I am back on the Via Francigena since Sunday 3rd May 2015 & now feel that I can continue longer so will start to give you my news.
Last time you heard from the Via was in June last year so to fill you in I will first publish the walk of the first two stages which I did last August. I will then give you this year’s updates. So here goes…
“And in the beginning…” Here are my impressions from last summer when I slipped away in some finally (!) fine weather in August to the mountains to do the first two day’s walk (on the second half) of the Via Francigena up to and over the Great Saint Bernard Pass which snow had prevented me from doing in May, especially as my tendons were now well-healed & I was encouraged by the following lines from my versifying friend
Taut tendons
thwart
tireless trekkers
treading tricky
tracks
but…….
Toned tendons
taught
techniques
to tackle
taxing tracks
triumph!
5th August 2014 Bourg Saint-Pierre to Great Saint-Bernard Pass – 13.5km
This morning I took the 5.53am bus from home to catch 2 trains and a bus to arrive at Bourg Saint-Pierre at 9.20am to start my walk up to the pass. After a coffee and croissant & a trip to the local municipal centre to get my pilgrim passport stamped I set off on a beautiful morning (you need to know that the summer so far in Switzerland has been very mixed with lots of rain…). I started from 1600 metres altitude and was walking up to the pass at 2450 metres but what with ups and downs I was to walk up 1,100 metres in all. The mountains were spectacular and the path well-marked but unseasonally inundated with the recent rain-water. There were a couple of dams so I walked by two man-made lakes as I went up. One really has to look where one puts each foot so I was thankful to have my sticks to steady me as sometimes I was hopping from one stone to another. One great consolation was the wild-flowers of so many colours and sizes – fantastic! I saw some type of wild dark-red irises which I’d never seen in the mountains before among the whites, yellows, purples, pinks, blues in all tones, of other wildflowers. However, I have to admit that at one point I missed a sign and took a wrong path which became quite hairy but fortunately I met some local people coming down who had been up to see their animals (which are in the higher pastures for the summer) and they were able to set me straight which I was SO pleased about. At times I was a little parallel to the road up to the pass (only open from end May/early June until end September as after that cars have to take the tunnel from further down the mountain) and there were many cars taking it as well as the inevitable (moto) bikies who simply love roaring up mountain roads with all their curves…but also cyclists of all ages battling up and rolling down the curves.
After the final effort up to the pass with the last part over rocks which I thought quite hairy (it took me over 5 hours to do the walk with a couple of breaks for a drink & lunch & to look at the views & flowers) I arrived at the mythical Hospice which has existed here and been continuously open since 1050 AD to house pilgrims (the first Roman road was built in 12 BC although a track over the pass existed long before this). The Hospice is inhabited all year round by the Catholic friars (they are priests, not monks, who also minister to local communities, with lay volunteers in summer) and open for pilgrims or other visitors (who often arrive on skis or snow shoes in winter). I was warmly welcomed with hot tea and given the hours of all meals, religious services, etc. The big stone building of 5 floors is very cosy and welcoming (I have a lovely room under the roof all lined with wood and with a wash-basin while there are modern facilities of 4 showers with plenty of hot water, 6 toilets and 10 wash-basins just along the corridor for people on this floor) with a surprising church in Baroque style on the ground floor as well as a beautiful chapel in the crypt (where I attended sung vespers before dinner). The Saint-Bernard dogs are no longer used for rescues (although they are still bred here in summer) as they are too heavy to transport e.g. in a helicopter, and difficult to train so German Shepherds are now used instead.
