Day 9 Gambassi Terme to San Gimignano

348 kms to Rome
13.4 kms walked today
184.7 kms walked so far
I think fatigue has caught up with me.
This morning I seemed to have no energy. We had a very short day and it should have been a breeze. My ten blisters did not help. I have decided to retain my personal physician for the rest of the trip.
San Gimignano is a pleasure to visit. Car are banned from the old town and there are many little alleyways on either side of the main two thoroughfares​.
I'll let the photos tell the story.

Still smiling

Day 8 San Miniato to Gambassi Terme

372 kms to Rome
23.6 kms today
171.3 kms walked so far.

We left at about 8 on a day with no bars for 20kms and a maximum of 32.
The rolling hills of Tuscany are very beautiful, when you aren't overheated and trudging uphill.

It is all about shade. You cross cross roads to be in shade. We picnic'd next to a dam under the only shade for miles (sorry kilometres*1.6) and listened to the chorus of green frogs.

The last 6 kms to Gambassi Terme are up hill. At -4 we drank our last water.
At -3 the Pizza Restaurant was "closed on Mondays"
At -2 we sat in the shade of a telegraph pole for a breather
At - 1 the petrol station was unstaffed, self service at the bouser with a credit card for fuel only.
100 metres before our B&B we found a bar. Two litres of water, two magnums and 45 minutes later we set off for our B&B

Day 7 Lucca to San Miniato

386.7 kms to Rome
15 kms walked today
147.7 walked so far
If you looked on maps you would see that this can't be walked in one day day ( except by Oxfam veterans of course).
The answer is that we needed one more day than we had and so we caught a taxi the 30 odd Kilometers to Ponte Cappiano for the start of our walk to San Miniato.
This was a good move as we were still exhausted from our walk to Lucca and a short day, missing flat semi rural land cross crossed with motorways, was just the trick.
The walk from Ponte Cappiano was peaceful and interesting. At first we walked along irrigation canal embankments and through farmland.
They grow wheat or barley, corn, grapes and olives. We then walked through San Miniato Basso (at the base of) an affluent suburb with stone and wrought iron gates and fences and everything tiled. Italians love tiles!!!

San Miniato

Perched on the top of a ridge, this town has amazing views over the Tuscan countryside.
It is also excessively busy and noisy.
Cars roar along the narrow streets and the stone walls reverberate the noise.
Some pictures

Town squares

Day 6 Pietrasanta to Lucca

452kms to Rome
33 kms today
132.7 walked so far.
We walked this yesterday. I couldn't write this post last night for two reasons.
I was too tired
I had no adjectives (or expletives) as I had used OMG and wow.
I have new admiration and astonishment for anyone ( like you Chris M) who has walked the 100kms Oxfam walk. The 33kms we walked yesterday nearly killed us. It was over 30C for the last 10kms and we were just trudging on autopilot (our minds had gone).
We planned ahead. We started walking at 6.30 and bought breakfast at 9kms. We shouted a Nigerian to a ham and cheese pane instead of buying any of his various knick knacks. Every town has a new type of tinker, Africans selling lighters, balls, umbrellas, tissues, bum bags, selfie sticks and pegs. This one came by boat via Libya leaving his family behind. He spoke local languages, Italian and very good English.

From there we went down hill metaphorically and up hill actually.
As the day go hotter we stopped sooner and sooner.
13.9kms was a bar at the apex of our climb c~300m.
19.6 a bar answering the call of nature.
At 24.1 in desperation we sat against a car park wall giving shade and ate our oranges.
In desperation at 28 .6 we packed ourselves on stools in a Gellatissimo and ate???? Very cool and nice they were.
We then just had to put our heads down for 4.4 kms to our room in the old town of Lucca.
The picture is our rather nice way to recover. Better than an ice bath.

