Viterbo to Vetralla

A great day's walking.

Our bags were out before 8am as the next five days are ones we have arranged ourselves ie accommodation and bag transport. We wanted to be sure the bag-pick-up worked, as we had new labels, each day's payment has to be in an envelope, and we needed to tell our B&B when we might arrive.

We met Adam at 9 at the same gate and headed down paved roads and out of the town (pop. c 65,000). It was warm but overcast, and Adam walked at our pace, so all was good. After the manor houses and gardens on the edge, we were in woods and orchards, and comfortable trails for the rest of the day.

Around 11:30, as bells were ringing, we reached San Martino al Cimino, a tiny hamlet dominated by a gigantic church and monastery. It has a 12th C abbey, with giant 17th C belltowers. We stopped at the cafe for a coffee (Adam initiative) after noting the giant chestnut roasters in the street, and the bells let loose just as we stepped out at noon.

Then three hours easy walking through old olive groves and chestnut woods, past a 2nd C BC Etruscan/Roman water storage cistern, an equally old bridge support, and then the find of the day: the Church of Santa Maria in Forcassi. Buildings existed in 200BC as it was on an major cross-road, Charlemagne gifted the land to a Lombardian family in the 8th C, a church was built in the 10th-11th C, and remodelled in the 1400s. The monks who owned it were linked to the Knights Templar, and the 11th C frescoes are the same images as in Malta. The church wasn't used after the 19th C, and was a ruin until some 35 years ago, when a new roof was put on and the mess cleared up. It is not symmetrical and this year (!) they found - by chance - that at dawn on 21 June (summer solstice), the light through the round and vertical windows on the east side of the church shines on Jesus and the sun in the main fresco, and on the holy water font, and that the evening sun casts a shadow shaped as a fish through an oddly shaped rosette on the west. It is all couched in terms of archeoastronomy, and given the church's shape and orientation, they knew what they were looking for, but it seemed more like a real-life Da Vinci Code.

It was nearly 4pm when we reached Vetralla, a town that has minimal attraction according to the locals. We stopped in the small square between the cathedral and town hall, and a man walked over and asked if we were staying in his B&B... which overlooked the same tiny square. He had been expecting us around then, and had already put our bags in the very large, comfortable, and stylish apartment. Adam's wife picked him up at 4:15, promising to return him to the same square at 9am tomorrow. I went hunting for a shop with milk for tea - late Sunday afternoon in rural Italy is not great for shopping, but a cafe had some - and we relaxed with rarities like a large bathroom, sofas and tables.

The owner recommended a "Pinseria" for dinner. Rectangular pizzas. It was 200m down the deserted road, and very good. One table of people other than us... and probably the town's only open restaurant.

35,220 steps, 28.1 km and 48 flights, but it felt like a very easy day. Tomorrow is some 24km from start to finish of the trail between towns, so about the same as today, and the forecast says it will rain overnight and be sunny tomorrow.Read more