Walking Across Italy

Today was one of the toughest days on this coast to coast journey. The sky was overcast (which was a blessing), but the climb was steep and the trail was extremely tough. In total, we hiked 18 miles from Nocera Umbra to Assisi over 7.5 hours. My Fitbit says I took 38,000 steps, climbed 241 flights of stairs, and burned 4,400 calories.

What you CAN’T see from this map is the difficulty of the terrain. Most of the hike was on grass, dirt, or rocks.

The most interesting thing about today’s hike was that there was a surprise on the top of each mountain we crossed. The first was a chicken wire art exhibit. (Yes, that’s right, chicken wire!) The artist had sculpted various religious scenes out of that utilitarian fencing.

As you can see there is a ghostly quality to the images which make them feel surreal. I’m sure my friend Becky Bilbo, the art history professor, could provide a more robust and thorough critique. But, I liked them!

The second surprise came on the top of the second mountain. There has been a lot of rain in this region, so we were not surprised to see a lot of mushrooms growing along our path. (We know better than to touch or eat them.) Deep in the woods, we stumbled upon a lovely older couple who told us that they had gotten lost while picking mushrooms. They asked if we could help them find their way out. This was surely a job for the Old Age Mutant Ninja Turtles. We lead them along our path until we came to a clearing where they had parked their car. Ninja Turtles to the rescue, even on vacation. Cowabunga!

At the top of the third mountain, we had one more surprise. Stephen announced that we could either climb another 200 yards up and over the mountain, or walk along the state road at this elevation for 5 kms. We chose the latter and entered Assisi through the North gate. Our feet were very grateful.

At dinner tonight, we all agreed that this was one of the most arduous hikes that we have ever encountered. So, I decided to celebrate with some homemade pasta in a spicy tomato sauce. Mangiamo!