I walked around the site which has a lake and a couple of other buildings on the Italian side of the border which is 100 metres from the hospice. There is a plaque outside describing how Napoleon crossed the alps in May 1800 with 46,000 men, animals, equipment, etc – what an incredible feat this must have been…and in the hospice is the monumental marble mausoleum of his favourite general, General Dessaix (who died in battle in 1800) which he, Napoleon, had had sculpted in Paris and then transported here in 1806 at much cost and effort so that “the alps would be his tombstone and the friars would be his guardians”… He commandeered 800 men to transport it here, with many lives lost – just imagining how they got the enormous blocks over the narrow rocky path to the top with vertiginous drops along it boggles the imagination, although when one thinks that Hannibal also crossed the alps (but not here) 2000 years earlier…
After a hearty 4 course meal at long tables in the dining room (at least 60 people with a couple of groups in other rooms) there was a superb concert of Russian music in the church by 3 musicians with 2 balalaikas and a Russian guitar. The musicians are part of a 31 day project of 9 musicians from around the world with the goal of walking from mountain hut to mountain hut each day in the Swiss, French and Italian alps, carrying their instruments on their backs, and giving a concert at night. They said that for the first 6 days (ours was the twelfth day) there was a double base player and an accordian player! And the guitarist was in bare feet as he had terrible foot problems… I met some interesting people at dinner including a French family with 3 young children (the eldest 12 year old was carrying a pack of 10kg and I learnt that the tent in which the 3 children slept weighed 2kg!) who had walked along the full Swiss section of the Via Francigena from Porrentruy in the Swiss Jura and were ending up two days hence in Aosta. I retired to my little room & climbed under the cosy eiderdown & slept like a log for 9 hours.
After getting my tendon & feet back in order I started out again last week (but didn’t want to advertise it until I was sure I could continue) and walked on the via for several days but then had to admit a (temporary) defeat when I had more feet problems. So would just like to update you as so many have written asking how I was, and to thank you for your support.
My versifying friend wrote:
Roaming Roman roads
really
reaps
rich rewards. (chpt 1:3)
So, in spite of this setback I feel I have reaped rich rewards as I had some more wonderful experiences. Am attaching my impressions and will send a few photos also. If you have the courage to read all this, get yourselves a good cuppa & a comfortable chair…
Day 10 via Francigena – back on the via!! 8.3km
Thinking that my tendon problem seemed to be progressing very well and my feet had healed, I decided to rejoin the “via” to try to continue my walk. I had gone through my pack and removed several things but it didn’t seem much lighter… So this morning I took an early train to Milan where I had lunch with friends & I then took the train on to Santhia from where I had taken the train home. I decided to walk on, just over 8 km, to San Germano Vercellese to try out my tendon on a small walk but it was in a heat wave (when my friends drove me back to the station in Milan the car registered a temperature of 34.5C…). I walked out of Santhia and right on the outskirts of the town was a San Rocco chapel – I could see the fresco of him through the scaffolding on the wall of the chapel which was in very poor shape & (hopefully) being renovated. Just after this junction the directions were not clear & I couldn’t see any VF signage so asked a little wiry older man working in a field nearby & he insisted that the town was just 5 kms down the straight (& very busy) main road. So when I said ‘no, I’d like to take the alternate path’ he insisted it was far too long & I should come down this track over the road & go over the railway line! I didn’t think this was a good idea ( and I just wanted clarification of which road I should take) but he insisted I come to see & all along the track he was chatting & laughing & remembering his ill-spent youth & saying he used to cross the railway tracks at 4am but I said “that was some years ago…” We got to the end of the track & of course there was a concrete barrier at the top of a little but steep incline (falling away to a canal at the side) where the railway track was, so I said “No” again but he was up the incline & literally hauling me up with my ruck-sack saying that we could see in both directions & there were after all only 2 tracks to cross (!) so off we went! Then on the other side I got directions as to how to get on the “via” again & the main landmark was the “cabina della luce” (literally the house of light which sounded lovely) so I asked what form this took & he said it was a square building! Then his friend came along the road towards us & said the same thing “go right at the ‘cabina della luce’ “. Eventually I found this landmark in my guide book translated as “brick electricity tower” but this doesn’t sound quite as good, does it? I was walking not far from the railway line and every time I saw a train speed by I shivered at the thought of my crossing the tracks. I was now in the heart of rice paddy country & it was most interesting to see the paddies up close with the canals and dykes running between them. I was worried about mosquitoes but a young man I’d spoken to on the train had said there weren’t many this year & when I told him I had an anti-mosquito bracelet he wasn’t impressed at all – “won’t work” he had declared but I will try it out tomorrow anyway.
