Tag Archives: Walking

Day 15 – Montefiascone to Viterbo – Tedious, then tremendous

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Thursday 29 May 2025 – Rest days are wonderful things, but getting going again after them can be a pain in the arse. However, needs must and so we were down for an 0730 breakfast and ready to check out shortly after 8am, ready for a walk of some 18km to Viterbo. We expected to have to pay the city tax that we’ve paid at every other check-out, but in Montefiascone, the city tax doesn’t apply to people over 70. It’s a small advantage to being old, but when you get to our age, you have to take what you can get.

We bade goodbye to Montefiascone and its fabulous lake view

 

and headed off – downhill, of necessity, since Montefiascone is the highest point of this entire Via Francigena section.

The first part of the walk was interesting, because we were walking on the Via Cassia, a genuine Roman Road, which is in pretty good nick, considering it’s a couple of thousand years old.

 

One can see why the road has weathered well from the skill with which it was laid.

It stands up to modern traffic well

though I have to say I wouldn’t really have wanted to run a chariot along it. Also, I have a complaint to make:

It’s not straight! All Roman Roads are straight, surely?

We passed a kiwi fruit orchard

and a few other things, like roadside shrines,

a pilgrim’s fountain

and some sheep – the first we’d seen in Lazio.

Our downhill progress was clear from the view back to Montefiascone.

We passed the residence of a recent asylum-seeker from Tuscany

and were, in turn, passed by a lunatic.

I mean, who in their right mind would go running in the middle of a hot, sunny day?

Poppies were very much in evidence

as was the baling of straw,

which was neatly packaged in patriotic colours in many of the fields we passed.

There were a lot of straw bales lying around

and we fell to wondering: what will become of all of this straw?  Is it destined for animal feed? We’ve seen practically no farm animals anywhere. Who will use it, where and for what? These are the sort of things that occupy ones thoughts when the walking is tedious, because, by this stage, it had become really, really tedious – a strada bianca with no shade on a day with streaming sunshine.

Basically, it stayed tedious right up to the point where we were approaching Viterbo, where we passed under the motorway

and encountered the expectedly rather functional outskirts of the city.

There were a couple of things of note as we made our way towards our destination: a huge cemetery,

with, outside the gates, some opportunist flower sellers;

and the latest in my occasional series about the subtleties of language as used in international marketing.

We eventually sighted a gate into the old city

and approached it through a park, to give us relief from the dull old pavement.

The park featured a Mystery Object

whose purpose I could not fathom. Pram racing circuit for bored parents? Speed skating rink for toddlers? Who knows? Not me.

So, then: through the gate

and into the old town. Jane, one of the ladies we first met on the road to Acquapendente, had sent Jane, my wife, a message, saying that the old city in Viterbo made up for the tedium of the 10km leading up to it, so my expectations were high – and, rather, dashed, as we made our way to our accommodation, Palazzo Riario. It seemed dark, dowdy and cramped. Our route to the Palazzo was labyrinthine through narrow streets; without Google Maps, we’d be looking for it yet.  We passed a couple of reasonable scenes

but I wasn’t impressed.  We arrived at our accommodation,

which was the brown door in the above. The locked brown door in the above; a factor which didn’t improve our view of the city. Jane rang the phone number on the bell and it went to voicemail. I hammered on the door in frustration, to no avail.

However, after a couple of minutes a chap emerged from down the road and hailed us. It turned out to be Renato, the manager of the place, who had our key and showed us how to make it open the place up. In doing so, he “happened” to mention his restaurant, and Jane worked out that it was open for another hour for lunch, so we rapidly made ourselves slightly less unpresentable and hightailed it the extremely complicated 100 metres necessary to get to the next street over where Renato was chatting with a group of people outside Chimera, his restaurant. He saw us coming and, rather than seating us inside the decent but rather gloomy interior of the restaurant proper, bade us sit at a table in a courtyard opposite.

It was delightful – we had a nice lunch (there was no gin, so it couldn’t quite qualify as a Nice Lunch, but it was nevertheless good food with affable service). After eating, despite feeling creaky, we realised that we had to go for a walk. Obvously. So Jane mapped out a route that took us round the old city, starting at the tourist office to get our Timbri and a very useful tip to ease the rest of our sightseeing.

Viterbo has a huge medieval old city centre and an equally huge historical significance. It is known as the “city of the Popes”: at the end of the 13th century it was in fact the papal seat and for 24 years the Papal Palace hosted and saw the election of various pontiffs. This meant that the Duomo and papal palace were must-see items; and Jane had read about the San Pellegrino district, a centre for pilgrims over the centuries.

