Massa 19 miles

About the only downside to having an apartment rather than a room or just a bed in a dormitory is it gives you more places to put your stuff. And in the morning you need to get hold of all that stuff again. Moving on every day for over 80 nights gives plenty of scope for leaving all sorts of useful things. This morning I nearly made the basic error of not pulling back the bedcover. The problem arises when you are alone in a double bed as has frequently been the case in this walk. Things get dumped on the unused half of the bed. The cover ends up over them and you never notice. Disaster avoided this morning but only just.

This morning I discarded a specially bought, but hardly used, bottle of shaving oil. I thought it would be a relatively light way of taking something to help shave. But actually I much prefer using whatever shampoo or soap is around and I’m not continuing to carry anything that isn’t needed. Might be worth going through everything just in case there are other bits and pieces I can discard.

I have had to buy more suntan lotion as 2 x 300ml bottles have proved not quite enough. Was in a discount supermarket and scoured the shelves looking for it. None to be seen. Ended up in a chemist. Couldn’t see any. Asked the assistant who went to the bottom drawer of a cupboard and rummaged about, finally bringing out a choice of two. I asked if Italians don’t use such stuff. She laughed and said “not now, maybe next August”. Still seems pretty hot to me. There aren’t many days I think I can get away without a liberal smearing over any exposed flesh.

Pretty straightforward day’s walking. Seemed to be in urban area just about all day. Only problem with that is if one decides to offload last night’s pizza. Bears and pilgrims may happily go in the woods but in amongst houses doesn’t seem quite right somehow. Luckily, I came upon a cafe and just had to have the second chocolate croissant of the day as an excuse for using their loo. Not sure how healthy they are but they do give a nice boost of calories.

In a municipal hostel tonight. Bit like a youth hostel but no pretence to just cater for youngsters. Single rooms but shared bathrooms. Only 25€ so probably ideal for me. A huge step up from dormitories but still half the price of apartments/BnBs/hotels.

The hostel is very central, on one of the main squares even, which makes my drying clothes (first floor window, above the flag in the photo) a bit more visible to the public in the cafes below. I just wish they would all go home now as it’s 10pm and I need my beauty sleep.Read more