Garlasco 13 miles

Had usable air-con last night which was a real pleasure. Often I find it just too noisy to be worth it but last night was fine. Early breakfast as Keith had his train to catch. Surprisingly average breakfast as the hotel’s dinner had been pretty good.

Chilled out for a bit before departing partly because it was a fairly short day and I didn’t think I would get into the next place very early.

The downside of leaving late was it was already uncomfortably hot by the time I was walking. Seemed odd initially to be on my own again but I got into the swing of it with the help of the radio. The terrain helped too with almost a French feel to the long path between large fields. I confess I only feel like a real pilgrim when I am on my own. When I am with someone it feels more like being on a walking holiday. Somehow solitude feels necessary. Better stay clear of all those Italian girls this time round then.

Nipped into a church for a break this morning. They do provide a relatively cool, shady seat and it feels like the appropriate pilgrim thing to do. Had a half hour blether to Anne while I was in there.

At lunchtime, rather than getting a sandwich/toastie plus water in a bar that Keith and I usually did I went for the supermarket fruit, crisps and large bottle of juice instead. Ended up sitting on the ground in the car park with it. I had been quite happy doing this in France but it now seemed less satisfactory than the bar. It isn’t the food or drink that’s the problem you just feel more recovered after sitting on a proper chair with a table in a (hopefully) cool bar for a half an hour rather than sitting on concrete outside. Lesson learned.

Rolled up to the hotel at the back of 3pm only to find it was derelict. Bit disconcerting as Booking.com had taken my money some days ago. Strange. Took a further look round the back and found that it was just the main building that was no more. Some enterprising soul was using the newer, motel type units round the back and running a sort of BnB enterprise with the same name as the defunct hotel. Happy with that especially as they had air conditioning. The chap recommended a pizzeria, unfortunately over half a mile away, but as it had been a short day it seemed churlish not to take his suggestion. When ordering, from an English menu, you could choose between regular, thin or thick pizza. I was tempted to go for the thin one as I hoped it would be smaller but I was told in time it was much larger. Don’t understand but possibly it was a lost in translation thing. Rustica for those interested. Very nice too.

And the local gelateria had to be sampled on the way back.Read more