The papal palace is an imposing sight

and to get to it can be quite a taxing walk.  The tip we got was

to use the lifts. Down in one lift, across a couple of roads, along a tunnel

and up the other side, pretty much straight out into Piazza San Lorenzo.  With the sun beating down and the temperature feeling quite high (I’d seen 30°C outside one pharmacy on our way in), this was an absolutely golden tip. Was it worth the trip?

Yes, I think so.  The interior of the Duomo is quite austere, actually

but it has some magnificent marble flooring,

a side chapel with some lovely trompe l’oeuil work

and, for somewhere so large, a very modest organ.

The papal palace is a very impressive building

but it would have cost us €20 to get in and we thought that a bit steep. The view across to where we’d been included a great setting for the church of the holy trinity across the way,

so we satisfed ourselves with that, and headed off towards the San Pellegrino district. It was hot and we were thirsty, so we treated ourselves to a glass of something cold en route, and arrived in the Piazza San Carluccio, amid the overwhelming fragrance of jasmine, to look around.

Part of the grimness of Viterbo (and Montefiascone as well) is that a lot of it is built from dark stone,

but this didn’t detract from the delightfulness of the San Pellegrino district.  It is known for profferlo – medieval external staircases,

and is generally a delightful area to walk around.

It reversed our somewhat jaundiced view of the place, and we can now see why Other Jane was so impressed with what she saw.

Here are a few of the other scenes I took photos of as we walked around the district and headed back to our Palazzo.

Viterbo is the start of an official section of the Via Francigena, section 40, which takes us in several legs all the way to Rome, where we should arrive, all being well, on June 5.  Our next destination is Vetralla, and we’re offered two possible routes.  We’re going to opt for the shorter one because, frankly, we feel we’ve earned the right.  So the official distance is about 16km, and we have to go up some and then down some, so the day will still involve some effort on our part, and doubtless some moaning on mine. Why not check back in soon to see how everything went?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 14 – Bolsena to Montefiascone – dreaded but actually delightful

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Tuesday 27 May 2025 – Having seen the elevation profile of today’s walk, I had been expecting a day of unremitting toil and had prepared myself accordingly, which means starting off with walking sticks in hand, ready to help me up all those hills.  Le Vigne was reasonably well up the first one, and we started off uphill but not too steeply, and bade farewell to Bolsena.

I noticed that there was a ferris wheel by the lakeside – just visible in the upper right of the picture above. Soon, we were on a woodland track

and largely in the shade, which was very pleasant; not that the day was hot per se, but it’s always nicer to be out of direct sunshine. We could look back at Bolsena and see that ferris wheel clearly now,

and the views over the lake in the morning light were lovely.

We passed a variety of different scenes as we went along.

A cluster of beehives

Nearly big enough to be called a ford

A longish section led through woodland on a clearly prepared trail, intended for use by mountain bikes as well as walkers,

until we left the Bolsena commune and entered that of Montefiascone,

which, an info board informed us, was the highest point on the Via Francigena. Despite this stark warning of uphill labour to come, the pleasant woodland trail continued

occasionally giving us lovely views over the surrounding countryside

until we came to a point where we could see the town of Montefiascone itself,

indisputably much higher than we were at the time. The trail turned into a strada bianca, but at least it offered occasional shade

and, somewhat after the halfway point, there being no formal coffee stop on the route, we found an informal shaded resting place to share some fruit.

As we neared the town, we passed several very posh-looking residences

many of which showed no more sign of occupancy than maybe a car being parked outside, and we wondered what the various stories were about these houses. Were they second homes? Farmers’ houses? Holiday lets?

We broke out from the woodland into the open for the final part of the walk, and were rewarded with more views

before the final pull up into the town.  Montefiascone is the Sarría of the Via Francigena – the point that’s 100km from the eventual destination and walking from which will earn you a certificate at the end, in this case in the Vatican at Rome. There’s even a formal mark,

outside a church, the Chiesa del Corpus Domini, which is a very substantial building

with some nice terracotta work on the front

and a lovely calm interior.

A side chapel

Embroidery above the chapel

The only tedious bit of the day came next, a longish pull up some steep streets to reach the town

Montefiascone is apparently world-famous for Est! Est!! Est!!! wine

and further tediously up towards the old city, past a rather unused-looking fairground setup (maybe for future use or from a past feast day?)

and another very chunky piece of religious masonry (more on this tomorrow).

We made it (via a side trip to get milk at a Coop) into the old city,

where the upness continued to sap my sense of humour as we toiled up this street.

Really, this last section was the only tedious and laborious part of what otherwise has probably been the most enjoyable walk of the Via so far.

The 100km USP of the place seems to drive a certain pilgrim-friendliness.

