Day 20: Fornovo di Taro to Cassio

A, hard, but magnificent day of walking (23.08 km). I took it as slowly and as easy as I could as well as taking lots of breaks. Unfortunately, the first 13 km was all road walking - consistently upwards (from 158m at Fornovo to about 450m). The road walking then changed to a rocky mountain track and gave some very welcome shade. Over the course of the next part of the walk, I rose to almost 900 (887m), but, as you know, what goes up must come down, and so I climbed and descended a number of times to settle at 815m at Cassio. I have finally walked in a forest, hence the use of the word magnificent! I've seen a lot of push bikes and motorbikes today - the mountain roads attract them. I did not see one pilgrim as I walked, but the two French pilgrims I was with last night are here with me tonight, as well as six additional French pilgrims! As wonderful as todays walk was, the thrill of the day was coming upon a death match between a lizard and a snake! I thought the lizard was done for, but as I edged past them on the narrow path, the lizard broke free and the snake chased after it (thankfully in the opposite direction) - both were very fast!Read more