Day 10 - Piancastagnaio to Acquapendente

Coffees: 1, Gelati: 0, Wine: 0

Actual Distance Walked: 31km, Actual Time Taken: 9h

Planned Distance: 31km, Planned Time: 9h

I'm not exactly sure of how far I walked today as the battery in my GPS died before I got to my destination. However the last recorded point was smack bang on a waypoint 2km from the end of the route and I'd covered 29km by then, so I'm declaring the distance was 31km.  According to my watch I walked for exactly 9 hours give or take a minute.   All according to plan today, which was a nice change.

Part of the reason for this is that most of the route was on dirt roads rather than forest tracks.  There was one shortish (3km) stretch of forest path but as that was a single path down one side of a valley, across a stream and up the other side with no possible turn offs there was no opportunity to get lost.  The bulk of the route was along the spine of a ridge of hills.  Once up on the ridge, the walking was easy as you just tramped your way south along the top.  Fabulous views in all directions but with correspondingly few options for a discreet pit stop.

I didn't see any hunters today but I was mistaken by some farmers for one.  Part of the route was along a tarmac road so I'd wasn't using my walking pole and was carrying it on my shoulder.  From a distance I must have looked like I was carrying a rifle.  Two of them came hooning up behind me in a car, slowed down for a good look and when they realised I was just a foolish hiker, they did a U-turn in front of me and went home.  If anyone is going to hunt illegally on their land it is going to be them!

In another case of mistaken identity, as I staggered into the village just before here I encountered a priest as I was passing a Via Francigena sign.  He gave me a great beaming smile and blessed me!  

The hotel I'm staying in here was supposed to be providing me dinner in their restaurant 

but they catered for a big family do for Sunday lunch and are closed for the evening.  They gave me credit a local restaurant.  I had been looking forward to just having to stagger downstairs.  Bummer.  

I successfully managed to find my way to and from the alternate restaurant, so my map reading and navigating skills for the day are still untarnished.  It was definitely a haunt for the locals.  This included a pair of carabinieri who double-parked their police car out front with the lights on while they went in for a pizza.  They were in uniform so presumably were on duty.

To start with I had mixed crostini again.  This time the toppings were the liver paste one, the one I call mushrooms but am beginning to suspect is bits of cow you don't want to think about, a very runny brie-like cheese and a prawn cocktail mix that I could have done without given how far inland we are.  The mayonnaise was very tasty though.  For primo I showed great restraint and did not have the tagliatelle with wild boar sauce but tried their gnocchi with ragu instead.  Mum's is better.  Theirs was a bit leaden.  It was a huge serving too so I definitely did plenty of carbohydrate loading for tomorrow.  For main I wanted ox tail but they were sold out.  My second choice (ossobuco was all gone too) so I settled for beef fillet with mushroom sauce.  The mushrooms were good.

I then staggered back to the hotel, which is really a restaurant with a few rooms above it.  I had a nasty moment as the front door was shut and the key I thought was the front door key didn't seem to work.  I eventually discovered you had to turn it 3 times before the door would unlock.  Not sure what I could have done if I couldn't get in as there was no sort of front door bell.

As so onwards.  Tomorrow is a piddly little 20km.  I say it would be easy but I've been reading the route notes and it is full of comments like "track may be faint"  and "head up to the corner of the field".  I can see lots of scope for going the wrong way.