Sunday 1 June 2025 – I’m not a fan of counting steps as a way of monitoring one’s health, but since I use a Garmin activity monitor and since Garmin Connect, its app, displays a step count if I want one, I take a look now and then. The thing about Garmin Connect is that if one exceeds the step count goal it sets for you one day, it doesn’t pat you on the back, or anything; it simply increases the goal for the morrow. So, this morning, I saw that my goal was
(a) as high as it’s ever been and (b) unlikely to be met, since we only had maybe 8km to go.
The earliest that Francesco could be persuaded to provide breakfast was 8am, but since we only had a short walk in front of us to get to Sutri, our destination for the day, we thought (correctly, as it turned out) that it wouldn’t be an issue. Francesco served us a good breakfast, with hot bread rolls and excellent hot croissants, to fortify us for our journey. Before we left, he showed us an interesting feature of the excellent property he runs – Etruscan caves underneath it.
By toiling up yesterday to the B&B, we had done practically all of the climbing that today would entail (until later on – keep reading), so I wasn’t too fussed when we started out on a strada bianca, particularly since it was fairly shady.
In any case, we soon turned off on to another much shadier path
that led to the most engaging part of the day’s walk – a trail largely following a stream through Etruscan woods. For the most part it was lovely, although there were a couple of places where a bit of care was needed.
Amazingly, in the mud along the trail we saw evidence that lunatic mountain bikers had followed the same path… Anyhoo, it was then a short walk until we saw Sutri,
which, you will note, is somewhat higher than we were. Yes, we had to climb up into the town.
Quite a long way up, actually,
but it led us to a small old town which, like them all, is a bit scruffy, but has many charming corners.
An ancient communal Lavatoio, now repurposed as a fountain
We were quite early – it was only 10.30am – so we found our way to our B&B, the enticingly but inexplicably named Notti d’Oriente (what did we do before Google Maps, eh?) where, as we had hoped, someone was hosing the place down from the previous day’s occupants; she was kind enough to furnish us with keys, a place to put our backpacks and a timbro, and we got out of her way by going for a walk. Obviously. Sutri has an attractive central square which, it being Sunday morning, had an agreeable buzz about it,
and there are some handsome corners as you walk around.
Jane had a plan (natch) which took us to the Duomo,
whose imposing interior has some great ceiling work.
We also looked in on a much humbler church, that dedicated to St. Croce.
This church gave us the opportunity to light a candle to Martin, and also to see a statue
and a likeness
of possibly Jane’s favourite saint, St. Jude Thaddeus, an Apostle and the patron saint of lost causes.
Outside the Old Town and somewhat to the south of it is the Ancient Town. The Old Town is mainly medieval, but the Ancient Town goes back to Etruscan and Roman times. The walk down takes you past a viewpoint of some Etruscan tombs
which you can get closer to as you walk through the park,
and muse on the ancient Etruscan storage cabinet therein.
In this park are several ancient objects of interest: the remains of a Roman amphitheatre, carved out of the ubiquitous volcanic tuff;
the renaissance Villa Savorelli, 15th century, with associated church of Madonna del Monte (quirk of the eyebrows, here);
and a church of the Madonna del Parto. This latter is very interesting historically. It is believed to have originally been Etruscan tombs, which the Romans then used as a Mithraeum, before it was converted to a Christian church in the 13th Century. We had quickly to dash off to get a ticket (€5 each) in order to be allowed in, for a maximum of seven minutes, with a small group. The interior is fascinating,
something not immediately obvious from the picture above; but on the walls and in one place on the ceiling are some original frescoes.
whose fragility is what sets the seven-minute limit for any group visit.
Well, after that, there was nothing for it but to find some lunch; unfortunately the recommended Il Localetto was not open for Sunday lunch but we ended up on a terrace outside the restaurant Il Anfiteatro, which has a fine view of the Etruscan tombs but not of the amphitheatre; it also has no gin, or even Campari for a spritz, but the food was decent, and fortified us sufficiently for a walk back up to the town square for a gelato or two.
We had A Moment when we arrived back at our B&B: there was Jane’s suitcase; but mine was not beside it. This had all the hallmarks of a catastrophe, as our supply of Twining’s finest Earl Grey is being transported around Italy in my baggage. However, S-cape’s team were paying attention to their WhatsApp feed when Jane got on their, erm, case, and my bag and the all-important teabags arrived within 20 minutes; relief and tea all round.
So, that was our Sweep round Sutri
and, for such a small place, it was very interesting.
We’ve taken a couple of days to complete the “official” leg of the Via which gets one from Vetralla to Sutri; and the next couple of days will be dedicated to covering one more. The leg is from Sutri to Campagnano and is around 25km; but we will cover just a dozen or so of them tomorrow and rest up in Monterosi before pressing on to Campagnano. As far as we can tell, the breakfast here is entirely self-service out of the kitchenette, so we have the option of starting out really early to avoid the heat of the day. Join us in due course to see whether this is what we actually did.
