Walking Across Italy

Today we hiked the 18 miles from Gualdo Cattaneo to Todi, Italy. The weather was partly cloudy and the trail was very long, so it took us 7 hours to complete. My Fitbit says I took 40,800 steps, climbed 233 flights of stairs, and burned 5,190 calories.

We had some wonderful meals today. First, Stephen made us coffee and tea in our nasty Bed & Breakfast, just to get out the door. At 11 o’clock, we walked into a little town where we had (what the Brits call) “Eleven-sies”. This is a light meal when the pangs of hunger strike. The “pasticeria” was filled with delicious pastries and espresso. We indulged.

Before leaving town, we decided that we would need more fuel for this long day, so JP and I went to find the butcher shop, while Stephen and Joe went to the grocery store for fruit, nuts, and some tomatoes. The butcher shop was an eye-opening experience. The first thing I saw was a full pig on a spit, lying on a table in the back room. It was HUGE!

We asked the butcher for some ham and he talked us into his home made roasted pig. He cut a piece and gave us a taste, which sealed the deal. It was delicious and would make a better sandwich than the prosciutto paninis that we have been living on for lunch.

If you look to the bottom right of the previous photo you will see a meat that Enzo said was the house specialty. He then cut us a couple of slices to try and started explaining what it was. I wasn’t paying much attention, so when he offered me a slice I immediately ate it. The texture was corse and had a light, citrusy flavor. He called it Coppa di Testa, which I started translating in my head as I swallowed. I asked JP, “did he say coppa di testa? As in PIG’S head?” JP laughed and said,”Yes, this was made from all the parts of a pig’s head. Good, huh?” Well, that’s when I decided that my italian was too slow!

We had our real lunch around 1 pm and I have to say, the roasted pork made a wonderful sandwich. (Definitely the better part of the pig.)

While looking for some benches to enjoy our lunch, we ran into 2 women who we met earlier at that little restaurant in Cannera. They are also doing the Coast to Coast hike. We offered them some of our roasted pork sandwiches, but they wanted no part of them. (I figure that they must be vegetarians. Poor things!)

A few miles into our afternoon hike, JP announced that we had just crossed our 200 km mark. This is about halfway through our total journey. We celebrated with a heroic picture.

The trail today was long, which made this sign seem very appropriate.

Tonight, I celebrated today’s test of endurance with another pork meal – sausage and broccoli pasta. I have to say it was my favorite dish of the trip so far.

Ci vediamo domani. ( See you tomorrow.)