I waited a day so I could honestly say

Still smiling

Feet, heat and the urge to cheat

The hardest two things about walking a long way is not your two legs.
Even someone as banged up as me, (with reconstructed limbs x2) can take it one step at a time. After you have done that 30000 times you have probably earnt 🍺, beef, brocolli and bed. The biggest b of all however is blisters, the bain of all bipedal beings.
They struck today and I (Ross) did not cope well. The heat didn't help either as days are now reaching high twenties.
Tomorrow we need to walk 32 Kms and so our plan includes
Two compeeds for my worst blisters
Plasters for minor ones.
A six thirty start with breakfast at a patisserie that Google says we will find ( open) at 8.4kms.
We will buy half our water along the way. That stuff sure is heavy.

Day 5 Massa to Pietrasanta

476.8 kms to Rome
17.2 kms today
99.7Kms walked

Today should have been a breeze
So few kilometres and only about 300m altitude climbed.
We saw eight pilgrims ( five German  women, a German couple and a French lady) all in their fifties with limited English.
The view of the coast was special

 As was the fresco in a church in Pietrasanta and the sculpture in their main square

With the aid of coffee and peanuts
Still smiling

Day 4 Sarzana to Massa

494kms to Rome
27.7 in today's walk
82.5 walked so far

OMG (Wow) today was an epic. It went on and on and on. We were walking in the hilly suburbs and towns in from the coast around La Spezia. In the afternoon we climbed into terraced vineyards on farm tracks and very minor roads.
After lunch we turned a corner and saw this

We were amazed that there could be glaciers so close to the Mediterranean

The truth to this apparent climate anomaly can be found in this photo of a backstreet lane near Massa.

Below is our view of Massa from about two hours ( eight Kilometers out).

Quite stiff but

Still smiling

Not all hard work

So, here is the routine.
Awake refreshed😀
Most B&Bs and hotels are doing breakfast from 8. Our packing routine is quick as we only have seven kilo each of stuff.
Breakfasts vary a lot. In Massa our host has asked if we like sweet or salt.
There are cheeses, pastries, cereals yoghurt and of course breads. So, we are away before 9. We buy lunch, pastry or bread on our way out of town, usually two or three flat breads or foccacias with 🍅 and cheese. A hard day's work needs​ a big cold 🐻 and so we will stop at one or two bars during the day for a cold one ( of some sort). Bars are everywhere and they sell icecreams, water, pastries and big cold 🍺.
All that health food has fuelled us for 15 - 30kms.
So, we arrive exhausted, collapse on our bed for an hour, wash our clothes  (we have two main sets) and then head out. We don't bother pre loading because ordering 🍺 come with perks

After that we are ready for dinner.

Two hours before the locals

Pizza or pasta with red wine

We buy 4 litres of water on our way home and collapse in bed

Repeat if necessary

Still smiling

Look carefully

Aulla vs Sarzana

I shouldn't do this!
As one night visitors how can we judge a town!
In this case - very easily
I'll use the sandwich technique
Aulla is lovely and flat.
It is noisy, dusty, derelict and characterless.
Our marble mauselleum of a hotel (possibly Russian owned) had an early breakfast.
We are sitting at a bar on the edge of the old town square of Sarzana enjoying a 🍺 and nibbles. We cannot hear a motor car. Children are squeezing with joy on the merry-go -round. Our B and B was in an ancient building with 12 foot ceilings up three huge flights of foot worn marble. The owner gave us a guided tour in Italian with expressive hands.

I choose Sarzana

Why wouldn't I be

Still smiling

Day 3 Aulla to Sarzana

513Kms to Rome
18.8 Kms today and 54.8Kms walked.

Today was a test. We climbed to about 540 metres altitude and climbed about 850 metres throughout the day.
We walked through our first hilltop towns and met our first fellow pilgrims.

It's all good now. We are having a beer in the warm evening (post siesta) air and our host Ricardo has recommended

We will be eating verrry early (maybe 7pm) as tomorrow will be a bigger test.
Still smiling

Day 2 Villafranca in Lunigiana to Aulla

528kms to Rome
15.6kms today
30.6 walked
These figures won't add up. It is bugging me, but I am further along the spectrum than you so all I can do is apologise.
Today was a lovely walk mostly on trails and very minor roads. We climbed about 300m and fell something similar. We saw a dead snake and vole, and a live green 🦎
We started in the village and marvelled at the houses, often with vegetable gardens full of 🍅, 🥔 and olive trees.