Our hotel was the Urbano V, where we arrived just before 2pm. Our room was available so we were able to take our bags up (in the lift! hurrah!!) before wandering out to find some lunch.  The receptionist thought that perhaps a restaurant called Dante would be open, and so it was. It describes itself as having Cuisina Tipica and we had a decent enough meal. It has a rather informal air about it, and they don’t seem to expect much in the way of passing tourist trade, with little concession made to those who can’t speak Italian; but the service was affable, and the food both good and copious.

After lunch, we needed to go for a walk. Obviously. We headed back to the hotel to make ourselves (relatively) respectable so that we could enter any passing churches, and set out to see the sights.

It’s a funny old place, Montefiascone. It has buckets of historic significance and charm, but it could really do with a good wash and brush up to show itself off well, like Bolsena does.

There are some really scruffy corners, which is sad to see, as it seems to tell of a city that is not inhabited by that many people.

We passed the orthodox parochial church and looked in.

Montefiascone, it is clear, has a great historical significance, having once been a Papal possession in the 12th and 13th centuries. The castle that sits above the town

was often the residence of popes and is named Rocca dei Pappi, and the city was a significant gathering point for pilgrims on the way to Rome. There is a pilgrim’s tower

from which, apparently, you get a 360° view of the surrounding countryside (there is no lift, and I wasn’t in the mood for steps up, which just goes to show what a poor pilgrim I really am). There is an enormous basilica, the cathedral of Santa Margherita, which has one of the largest domes in Europe.

The cathedral was built substantially in the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1670 it suffered a serious fire, with repairs taking a further decade. The interior was elaborately restored in 1893, and is

jaw-dropping.

On the way back from this wandering, we had a delightful Camino-style occasion. Outside the Caffè Centrale, on the piazza near our hotel, was sitting one of the two ladies we’d been able to help on the road to Acquapendente. We got into conversation, which led inevitably to gin and tonic. She is another Jane, who is also walking to Rome with her friend Yvette. Yvette was sadly absent, recovering from a bout of something dreadful, but it was really pleasant to talk to Jane. The occasion developed even further when another couple we’d been talking to at intervals over our journey, Susan and Andy, happened by, which led, equally inevitably, to more gin and tonics. This sort of encounter is relatively commonplace on the Camino de Santiago, when pilgrims in their thousands throng the route; we were delighted that we had encountered similar serendipity on this much less-travelled route.  It won’t happen again, as the others all depart tomorrow whilst we have a rest day; but it’s a pleasing memory to take away with us.

During the preceding wanderings around the city, we saw a few more things to explore further; we have a full day tomorrow to do so, and I will regale you with them in tomorrow’s post. Check in later and see what else the town has to offer, why don’t you?

 

 

 

Day 13 – Acquapendente to Bolsena – long walk, varied conditions

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Monday 26 May 2025 – Well-organised as our B&B was, the breakfast fare that had been left in the kitchen area was not the sort of thing that we thought we could make into a decent breakfast – I mean, cornflakes? So we hatched a plan to get going early and have breakfast at a local bar. So we were out of the B&B before 0730 without even having had tea and on our way to Bolsena, today’s destination, with just a croissant and a cappuccino by way of fuel, by 0750. We were confident that there would be sustenance at a coffee stop half way along our 24km walk; we hoped that confidence would sustain us that far.

Passing one more piece of street art,

we bade farewell to Acquapendente

and set out in cool, sunny conditions. On the road, we passed a cereal factory

with, just behind it, episode two of the same cereal.

We then headed off the road on the dreaded strada biancha

but at least there were some shady patches along it. Looking back, we could still make out the tower that sits above Radicofani.

The landscape was markedly different from what we’d seen in Tuscany – entirely arable farming with some woodland, and none of the hilliness that we’d seen north of the border with Lazio.

As well as the various cereal and vegetable crops we noted as we walked along, it was clear that in Lazio they were also farming sunlight,

and hazel nuts.

Well, that Nutella doesn’t make itself, you know. Other crops included potatoes, which at one point stretched as far as the eye could see.

We were walking in the “Altopiano Vulsini”, a geologically and historically significant volcanic plateau in northern Lazio. This encompasses several volcanic complexes, including calderas at Montefiascone (which we visit tomorrow) and Bolsena (today), and is clearly a very good basis for arable farming.

We did see a single cypress which had somehow snuck over the border from Tuscany, though.

Where fields and meadows were not actively being farmed, there were lots of wild flowers

with poppies being delightfully ubiquitous.

