Reset search
Alison KellyAlison Kelly
SatelliteEdit route
Laughter, wine, good food and great company is where I am at. You can find me seeking these treasures out along Camino Trails every couple of years. I will be the last to rise and the slow moving one at the back of the pack with a smile on my face. Read more Australia
  • TravelerVia di Francesco 2024
    Day 14

    Camaldoli to Badia Prataglia

    April 30 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Staying at Casa Vacanze da Mary
    We taxied today, my foot is not up to the ascents and descents through the forest. The drive was beautiful though and we are so high up in the mountains! I can’t wait to breathe in the fresh mountain air when we get to our destination. Badia Prataglia is a stunning mountain village with breathtaking views, friendly people, good food and lovely wine. We settle in at a couple of bars for the morning, before visiting the church and I then spend the rest of the afternoon resting my foot. At dinner we meet some lovely local Italians and a very informative Aussie that moved here in 1988. We also caught up with Stephana and Marta, a mother and daughter walking from Florence to La Verna, they are from Poland, and this is the 3rd day we had bumped into them. Well that’s about it for today. I hope you all have a lovely day! 🤗
    Ps. Today I had the best hamburger I have ever had in Europe.    Read more

  • TravelerVia di Francesco 2024
    4
    Day 13

    Valagnesi to Camaldoli

    April 29 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Staying at Foresteria del Monastero di Camaldoli
    9.72km 508m
    We head off from Valagnesi at 8:30am, it looks to be a beautiful day and my jacket will soon be coming off. We have a little bit of bitumen road walking to start us off, but soon we are in the Casentino Forest winding our way up the Tuscan hills, we are following the gpx tracks associated with our guidebook and today it seems we are guaranteed the steepest most ruggered tracks. The last 3km are all down hill and it takes us quite some time to carefully negotiate our way down safely into Camaldoli. The views have been amazing, the forest absolutely stunning, and hearing the bird life and the frequent waterfalls has just added an extra layer of beauty to our journey today. As soon as we are in Camaldoli we are greeted by Andrea from Locanda Baroni Risturante. He offers us a seat and we spend the next hour enjoying some fabulous tuscan food and drink. We then go to check into our accommodation for the night, in the process I stupidly rush around not concentrating on my footing and fall down twisting my right ankle in the process and scrapping my left knee. We get checked in and I go to my room and rest for the next few hours, hoping that when I wake up my foot will have stopped hurting and throbbing and all will be well again, but this is not to be. Ann and George have now become my own personal angels that help me along and support me with my injury. We have dinner back at our Ristaurante with Andrea and Lorraine, they are such happy, helpful and welcoming people, nothing is too much bother and they make us and everyone else in this establishment feel at home. After another beautiful meal we call it a night, we have had a big day of ascents and descents and our bodies are going to thank us for some extended rest. Goodnight all 🤗Read more

  • TravelerVia di Francesco 2024
    2
    Day 12

    Stia to Valagnesi

    April 28 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Staying at Casa di Adele
    10.10km 463m
    Another day walking in Tuscany, we are off to Valagnesi, a small quiet hamlet high up in the hills. We have our breakfast, check out of our accommodation and head off, luckily we come across a small grocery store and buy some pasta, pasta sauce, plain chips and some breadsticks, knowing that our destination is remote, it’s Sunday and there is a good chance that we won’t have any other options for lunch and dinner today. Our walk out of Stia is lovely and before we know it we are on country roads, surrounded by greenery, the sound of birds and rural noises. We basically start climbing straight away and our views only get more beautiful with every step we take. There is only one town between Stia and Valagnesi on our route today and we are very pleasantly surprised when we arrive at Lannano and there is a trattoria open, we are able to get something to drink, take our packs off, sit down and use the facilities, this makes all the difference. We then push on and are soon on the hardest part of our walk - a goat track weaving up, down and around a mountain. We take our time, and although it is muddy and hard in places, it’s a beautiful trail and so much cooler under the protection of the trees. After we get to the 9km mark we are off the goat track and back on the road again, winding up the mountain with little protection from the sun. In another 1km we will make it to our destination for today. We are staying in a 2 bedroom house and it is just perfect, our host Mary is just lovely and shows us round our home for the night. George lights the fires in this beautiful but rather cold stone house and we all sit down, eager to get off our feet and relax awhile….Read more

