24th May 2015 Lucca to Altopascio
16.36km (the book & map agreed on 16.4/16.5 Hooray!)
Beautiful brilliant morning but slowly clouding over & now starting to rain at 14h00 as predicted)
Shorter version:
Left Lucca about 8h45 and out through a city gate and walked to Capannori for a cappuch stop, then on to Porcari (where I saw a strange event but you’ll have to read longer version for details), on via small roads & tracks to Badia di Pozzeveri and on into Altopascio (walking under both a railway line and the autostrada at the very entry to the old city!). All going well.
Longer version:
After a good breakfast, I set out through the almost deserted streets of Lucca but saw several walkers and runners doing the circuit of the town atop the in-tact walls. This really is a beautiful and perfect little city, especially on a Sunday morning with very few people around. Outside the walls I set off on a provincial road called Via Romana so at one time this might have been a main road towards Rome. It was lovely to walk on such a brilliant morning in a mainly residential area of houses and gardens. Roses, roses, everywhere as well as other flowers & shrubs (gorgeous rhododendrons and azaleas).
Along the way I saw interesting decorative earthenware tile work on the sides of houses and other buildings which resembled what had been in the walls of old farm buildings to let the air through. Most attractive.
I turned off onto a smaller road until Capannori where I decided to stop for my coffee. Just before getting to the bar an older woman walking along the street stopped me & when I asked her how she was she explained that she’d had a severed tendon but was too old for an operation (she’s 85) but she just hoped il Signore would look after her – I encouraged her to keep walking as she was. Went onto a nice bar & ordered a coffee when little Anna, all dressed in white for her First Communion, & her family came into the bar to say Hello on their way to the church 100m further on.
Sat outside and a couple of women sat down at my table and questioned me about what I was doing etc & they will now have a subject for conversation around the Sunday lunch table!
Tried to record the church bells calling the faithful to the communion service but don’t know if it’s hearable as I was a little way away & there was traffic. And there were many many people standing outside the church to greet all the communicants when they came out of the church hall where they had been assembled prior to the service.
Continued along main provincial road to Porcari and as I entered this small town I was amazed to see almost every person (& there were many people) carrying square packs of 8 toilet rolls. When I asked someone why, I was told that there was a foot race (2000 people of all ages over three different distances) and the gift for participating was a packet of toilet rolls! How original and also very practical!
Had a good cup of tea in a pastry shop which made its own gelati but I wasn’t tempted…
Continued on towards Turchetto where I went off the main road onto a small road then on beautifully-made tracks through woods to the old dilapidated Romanesque Abbadia di Pozzeveri which looks like it might be being restored. There was a cemetery beside it where some flower sellers were closing up for the day. Several signs on the cemetery gates about people who rob the flowers from the tombs… Then I was on a wide flat paved (with small earthen-ware bricks) footpath all the way into Altopascio but realised afterwards that this would be a bicycle track also. I had to go under a railway bridge and then under the autostrada which ran right through the city just outside the old town(!!).
Went into a bar where the lady telephoned to the man who was to let me in to the converted municipal building where 10 people could sleep in bunk beds but with only one bathroom with a very badly-installed toilet and shower… The man letting us all in said “passports, credenziale, and donation!”. The 10 beds are full so one really has to reserve. Quite a to-do with the bathroom with 3 Italian men walkers one of whom is very aggressive – hope I don’t run into them too often…
Altopascio is situated between two very large marshlands and the town developed around its medieval ospedale (after Sigeric’s time). I sat in the piazza in front of the hostel with the Romanesque bell tower over the other side of the square and listened to its famous bell La Smarita (‘the lost’) toll about 16h50 (?) as it used to do to summon pilgrims lost in the mists of the swamps! Weather quite changeable and cool.
I wandered around the small town centre to the church and a service was about to start (18h00) for Whit Sunday. The church was full & it was pleasant to be there with so many church-goers and to listen to the music and singing.
I went to a local restaurant for a so-so dinner after the service & had an early night as all the other pilgrims are in bed at 9pm & I have to be away early in the morning.
