13th May 2016 Vetralla to Sutri
15 km in a car and 6.5km on foot
Mostly sunny but with wind
Roaming Roman roads with
Resolve
Respect
Reflection
Renders ramblers real renewal.
I received this overnight as an encouragement from my versifying friend. I was still undecided what to do but I didn’t want to stay in Vetralla another day…
A fellow came into the breakfast area wearing bright orange work clothes. I was excited to think that I might finally be meeting someone who worked on the roads…but no, he and a colleague were only laying optic fibre (but under the road!) to get better internet, so help for the poor wifi is at hand.
I had what passes for breakfast and was speaking to Valentina (granddaughter of Bernadetta) who offered to drive me further on so I asked if we could go as far as Capranica which was 15km (walking) down the road. I had read that the first 7.5 km of walking only took one off the road to a shrine just at the end of the “conurbation” of Vetralla! I thought that I’d try to walk 5.5 km from Capranica to Sutri (to test my knee) where I’d stay the night. I was a little sad but thought good sense should win out over pride (a lesson of the Via…)
She agreed and we set off. She offered to call for a hotel there, which she did, so I saw an Italian in action on the telefonino while driving… On the way we chatted and I heard about her life and the quite serious health problems she has and the difficulties she’s had getting treatment because hospitals are closing down and consequently that those remaining are overstretched. Finally I said that if the Italians didn’t have their positive outlook on life & weren’t accepting of sub-optimum conditions, they’d all be depressed. She laughed and said “imagine the Swedes if they lived here!” (as she had lived in Sweden for a while). I have met several younger people here, like Valentina, who have had to work in their parents’ businesses for lack of economic opportunity…how lucky I was in my working life during a time of full employment.
She left me at the entry to the old town of Capranica which was ideal and, after having a cappuch, I went straight into an alimentari to get a sandwich. The woman held the loaf to her chest and cut two precise slices with the knife going towards her – said she can’t cut it any other way. What skill.
I walked through the main street and at the other end I met a couple with two children and they were a German family doing the Via Francigena. The girl of 4 1/2 and the boy of 3 walk about 10 km in the mornings and then the parents pull them along for the rest of the day in a trolley they have! So one is never too old or too young for the Via.
I set off on a footpath and went past a little church of San Rocco (closed) as well as a fountain named after him.
Quickly onto a lovely forest road which was easy walking, first going uphill and then levelling out. It was very peaceful with bird calls. All the time I was trying to practise my best NW technique (we had a welcome refresher course of the technique in March from our teacher Catherine) with my hands flat and going way back, all to take pressure off the knees.
I came to a minor bitumen and walked along it. There were plantations of trees everywhere and it turned out, when I stopped to speak to a man tending some, that they were hazelnuts. He was from Tuscany and had come down for several days to tend the trees and was clearing the ground around their trunks. I asked about them and he showed me some nuts already forming where they had previously flowered.
He explained about their cultivation and care, resistance to the climate (it had been -2c early this morning as there is a particular climate in the area, and had recently been -20c), how they were harvested (they fall off the trees) and the different machines which help in this process, how they are sold to the local consorzio which has sophisticated machines to calculate a fair price irrespective of the condition of the nuts, and then sent off e.g. to Perugina (for their ‘baci’ chocolates) or to Switzerland etc. He laughed and said I now knew more about hazelnuts than his three sons (who are in Milan, Rome and overseas who aren’t at all interested) put together. I heard his life story, he is 77, and he used to run marathons…
I continued on for another couple of km to the historic town of Sutri and I was so relieved that my knee was fine. I was thinking that blisters go down the feeding chain when knee problems occur. I didn’t think about my blisters, which are nearly healed, all day. I was reflecting about pilgrims and thought of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and I wondered if any of those pilgrims had such physical ailments but, as my sister said, they were used to ‘walking everywhere’.
It started to rain as I arrived in the town, and rained on and off all afternoon. Not supposed to be much better for several days.
Sutri was known from the Bronze Age and had been Etruscan. It acquired military and political importance with the Roman conquest and from then was known as one of the most flourishing cities in Latium. As it is on the Via Cassia it was still important after the fall of the empire. There are many Etruscan and Roman archeological remains but I didn’t see them as it rained heavily and I thought I could see them as I left the town in the morning.
Through an arch into the old town, there is a lovely central piazza with a big fountain, many little shops further along the principal road of the town, and several churches.
I went to see the cathedral but it was uninteresting (converted to a Baroque style in the 18th century) except for the original Roman cosmatesco pavement in the nave.
Also saw the San Rocco church but it was being restored however it has no statue or reference to our favourite Saint. There were all sorts of different designs painted in white on several streets and it appears that this is for an ‘infiorita’ to celebrate Corpus Domini at the end of May. Each area of the town will cover the painted designs in their streets with fresh flowers, flower petals and leaves. I have seen this in the past and it is beautiful.
My dinner, at a restaurant recommended by the patron of the alimentari (“make sure you tell them I sent you”), was one of the best meals I’ve had yet.
Entree of rice with Jerusalem artichokes and fried globe artichokes (like a risotto) delicious!
Main of cod fish with prunes, apple, onions, pine nuts and sultanas – extra delicious!
Great mixed salad.
All washed down with water and red wine from the area. Replete and off to bed. Fortunately I had a little walk back to the hotel…
And my day, about which I had been so fearful, had ended so positively.