Day 18 - Campagnano di Roma to Isola Farnese

Coffees: 2, Gelati: 1, Wine: 1/4 litre
Actual Distance Walked: 23km, Actual Time Taken: 6h 31m
Planned Distance: 21km, Planned Time: 6h 30m

Took things slowly today as tomorrow will all be tramping through suburbs so this is my last chance to admire the countryside.  I'm now only 20-odd kilometres from the centre of Rome and I'll still in farmlands.  In Melbourne, I'd be somewhere like Doncaster.

The extra distance is because I ended up walking through a village along the way twice.  I came into the village through the modern bit and ignored the bars and gelaterias there thinking it would be better to get something in the historic centre.  Unfortunately, I walked from one end of the historic centre to the other only to find it is all houses and had to tramp back to the start for my daily gelati.

Nothing to report about the route.  It was straightforward and blissfully absent of free range dogs.  Blissfully absent of grumpy farmers too, although this time I was purely on roads and not tramping through farmyards which is probably why.

My stopping place for tonight is so small it doesn't even classify as a village, it is just a hamlet.  When I got to the hotel the only people around where a pair of rather concerned American tourists.  They had a booking but there was no-one here (although the front door to the hotel was open).  Eventually the hotelier showed up.  He'd been giving other guests a lift to a nearby railway station.

Dinner tonight is included in the package but is not at the hotel restaurant.  They don't run it anymore (and the hotel itself is for sale).  My dinner is to be provided at a restaurant down the road.  Depending on who you talk to it is either 500m or 800m away.  I hope the road is reasonably well lit as I didn't bring a torch.  Perhaps I can convince the American couple they'd like to have dinner with me.  They have a car.

Dinner turned out to be more and less complicated than I first expected.  Instead of having to walk anywhere, a woman came for me in a car and took me to a restaurant.  I don't know why the one within an unspecified walking distance didn't feed me.  Perhaps it isn't open on a Monday as many aren't.  However, when we got to the one that did feed me (about 5 minutes of Italian driving later) the chef and the waiter seemed rather taken aback to see me.  Much discussion took place before they agreed.  When I asked about getting back to the hotel this caused even more consternation.  The woman muttered something about the bus.  When I suggested a taxi they all seemed to think this was a foolish idea for reasons my Italian wasn't up to determining.  Eventually the woman lapsed into English and told me she would talk to the people at the hotel and something would be arranged for me at 9pm.

Again I skipped the antipasto and went straight to the pasta, which was spaghetti carbonara as that is supposedly a Roman speciality.  It was very tasty, as anything is if you put enough cheese and salt in it. For main I had roast veal, at least that is the animal I was supposed to be eating.  I would have labelled it pork rather than veal if I hadn't been told otherwise but it is hard to tell from three slices covered in gravy.  The gravy was very tasty, probably all the MSG in the packet mix.  I know I'm being bitchy, and probably unfair, but I wasn't exactly made to feel welcome.  For a side dish I had asked for spinach but was told it was all gone, so I ordered broccolini instead.  I received a plate of spinach - with garlic, olive oil and lemon (yum).   Dessert was just a coffee.

The restaurant was an odd place.  Quite a few people wandered in to dine while I was there.  It ended up being about half full which is a crowd by what I've been used to lately.  However, the waiter's heart wasn't in his job and he kept disappearing into the bar next door.  The chef would ring his little bell when a dish was ready to no avail and would often have to deliver the meal himself.  Towards the end of the night he lost patience and went next door to the bar and had words with the waiter.  A floor show!

At 9pm my something turned up, which proved to be the woman from the hotel who had just abandoned the reception desk to come and get me.  This owners of this hotel don't seem keen on the hoteling life.