Valley Of The Wind). It was breathtakingly beautiful and lived up to its name, with a refreshing breeze.

After about 7 miles of hiking, JP “allowed” us to stop for lunch. (He has several rules about food.) We found a little hillside and devoured our paninis. I added some olives to mine, to give it some extra salt. (A move that tasted good at the moment, but caused me to be very thirsty for the rest of the afternoon.) Io sono un Cretino! (I’m an idiot!)

The rest of the afternoon wasn’t so nice. The storm clouds gathered quickly and in a matter of minutes we had to change into our rain gear to finish the route. I found out that my new waterproof pants, weren’t so waterproof!

In the end, we completed our journey and took a brief rest before the last 2 kms.