San Gemini

It was another terrific day of walking (24.68 km) today. It started with blue skies, a nice cool morning, then the clouds came over and there was a light rain for a few hours - my perfect walking weather. I'd left around 7 a.m. as I wanted to play tourist and visit Cascata delle Marmore (a series of cascading falls engineered by the ancient Romans). It was well worth seeing. They make quite a show of it: the water flows constantly through the main falls and then at 10 a.m. on a Sunday (usually 11 a.m. every other day) they perform what they call a "drop" and release an ever increasing amount of water over the falls until it comes down like a torrent! It was spectacular! Almost all of the Way followed the Greenway del Nera (a river) - just lovely. Then I experienced a Camino Angel; unfortunately, I managed to lose one of my rubber pole stoppers down a drain at the Cascata and within five km of leaving the falls, I encountered a German pilgrim (Kirsten), going to Rome, who had a spare rubber " just for you". I was so grateful, I hate the clack, clack, clack of the pole on the rocks and road. In return , I promised him that I would visit a nun in La Verna; Angela - for whom he has great affection. The walking was mostly flat after the climb down for the falls, but the landscape is surrounded by mountains and very appealing. My second pilgrimage magic happened at Ferentillo; I'd just moved away from the locked church door when the priest arrived and was able to stamp my credential! What an awesome day!Read more

Visited the highest man-made waterfall in the world today. Created in Roman times by diverting a river over a cliff. Used to provide power but now a tourist attraction. The stream is diverted twice a day at 11 and 3 for 2 hours at a time so prior to diversion there is just a trickle but after it is very impressive. Various viewpoints with 600 steps to the top, made harder by most of Italy and their dogs and children being here.Read more