The little pilgrim I was so pleased to see again after trying to rejoin the trail after crossing the railway lines…La cabina della luce!
Terrible hotel in San Germano – supposedly 2 star – but more like a Chinese doss house. However I met my first pilgrims in the cafe of the hotel. A couple of Dutch men who started walking 6 weeks ago in Rheims (in north-east France with a fabulous cathedral & which is the home of champagne). They had walked 900km and when I asked whether they’d had any foot problems they said “no” & “didn’t expect any now”… It was by my guide book exactly 777km to Rome from there.
Lovely anecdote with the taxi driver on the journey from the Milan station to my friends’ home when I commented on driving in the atrocious traffic & he replied that he doesn’t complain as it’s so much worse in Rome & Naples! Lesson in there for me…
Day 11 via Francigena – San Germano to Vercelli 22km
(Remind me to sleep through the 2nd day of my next pilgrimage…)
Poor breakfast & I went to the “alimentari” (grocery) to buy food & when I asked what the population of the very small town was, the woman replied only 1900 (was previously 3000) now with young people leaving but with “Maroccans, Roumanians and gypsies!” arriving. However workers were planting flowering plants outside the town hall which was a positive sign. Walked through all the rice paddies which were flat, flat, flat…but a beautiful apple green with water channels & dykes everywhere. There were many deserted farms. Lines of poplar trees reminded me of the magnificent film “The Clog Tree” which won the Golden Palm at the Cannes film festival in then 1970s. Many tree plantations everywhere, perhaps for wood?
At the outskirts of the next village (Cascina di Stra) there was a man working in his beautiful vegetable garden who offered me cool water on my way back from the only bar where I’d had a cappuccino (the owner had opened up for me and although it was with with curdled milk it was at least hot so pilgrims, like beggars, can’t be choosers!). A little further on there was a moving monument of a broken column to two young resistance fighters who were killed 2 weeks before the end of the war…
In the next village Montonero there was a resting place for pilgrims with a grassy space with a couple of trees, seats and a fountain.
Walking between the rice paddies was on “vie sterrate”, dirt roads covered with gravel, which, I think, are the worst surface for pilgrims!
I walked & walked & took a wrong turning for 1.5 km and when I was looking perplexed a local man stopped to tell me the path was further back & drove me there and when I thanked him he said “pray for me” so Vito will be in my “pilgrim’s” prayers this evening.
Arriving in Vercelli, It was very hot & I’d had enough & couldn’t walk another 3-4 km to the hotel & wanted a taxi. But none to be found so I asked a woman putting her recycling out to call one for me which she kindly did but it appears that the number in her phone was for a the taxi company in another city!! So I went into a bar where the woman called me a taxi – but by this time I was nearly fainting & he drove me to the hotel & then robbed me with a fare of €20 without a meter but… The owner of hotel drove me to town (lesson! In future get a hotel in the centre of town) & arranged for someone to bring me back after dinner. At a fruit & vegetable stall in the centre of the town I bought some fruit & tomatoes and asked a man (who really knew his fruit & vegetables) to recommend a restaurant and he walked me to a place with lovely traditional food which was closed until 7.30pm but a woman in a shop opposite told to ring the bell & reserve. So I went and walked around the pretty centre of the town & had a drink until 7.30 – it was an excellent traditional restaurant with very good service and a beautiful meal with the risotto speciality. It was just as well to reserve as the restaurant was set up for a meal for more than 50 people (mostly women) and as I left they were arriving & the noise level was going through the ceiling! Then I met “Matteo” who drove me back to hotel.