The landscape was also sprinkled with artworks by Lorenzo Gallo, a Rome-born sculptor (who goes by the moniker Renzogallo),

“The Departure”
“The Meeting”
“The Direction”
“The Testimony”

accompanied by info boards with descriptions of unbearable pretentiousness. The first of these was on the ourtskirts of San Lorenzo Nuovo (I wonder about the synchrony between the names of the artist and the town). The town, though, was important, as it was the one and only place we would find somewhere to stop and have coffee. We stopped at the first available bar, apart from anything else because it said it offered a Timbro stamp for our credenziali. Inside the bar were a couple with three really cute long-haired chihuahuas, of which I totally failed to get a photo; but obligingly they came outside and actually encouraged a photo by handing Jane a couple of them.

Having consumed the coffee, we came across the town square shortly afterwards

with several bars around it, all offering timbri, so clearly the pilgrim market is something the town recognises. So we stopped for a second coffee and a sandwich

and then popped into the church on the town square.

There was some lovely artwork to be seen,

and we lit a candle for our recently-departed friend Martin, the late and sadly-missed husband of Caroline, who had been with us until Siena.

The most prominent feature of the Vulsini Volcanic District is the Bolsena Caldera, a 16-kilometer-wide depression formed approximately 300,000 years ago. This caldera is now occupied by Lake Bolsena, the largest volcanic lake in Europe. It is vast;

the eruption that caused that crater must have been a helluva bang!

I had fondly imagined that we would stroll along beside the lake to get to the town of Bolsena, but, as is so often the case, I was wrong; we headed off into woodland, on what looked like a nice shady path,

and, it has to be said, much of it was. There were occasional rocky bits

and some steep bits

but by and large it was a pleasant stroll which led downwards, overall and in tortuous manner.

On one of the Renzogallo “artworks” – a lump of basalt, actually – there was a lizard basking in the sunshine, so I did a bit of a photographic wossname, and took a photo first with my Sony and then using the portrait mode on my phone. Here are the two results.

Phone, background blur courtesy of software manipulation

Sony RX100-VII, background blur courtesy of the laws of physics

We passed an oak tree

planted in 2006 to mark 500 years since Pope Julius II. The info board was in Italian but this is no match for Google.  Here’s the story behind the tree. The Papal Bull stated

“…that he had given Canon Peter von Sertenstein the task of leading 200 Swiss soldiers to Rome with their captain Kaspar von Silenen “pro custodia palatii nostri”. After crossing the Alps, through Lombardy and Tuscany, von Silenen and the 150 recruits entered Rome from Porta del Popolo Blessed by the Pope in St. Peter’s Square, the guards began their service in the Apostolic Palace that same day. Thus was born the Pontifical Swiss Guard.”

We actually saw a few more cypresses which were clearly huddled together for security in this foreign environment,

and a single, lonely, wind turbine, making a defiant statement about sustainable energy production, which The Powers That Be are clearly ignoring.

I was amused by the crest of a hill in the distance.

We passed a quarry, though we know not what was being quarried.

and the road turned back into a dreaded strada biancha.

I don’t know which I dislike more – the white ones, which reflect the heat, or the dark ones, which radiate it back to you. Today wasn’t too bad, as there were some shady patches; I’m dreading tomorrow (see later).

We caught our first sight of the town of Bolsena through the trees,

and were soon into the old town, which has a castle

the church of San Salvatore (not open, unfortunately)

and several attractive corners around the streets.

There were signs to lots of appealing-looking eateries.

What was less appealing was that, having arrived at 3pm, we’d missed the lunchtime window. The nice, attractive bars along the main street in the old town were no longer serving, but Google came to our rescue and identified one which was still open, called Romeros.

It describes itself as a “Ristopub Birreria” and has pictures of food outside it – normally red flags – but its USP for us was that it was open and would serve us lunch.  We actually had a decent meal there, including lots of pasta (against the morrow, see later) so my sniffiness is entirely unjustified. In this case, anyway.

Walking off lunch en route to our accommodation, an Agriturismo establishment called “Le Vigne“, we took the opportunity to look a little around the town. There are some nice viewpoints, over the castle area,

the town’s rooftops, old and new,

and the city gate.

There is a Basilica

with some ceramic work (by Della Robbia?) over the door,

and a lovely calm interior,

but we didn’t go in to explore, since we were still in our hiking gear, and shorts are considered disrespectful. So we carried on to our accommodation, which was not far away but still managed to be considerably uphill.  It’s a handsome place

which offers a nice viewpoint over the town

and had a good large room for us to settle into so we could finally make ourselves a Nice Cup Of Tea.

I’ve made several references to tomorrow; our destination will be Montefiascone, where we will enjoy a rest day; but we have to get there first. Doing this involves getting out of the caldera; and since our journey today was basically downhill, tomorrow’s will be fundamentally uphill.

We’re not quite sure what the weather will be, but we’re hoping it will not be too hot and sunny, as 16 uphill kilometres without the benefit of a coffee stop is somewhat daunting. We will, of course, survive, but to find out in what condition, you’ll have to return to these pages to find out.