Pontremoli 18 miles

One of the better breakfasts so far and I got a couple of bananas and a large bottle of water as I left town so felt well stocked. Downside was the bag felt heavy especially over the first 4 miles when I climbed over 400m. The day was billed as “a challenging and beautiful stage” and it was. Slight rain to begin with, but skies had cleared by the time I reached the summit. Great viewpoint and I was feeling so good I took a rare selfie.

I foolishly thought that was the day cracked. What I hadn’t twigged was that the total ascent was 1,270m and the total descent was 1,833m and I had only done 400m of ascent. The secret of those figures is an awful lot of nasty little climbs and descents that took a toll on legs and feet respectively. I have been using fell running shoes for the trip. 3 pairs of them as they only last about 500 miles. They are wonderfully light and comfortable on anything other than rocky, stony ground, especially when descending. It seemed that today’s descents appeared to be all rocky or stony which made for slow and painful progress. Took 9 hours pretty much solid walking. (The 2 bananas didn’t take much time to eat). Temperature was fine and I spent a lot of the day in shade going through woods so didn’t feel too bad when I finished. Feet feel a little bashed.

The BnB is a bit quirky. I have about the largest room I have ever seen in a private building. A queen size bed and a single bed, settee and chairs, massive wardrobe etc all round the outside and a very high ceiling. Stuff for breakfast has been left in the corridor outside. I am guessing it is part of very old Pontremoli.

Out for dinner and just picked a pizzeria out of laziness. Trouble was the menu stated that all their pizzas are big enough for two. That doesn’t help the solo pilgrim. Turned out I could just order a half pizza which I did. Worst pizza I have ever had in Italy but the total bill including a litre and a half bottle of sparkling water was less than £10 so can’t really complain too much.Okumaya devam et