Walking Across Italy

Today we hiked the 14 miles from Todi to Civitella del Lago, Italy. There were a lot of hills and rocky dirt trails which made the journey slow. For the day, my Fitbit says I took 34,100 steps, climbed the equivalent of 285 flights of stairs, and burned about 4,850 calories.

Todi was an interesting town, with a beautiful piazza and several 12th-13th century buildings. Before leaving town, we stepped into the cathedral and lit some candles. I’d like to return here and explore more.

Before lunch, we stopped for a quick rest break on the top of a hill. Stephen decided that he needed to stretch, so he began doing yoga poses on the grass. The rest of us had to laugh at his Happy Baby, Warrior, and Downward Dog IN HIKING BOOTS!

As we left this little rest stop (and outdoor yoga studio), I reached for my sunglasses and discovered that they weren’t in my pocket. As I search the other pockets of my cargo pants, I realized that my phone was missing too. Panicked, I ran back to our rest stop and looked for my items frantically. After several sweeps of the area, I saw a glint of reflective material in a small bush where I had been sitting. There, I found my lost items and felt a big sense of relief. It’s amazing how naked you feel when you don’t have your phone!

Towards the end of our day, we came upon a natural wonder on the way up the last hill. The temperature outside was about 70 degrees and even though there was no direct sunlight in the forest, the air felt stale and calm. As I climbed up the trail, I saw a small cave (about the size of a microwave oven) coming up on my left. I thought there might be an animal nesting in it, so I cautiously walked by, on the ready to run. (I don’t really like nature.) To my surprise, the small opening was emitting a constant 5 mph breeze of very cold air (like 40-50 degrees). I let the breeze wash over me for several seconds, then yelled to my fellow hikers that they had to see and feel this. We found out later that this was actually a very famous natural phenomenon called La Buca del Vento ( the wind hole). I don’t know how it works, but it was like walking by a retail store in the summer and getting hit with a blast of air conditioned air.

We made it to our destination, before the rain started. We had a wonderful dinner at our Agritourismo (Farmhouse B&B) and settled in for the night.

Ciao