Viterbo and Lunch in a Palazzo

What luxury! Not packing in the morning! Almost like not living out of a suitcase.

Breakfast was an average of what is becoming typical, and by 9 we were walking around the emptier old city. The highlight was a marble pulpit built in 1242 for St Thomas Aquinus that still stands outside a grand old church, which had frescoes from the 1340s.

We met Adam at the Porta Romana, and he drove to his house in a nearby village. It is light, bright and large, with amazing views over plains to some distant volcanic hills. He and Elisabetta then drove us to a restaurant (Palazzo Pretoria) in another nearby village (Vignanello). It was an old palazzo built in the 1500s for the Pope's entourage when he visited the enormous church beside it... and the popes often came because on the other side was an old castle, Castella Rispoli, complete with drawbridge. Centuries later, it still belongs to and is lived in by the same once-influential, princely family, the Rispolis, but it and its Renaissance garden (best in Italy) are open to the public.

Lunch was bruschetta with marinated eggplant, pasta with a very light, tomato-based ragout, wild boar with chestnuts, beef with mushrooms, then marinated chestnuts in cream. "If it's not simple, it's not good Italian food", Elisabetta said, and this was both (relatively) simple and (very) good.

Back in Viterbo (c 20 mins) there was a stop at a famous gelato shop where customers queued by number. We agreed our route for the next day and arranged where and when to meet Adam, then walked around more of the old town. It is allegedly the largest preserved medieval town in Italy, but the locals are grateful that most tourists stay in Rome.

A very light dinner in comparison (water, beer and pizza) in a busy little caff.

Only 13,842 steps, 10.3 kms and 3 flights. It feels like we're cheating. 22km at least tomorrow, to Vetralla, including perhaps the church that is officially 100km by foot from Rome.Read more