My knee is holding up with the aid of a magic pill each night, taken with beer and wine.

Still smiling

Italian road signs

Look carefully

Still smiling

Day 1 Pontremoli to Villafranca

547kms to Rome, 15kms today
We caught the train from Florence to La Spezia and then a local train to Pontremoli. At this small town we had to buy something to carry for lunch and we needed to get our pilgrim passport stamped. The food was fine (cheese and tomato pane). We walked for an hour to find a nun to stamp our Pilgrim Passport that would show our stop in Pontremoli - without luck.
There was nothing to do except to just start walking. We had chosen the easier of the two possible routes today to ease us into the exertion needed in future days. This meant walking to local road that wound down the river valley.
Sounds idyllic!
The road was busy and there frequently stone walls or precipices on both sides.
Still, for day one, we enjoyed the adventure in a foreign land.
Having a map and GPS on our phone meant we found our hotel easily. A shower, an lie down, an explore of the town ( sans backpack) and then a beer and the world is fine

Still smiling

Italian queues

The meek shall inherit the earth.
Eventually.
We went to a phone shop to buy a sim card. There was a number system so we took number 37 and waited.
19,20 and 21 had all been called.
30 minutes later 19,20 and 21 had been called. The man next to us had no. 26 and had been waiting an hour.
People kept popping in and looking at the displayed numbers. Our man was called at 70 minutes.
We were lucky it was only 50 minutes.
We wanted to climb the Duomo tower and Saturdays queue had been 100 metres long so we bought the tickets online on the advertised promise of no queues. After paying, the website advised no available 'priority spots' for three days🤔
So we got their early and queued
The views were worth it.

Still smiling

Scenes from Florence

Still Smiling

When Florence wakes up

I may have misled you about the crowds. They were missing in action at 6am Sunday morning.
Actually the Americans Japanese and Chinese are her in force. The photos are the Duomo at about midday.
We climbed the 82 metre tower built in the 1300's.

Still smiling
( But the walking draws near and winter is coming)

Where does all the garbage go?

There are no bins for the thousands of units and the municipal bins look so small.

Well​, little did we know.
These were the bins for pedestrians and all of the apartments.

Beat the crowds

May is the best time to visit Florence

No one is here!!😂😉

Italy chaos rules

Hi everyone
I have plenty of time for this post as we are awaiting our connecting flight to Florence.
The Singapore Airlines flights to Singapore then Rome we uneventful.
Once we got Rome things changed.
The queue to go through passport control took over an hour and we begged to jump the queue once our connecting flight drew near.
There was no need to panic as we didn't have any flight to get on.
We had been bumped to standby.
After half an hour at the standby desk we were back on the original flight.
We raced to the terminal as we were now late.
No need to worry as our flight was delayed 45 minutes.
Then another hour.
Then no one knew when.
Then the gate changed and everyone had to race as we were again late.
Then , at the new gate, nothing happened, for an hour.
Then we got on but had to wait for our luggage to join us.
The flight was uneventful but the taxi from the airport was a white knuckle ride. I think the driver was playing chicken with everone - buses and other taxis of course, but also little old ladies, cyclists, police cars and buildings. He won thank god, and so we lived and tomorrow will explore Florence.

Setting off at last

So the planning is over. We have reduced our weight to negative. Actually about 9kg each. Since our last walk we have reduced socks to  3,  undies (4) are now quick dry synthetic, towels are cut downs,jackets are not. Our warmth is light weight layers. SLR Cameras are a thing of the past (sorry James) and we will test out the Google phones claims re camera. Fashion is well served with Ross's new 328gm appre walking shoes  from Merrell (sponsorship accepted if offered)

Our phones are loaded with talking books , written books,tv shows (Ross) photos of our documents and itineries, downloaded maps and actual phone numbers.
The happy snap is at Sydney airport then on to Singapore then  Rome and straight on to a flight to Florence
Talk to you in a day or two
Signof
Still smiling