Of course, not having bandaged my feet with anti-chafing bandages, I had bad blisters again!!!
Day 12 via Francigena Vercelli to Robbio. 18.3km
From my hotel I walked 1km to rejoin the “via” – then through both rice paddies & corn fields. I am now using a set of “strip” maps which one can tear off with 2 stages, one on each side & very well done. The country is very flat. Before arriving in Palestra, on a little bridge over a dyke, there was a welcome board for pilgrims with a map of Palestra & its facilities, & also a sheet for pilgrims to fill-in with their names & where coming from & going to, nationality etc. For today I saw the names of the Dutch pilgrims I’d met in the terrible hotel two nights ago as well as an Irishman so there are apparently very few pilgrims along the way. The province of Pavia is very welcoming to pilgrims on the “via”! In Palestra I had a wonderful sandwich on focaccia made by the woman in the grocery store which I sat down and ate in the street.
Walking again, I checked with man on a tractor ( twice!) to make sure of the track as it’s so easy to get lost on these little tracks.
As I was walking into Robbio a car passed me & stopped suddenly and a man with a mop of grey curly hair got out & after ascertaining that I was a pilgrim asked me what I thought of the rice paddies & what struck me the most – when I replied that it was the flatness & the colour & that I knew nothing about how rice grows, he cried “water!” He said there were bores everywhere & then explained how rice grows. He said it would be harvested in July when “golden” (not “yellow”, as I’d asked!) and that rice grows like wheat with sheaves (I’d thought that the grains must be under the water). Upshot of all this is that he was fighting to get the rice-paddies listed as a Unesco world heritage site & when I told him about the Lavaux vineyards between Lausanne & Montreux which have been similarly listed, he took my arm & kissed it & then was off blowing me kisses from his car as he left…
The rice paddies answer to poppies & cornflowers – these little flowers were everywhere
When I got to town, no hotel as the only one there was being renovated so I walked to the town hall and was shown the free accommodation in a courtyard behind it where I met my Dutch pilgrims again & they invited me to share dinner with them (friends for 30 years they’d been planning this 3 month pilgrimage for 6 years, and accumulating enough leave to complete it) – salad with roasted chicken & potato salad followed by yoghurt with white wine, all from the supermarket…they both said they were the cooks in their families & their wives were missing them! Very nice evening. It was the first night of the soccer World Cup & I thought it might be noisy but I didn’t hear anything except chiming church bells….all night! I’d also gone out previously to buy a long-sleeved shirt as my arms were getting burnt – I don’t mind being a pilgrim but showing one’s age with wizened skin is another!
Blisters & feeling the Achilles tendon a little.
Day 13 – via Francigena – Robbio to Saint Alcuino abbey – 19.6 km
Started off earlier than normal as another heat-wave day predicted & what an interesting day it has been…
The dedication in my guide book is wonderful “For all those who begin their journey as a walker and end it as a pilgrim; and also to xxxx who helped me with several of my guidebooks.” What a difference in the two parts of the dedication but both are meaningful & today with all that has happened I might even become a pilgrim…
Through much of the same flat terrain with rice paddies and corn fields, dykes everywhere with some mosquitoes, windbreaks of poplar trees, small plantations of trees, and several farmers out on tractors working in the fields. Every village still has barking dogs. One of the best businesses in Italy must be that making the signs on every gate “Attenti al cane” (beware of the dog) as long as this business hasn’t been sent off-shore to China…
I started walking to the first village where in a cafe there was a very helpful woman (as everyone in this province seems to be toward pilgrims) who, after my cappuccino, said to go to the “chiesetta” (little chapel) to get my credenziale stamped & get fresh water from the fountain opposite. Started off again & when I arrived in next big village & asked some young people the way as I couldn’t see any more way signs I found out I was in the wrong village so somewhere along the dirt roads I must have missed a sign… All they could advise me was to walk 6 km along the busy main road to the small town I was looking for…but some gentlemen sitting outside a cafe over the road heard & advised me to go back to where I’d come from & take another dirt road which would avoid the main road.
