25th May 2015 Altopascio to San Miniato Basso (should really have gone to the older part of the city up in San Miniato Alto but didn’t know it also had a hostel)
25km
Beautiful day, quite hot
Shorter version:
Up & away early (for me) and went to local bar for a tea then set off, walked well along main road then onto tracks for several km into Galleno, Ponte A Cappiano, then through fields to Fucecchio and then into SanMiniato Basso. All well.
Longer version:
Slept very very badly (am not used to sharing with so many pilgrims…) and was the last to leave the hostel then went to the local bar for a tea to eat with my bread (was robbed at €2 for a tea…without a receipt) and then set off before 8h00, hopefully before it was too hot. Straight out on the main road walking past a little abandoned San Rocco church and on for 5km (there was mostly a foot-path) until I veered onto a dirt and then an old Roman road into Galleno where I stopped for a cappuch in a Circolo bar (this was the bar of a sport association so is cheaper) and the girl wished to stamp my credenziale which I accepted.
Then I saw ahead of me the Italian couple with whom I had shared a room in the hostel so they became today’s “Romanians” (but ahead of me this time) as we walked over 5km of paths which were not difficult but slippery because of previous rain. I kept them in sight all the way. When we came out onto a tarred road I decided to stop paying the premiums of my insurance policy and slowed down a little…and thought of the expression ” chi va piano va sano” and was very attentive to the path. Then over tarred roads and paths until I arrived in Ponte A Cappiano which is a charming little village (where I bought a great sandwich and a carrot in the little “alimentari”) and sat next to a fountain to eat my carrot before deciding which route option to take. The village has an interesting bridge (built and destroyed many times in battles) which is half open and then covered (with people living on it) and which is one lane wide, for local traffic passing via traffic lights, and only meant for small vehicles as the access is very narrow.
The map option went straight down a road to Fucecchio (2.7 km against on-coming traffic and which path would ignore the old town) whereas the guide book and the waysigns indicated turning to walk along a canal and through fields (to get one off the road) which would be 5 km to arrive in the heart of the old town so I chose the latter but was really tired of walking through quite high grass when I finally got into the limits of the little town. I stopped in a modern wine-bar place (which had comfortable chairs outside in the shade) and had a tea and ate my sandwich. I saw flags flying everywhere and learnt that there had been a Palio (a horse race like in Sienna where each area of the town has a candidate but where all forms of cheating seem to be accepted…) the previous day.
I walked up through the narrow medieval streets to the old town which dominated the rest of had town. Very pretty place but this was where pilgrim Charles had advised me to avoid the hostel…
Then I walked down to the modern area and walked out of town and crossed the Arno River which runs through Florence.
No photo of the Arno which was a very dirty river…
It seems that Fucecchio was formerly a river port as the Arno was navigable as far as Pisa in the middle-ages. From here I had to walk along the road for a few km until I arrived at the small hostel in San Miniato Basso.
MThe Italian couple (who had been my “Romanians” earlier on) arrived to share the one-room hostel, which was attached to a medical day clinic and a day centre for old people. While I went to the local bar after a shower to get internet access they walked up the main road to visit San Miniato Alto and said the traffic was horrendous as they didn’t know there was another path up which we would take in the morning – there really is an advantage in having some idea of where one is going as they have come to walk for a week (Lucca to Sienna) without any guide or maps and just intend following the waysigns…
When I returned to the hostel the man who has been instrumental in setting it up and who has walked the Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome, and who leads groups for partial Via walks, came with certificates for each of us saying we had passed through there. He also told me that there is a mass at St Peters with the Pope each Wednesday for pilgrims (so a thought if ever I were to go that far…). I had a nice fish meal in a local cafe and then an early night hoping I’d sleep better than the previous night.