  • TravelerVia di Francesco 2024
    1
    Day 11

    Consuma to Stia

    April 27 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Staying at Albergo Falterona
    We drifted off to sleep last night to the sound of laughing pilgrims from Germany, they are eating their dinner and having a fabulous time! They’re a lovely big group of 8 who are also walking the Way of St Francis.
    We wake this morning, get ready and head down to the bar for breakfast, as we step outside, the cold morning air hits us in the face, there is also a thick, heavy mist to accompany this cold April morning. We finish breakfast and head back to our Albergo, Luca is there and advises us not to walk today, with the current weather and recent rain, Luca says that the forest trail is too slippery and dangerous. We heed his advice and he drives us to Stia, giving us a guided tour along the way and filling us in on some of the history of this area. By the time we get to Stia the mist has lifted slightly and we can imagine just how beautiful this area is when you can see the views on a clear day. We book into our accommodation for the night and head off to have a look around. George gets himself a new jacket that he absolutely loves, it is a puffer jacket and is lighter and warmer than his previous one. We have lunch at a lovely little restaurant and get to dine in the presence of a large Italian family where we make fast friends with the Nonna, we also met a man from Colorado, who has bought the castle in this area and has moved his young family here. His children (young boy and girl) are now almost fluent in Italian and are very happy here in Stia. After lunch we head back to our room for an afternoon rest before heading to the Museo dell’ Arte della Lana. I have gotten my timings wrong and we are unable to go in, we were all looking forward to this and feel a bit disappointed. As we walk past the church the bells are tolling and people are heading inside, we decide to join them and attend our first Italian mass, although the mass is in Italian the order of the mass is still the same, this makes it easy for us to follow along. We meet up with George after mass and go in search of dinner, we end up at a pizzeria and the food is delicious. We then head back to our Albergo ready for bed. Goodnight all. 😊    Read more

  • TravelerVia di Francesco 2024
    1
    Day 9

    Pontassieve to Diacceto

    April 25 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Staying at Un Altro Pianeta
    6.93km 398m
    We wake up this morning feeling 100% better than when we arrived yesterday afternoon, our bodies have had time to rejuvenate and heal overnight. Today we only have a 6km walk with a 400 metre elevation gain. It will be a steady climb to Diacceto and WOW what a beautiful introduction and walk in the Tuscan hills, it’s absolutely stunning! The weather is a bit cooler and quite refreshing (perfect walking day really) we take our time breaking frequently to admire the views and take in our surroundings. Today we have seen Rosemary, dill, mint, poppies, dandelions, olive trees, grapevines, daffodils, irises, thistles and numerous other wild flowers and foliage that I don’t know the names of. We arrive in Diacceto and find a friend - a young Italian boy (around 8 years old) riding his scooter, he ended up chaperoning us to our accommodation, he didn’t speak any English but was entertaining us with his fast footwork and ticks on his scooter. We book in at our accommodation, enjoy some drinks in the garden and then head back to our room to shake down our backpacks, we need to permanently get rid of weight, if we wish to continue walking the way of St. Francis.Read more

  • TravelerVia di Francesco 2024
    1
    Day 8

    Florence to Pontassieve

    April 24 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Staying at Sosta al Capitano
    20.86km 348m
    We wake up early, Ann is not feeling the best today, but is going to soldier through. We leave our accommodation at 8:20am and head to George, he is going to sort his luggage transfer out while we have a cappuccino and a ham, cheese and tomato croissant. We then start heading out of Florence on our first walking day. We go via the Santa Maria Croce, and get a pilgrims stamp as this is the beginning point of the Way of St. Francis. Our walk today is one of the flattest on this Camino, it is 18.9km to Pontassieve and although our backpacks are heavy, we are pretty excited. The novelty wears off by the time we get to our first town/stop, I have my first glass of 1€ Vino Rosso and half a ham and cheese toastie. We then get back on trail, from here it is our first climb and boy o boy I am feeling it! There is no where to rest or sit between here and Sieci and by the time we get there, Ann and I are both pretty broken. Our packs are not sitting right or don’t have enough padding and we still have nearly 5km to go. We head out of town and have a lovely dirt road to walk on for the next little while, but then we come to some roadworks that will take us of path and divert us up through the end of a vineyard, we all end up with muddy shoes. By the time we make it to Pontassieve, I can barely walk, everything is arching and I just need to get to the end point for today. We finally arrive, we book in and then shower and rest for a while before meeting George for some dinner and wine at a local pizza joint. Dinner does not disappoint, our pizza’s are full of flavour and the wine goes down a treat too. We walk back to our accommodation and fall into bed, exhaust and buggered, we shall sleep well tonight. Good night all!Read more