This I did & with the help of another farmer on a tractor I was back on the right path & was so pleased to see the fresh traces in the dirt of my Dutch pilgrim friends’ boots. When I arrived in the next village I saw them again eating lunch & I continued on to the destination village where they caught me up & said they hoped to go to a pilgrim hostel. I said (modern pilgrim that I am) I’d go also if there was wifi (none the night before!) & they confirmed that there was. I telephoned to book & also to verify their reservation & the priest said “no problem”, but not to come until 3pm.
Real pilgrims – 1000km and counting…
So I looked for a place to eat something and asked a cook sitting on the step outside a pizzeria-restaurant with frosted windows & looking almost closed, where I could get a good sandwich. He shrugged me off a little & then said he’d make me one. When I went inside it was a very nice restaurant with three adjoining rooms & with at least 30 people eating! He asked me what I would like on the sandwich & I asked for some ham with grilled vegetables but then I saw the anti-pasti buffet & said I’d like some. “And not the sandwich?” he asked. So I said I’d have both. Upshot was that I had a beautiful selection of fresh marinated anchovies, fresh salmon marinated, grilled zucchini, grilled aubergine, cold spinach & salad as well as a beautiful sandwich, a quarter litre of white wine, water & cafe & when I asked for the bill it was a special price of €10 for everything ( I must really have looked like a pilgrim!). So after taking a photo with the chef and thanking him I set off for the hostel & saw a temperature of 37C registered outside a pharmacy at 3pm.
The lovely chef with the pilgrim he helped And delicious anti-pasti in my “pilgrim” lunch
On the way to the abbey several people stopped to ask how I was and one woman insisted on giving me two peaches & also wanted to give me cold tea, and another pointed me to a fountain for pilgrims… When I arrived at the abbey, the custodian said it was not possible to stay as there was a group of 14 pilgrims already booked into 10 beds & that the priest who “always forgets” had made a mistake & there was nothing else she could do. So I said “oh dear oh dear, what can I do?” & I said that the Dutch pilgrims who were also coming had tents & sleeping bags… Then the priest telephoned to say that 3 pilgrims would be coming…so she told him they had the other 14 booked in but then said “don’t worry I’ll manage”… So she went & got a foam mattress & pillow from her apartment & put them on the floor in the big entrance hall for me, put a chair next to the mattress for my pack, and went to the fridge and got me a big bottle of cold water! Eventually the 2 Dutch pilgrims & then the group arrived (4 accompanying people with 10 “hopefully” recovering alcoholics, although one had apparently found & drunk a bottle of alcohol the night before & had to be counselled by the priest…) & took up residence in the big dining-sleeping hall. I sat in the big wide hallway using the wifi and was the guardian of the mosquito net hanging over one door, asking everyone who went in & out to please close it properly as the huge mosquitos were everywhere! We were all served a good meal prepared by the custodian. We 3 asked for wine which she gave us but only with us sitting at the end of the big horseshoe table so as not to tempt the others… The board & lodging (including breakfast) were free but one was expected to give a donation if one could afford it! During the night there was a big storm but the Dutchmen survived in their tiny tents OK (after their satisfaction with the Dutch victory in their World Cup game). Also I had to get out my ear-plugs during the night as one of the group snored loudly enough to wake the dead!! And the custodian provided breakfast at 5.30am for the group & for we 3 at 7am. Altogether a very interesting experience although I went to bed with problem feet!
