Palagina

Last night, we did our laundry and then went out for supper. There was a place called the B&B Spaghetti House right across the courtyard. In Italy, as in Spain, restaurants don't serve supper until 8 pm. We went in and were told it was too early for supper.

We decided to order a glass of wine, and the server asked us if we'd like some prosciutto ham, too. It was served with warm bread. The server sliced the ham for us, and it was good and salty. The chef arrived and asked where we were from. We introduced ourselves, and he commented it was early in the season for pilgrims.

After talking to the server, he came over and said it would be OK to eat early ( I guess we looked really hungry). Phil ordered the fresh pasta with Tuscan ragu (a meat sauce with tomato), and I ordered the pirata, which is pasta with a sauce made of oil, olives, red pepper, and tomatoes. Both were delicious, and we were very hungry. Then Phil ordered some kind of dessert with chocolate sauce. Again, it's very tasty!

It rained all night and was still raining when we left. It rained and even hailed on us little. We were walking through a park-like area and came upon some fallen trees and a stream that was flooding. My guess is that normally, you can just step across, but this was too wide, swift, and deep for that now.

We had to bushwack across a field and wade through more water. I detoured to what looked like a farm road, and soon we were wading uphill through the running water.

We finally reached a town and were sad to see with all the detours and flooding, we'd walked only 2 miles in 2 hours. We went into a bar and ordered coffee and pastries. A nice lady who was glad to see American Pilgrims paid our tab.

Then back out in the rain with ponchos on. I was able to route us to a quieter side road, but there was no shoulder to walk on, so it was dangerous even with the rural traffic.

We stopped in the next town for coffee again with 4 miles to go. It was either walk through natural areas that were flooded or walk on the busy main highway. Of course, it was still pouring down rain...

I checked online, and there was supposed to be a bus at 2:18 pm to the town we needed. We waited, and as we were leaving, the bar maid told us to come back if the bus didn't work out, and she would help us find a ride. In the afternoon the bar was filled with older men playing cards. One walked out with us, and I think it was telling us it was too dangerous to walk on the road.

We waited patiently in a downpour. It was getting colder, and when the bus arrived, I could not figure out how to pay at the side door. The bus lunched forward anyway, and I walked to the front seat. I tried to tell the driver where we needed to go, and since we were the only people on the bus, he dropped us as close as he could and reassured me that it was a small town. I tried to pay our fare, but he just waved me off and said good luck.

We are now thawing and drying out in our little room for the night. We have a heater and even a heated towel rack in the bathroom. It is supposed to stop raining and be sunny tomorrow. Fingers crossed. There are no photos today except last night's dinner due to the driving rain and hail all day.Read more