  • TravelerVia di Francesco 2024
    Day 7

    Florence

    April 23 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Staying at Emerald Palace Family Hostel
    Woohoo!! Finally Ann’s backpack has been delivered to our accommodation and just in the knick of time! Mine is still sitting at the Fiumicino Airport, chillin’ in the lost and forgotten luggage room, never to be processed or seen. We head out to decathlon so I can get a backpack and the essentials for this trip, Ann has also loaned me some of her clothes and George has gifted me some gloves. We are now on track to walk out of Florence in the morning. George and I find a nice little restaurant, enjoy our last Italian meal in Florence accompanied by a bottle of fiasco wine! The last time George had this type of wine was in 1973, it was lovely. We finish dinner and head back to our respective lodgings for the night, eager to start the Way of St. Frances tomorrow. 👣Read more

  • TravelerVia di Francesco 2024
    2
    Day 6

    Florence

    April 22 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    We are up early this morning as we have a 12 hour bus tour of Siena, San Gimignano and Pisa. My favourite part of today though was the lunch at the vineyard, our hosts were really entertaining and fun. The food and wine were amazing, I could have just settled in here all afternoon. It is late when we get back to our accommodation and we basically fall into bed, it’s been a big day, but a really good one.Read more

  • TravelerVia di Francesco 2024
    Day 5

    Florence

    April 21 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    We are meeting George at 8:45am, we have a tour booked of the Pitti Palace, Palatine Gallery and Boboli Gardens at 9:15am. It is quite cold as we leave our accommodation, but the sun slowly starts shining its rays upon us and parts of the street as we walk. We cross over the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge, the shop traders are no where in sight and we basically have the bridge to our selves. We take this opportunity to snap a few pictures then continue on our way. Our tour guide does a fabulous job, explaining the history of this amazing palace, the gardens and Florence it self. Our tour wraps up after 3 hours and it’s now time for some lunch. We find a lovely ristorante in the piazza and settle in with amazing food, beautiful wine and great company. Once lunch is done I spend some time shopping for some essentials, the amount of tourists here is insane and I dread to think what it’s like in the summer months. I find all that I need and head back to our accommodation to work on finding my backpack and updating my diary. The rest of the afternoon flys by, before I know it, it’s time for dinner and again the food here does not disappoint. After a long enjoyable dinner, we head our separate ways and call it a night. We are all still adjusting to the time difference.Read more

  • TravelerVia di Francesco 2024
    Day 4

    Florence

    April 20 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    We wake at around 10:30am, still feeling groggy and not quiet right, but we need to change the trajectory of this adventure and get to having some fun, eat some amazing Italian food and soak up some history of this beautiful city, Florence! But first we meet up with our friend George, he comes to our room and it’s so good to see him, he hasn’t changed a bit since I saw him nearly 2 years ago. From here we head outside and are hit in the face with the cold and rain, we quickly retreat back into the corridor and we head to reception to ask for an umbrella. We are now prepared for the outdoors. We are going on a wine window walking tour that ends up being just the 3 of us and Chiara, our tour guide. Chiara takes us to various wine windows through out the center of Florence, explaining the history of these holes in the walls, and the part they have played over the centuries, at the end of the tour we are able to order a wine through one of these windows then go down into the cellar to drink it and enjoy some beautiful Italian food. What a fabulous first day in Florence, the vibe is great, fun, friendly and safe. We have a relatively early night tonight as we are still adjusting to the northern hemisphere. So I will leave it here.Read more

Join us:

FindPenguins for iOSFindPenguins for Android

  • 2024© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Blog
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Support
  • Legal notice
  • English