Day 14 – via Francigena. Saint Alcuino Abbey to Galasco. 20 km by train
As my feet were too sore to walk today I took leave of my Dutch friends this morning but tomorrow night I’ll be in Pavia (although I found an offer on-line for a 4 star hotel while they’ll be in a pilgrim’s hostel) so perhaps I’ll run into them again…
I walked 2 km to Mortara station (no ticket office open so I tried to purchase a ticket from the conductor on the train who had no change so she let me ride for nothing which will certainly not improve the Italian train system…) and I took the train to Galasco which is another of these very sad small towns which is on the decline because of the economic situation. A couple of different people said it mainly survives now on agriculture (corn fields & rice paddies all around) as the small factories around have all closed – I was told that there are lower & middle schools in the town but for secondary school all the students have to go to Pavia (20 km away) every day…
Not a pleasant day so I spent most of the day resting my poor feet & reading in the hotel lounge. The manager kept asking me if there was anything I’d like & provided free tea and nice biscuits. I ventured out for dinner near the hotel just as a horrific storm was starting & it was nice being inside eating a delicious meal while virtually all Hell was breaking loose outside, visible through big plate glass windows! Managed to get back later without getting too wet as the hotel manager had loaned me a very large umbrella!
Day 15 – via Francigena Garlasco to Pavia 20km by train
As I couldn’t walk again, I took the train to Pavia and the hotel manager offered to drive me to the station. Because the train station was also closed here I had to buy my train ticket at a newspaper shop on the way there (& as there was no machine to frank it at the station nor a conductor on the the local train, as I was getting out I gave it to the lady I had been speaking to on the train). Rainy morning but fortunately the hotel in Pavia was opposite the station (as I learnt when I asked a taxi driver to take me there!). This is a very old historic town of 75,000 people with an interesting historic centre which was founded in pre-Roman times.
This afternoon I took the train to visit the very old and magnificent Carthusian monastery about 8km outside the town. Absolutely huge and still home to an order of monks who give free guided yours. The outside was a symphony of white and in-laid green marble and sculptures. Sculpture, paintings & frescoes, inlaid marble, wooden marquetry all in abundance inside the building with a beautiful cloister adjoining and then a big second private cloister with all the individual monks’ cells around (no pilgrim accommodation here!). Back in the city I wandered around the old part of town & then I had an early evening drink in a piazza near the university before having dinner in a good local restaurant.
Carthusian monastery, PaviaPrivate cloister with monks’ private “cells”
One of the things which strikes me (& always has) about Italy is the communication between people – one always sees young & older people speaking warmly and patiently together or sitting around a table together not to mention all the groups of men one sees sitting together outside cafes or having meals together all in vivid discussion. People go out of their apartments to meet together!
This evening as I was sitting in one of the main squares of Pavia which is a (prestigious & very old) university town, so full of young people, I saw that there was a constant movement of people of all ages meeting friends for a drink then moving on which was lovely to see. I have seen no violence or drunk or drugged people in any of the places I’ve visited and walking back to the hotel at 10.30pm I had absolutely no reason to be afraid. Am wondering if the Italian tradition of “fare una bella figura” (cutting a fine figure or dash) means that people dress and behave in a more civilized way, even though in reading any newspaper one does read so much about corruption and crime…
Day 16 – Pavia to Geneva – by train & tram
So unfortunately, once again, my feet have forced me to be sensible & return home until I can find better shoes for walking long distances on difficult surfaces and carrying a heavy pack (if anyone knows the ideal brand of walking shoes for very narrow feet please tell me) to restart again next year. An old friend who also has problem finding adequate shoes wrote “So sorry to hear about the feet! I thought I was the only one who had problematic feet! Mind you I think our foot development hasn’t kept pace with our paving one i.e. evolution is having problems catching up with technology! Perhaps that’s it?”
For Australians, I must sound like the Nellie Melba of the pilgrimage trail. I regret not continuing but one has to accept what happens – as my wise Egyptian friend says “life is what happens to you when you are busy planning it”. However I feel I’ve really had some wonderful “pilgrimage” experiences and challenges as well as a little time to reflect on my life now & in the future. I can really recommend the walking experience.
Arrivederci from the “via”until next spring perhaps.
