Gallina to Acquapendente: Crossing into Lazio
Monday, July 17: On Monday morning, I took a taxi from Gallina to Acquapendente (30 minutes for 60 euros!). This officially ended my time in Tuscany; I had entered Lazio. Darina had taken off early to walk on her own to Radicofani. She would spend the night there and walk on Tuesday to meet me in Acquapendente, where I would stay an extra night until she caught up.
The taxi driver was 35-year-old Andrea who lived in Radicofani but he was yearning to return to Florence where he lived and studied for a while. He was studying to be a mechanical engineer. He didn’t care for small town life. He said Tuscany was beautiful but we would find Lazio not as pretty. He said we would love Bolsena. But Acquapendente was nothing special and we would find Lazio to be flatter (We would wait to see about that).
I was in town by 9:00 am and was able to check in to the Il Teatro BB right away after a short stop in a bar for a cappuccino and chocolate croissant. I climbed 4 flights of stairs and got into the room and immediately turned on the air conditioning, the first I’d had since Buonconvento. What sweet relief. I was excited to have a place of my own where I could bask endlessly in the cool air.
I hung out in the room, which is the same building as the Teatro Boni, catching up in my journal for a long time, then I showered and went out to explore the town and have some lunch.
Acquapendente was first occupied in Pre-Roman times but only in the 10th century was it named for the Latin “hanging waters,” most likely due to waterfalls along the Paglia River below town. The town grew up around the Via Francigena. Its oft-rebuilt walls helped it fend off attacks from its principal rival Orvieto. The walls protected it during constant wars between imperial forces and those of the Papal States.
I dropped into Chiesa di Sant’Agostino built in the Gothic style in 1250. In 1746 a violent fire caused serious damage. During reconstruction it took on a more Baroque design. It has six chapels, three on each wall. A triumphal arch delineates the presbytery. The bell tower with a bulb dome is the work of Guglielmo Meluzzi.
I dropped by Casa Girolamo, where Darina and I would stay tomorrow night after she arrived, just so I’d be familiar with the lay of the land.
I dipped into another church, Chiesa San Pietro. Its façade faces the Francigena Road. Its presence on the pilgrim’s way could substitute for religious purposes, such as the visit to St. Peter’s tomb in Rome. I found two German pilgrims sitting on a bench outside the door, commiserating about the ordeal of walking in the heat.
I walked to the far end of town to Basilica Cattedrale di San Sepolcro. Originally the church of a former Benedictine monastery, the present building began as a 12th-century Romanesque church. It is a pilgrimage site due to the relics it contains of St. Bernard of Castro, and more importantly the reputed drops of the blood of Christ on a stone brought from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The beautifully preserved 10th-century crypt just below the main altar shows the relic behind glass. I was the only one in the church and I didn’t see how one got into the crypt, so I didn’t go into it, although Darina did when she arrived. I did enjoy the art exhibition in the church, with its oversized paintings and collages.
Sadly the Tourist Information across the street was closed on Mondays so I couldn’t get my pilgrim stamp. It is housed in a structure known as the “Julia de Jacopo Tower.” Here in 1550, a local girl closed the door in the city walls, which soldiers defending the city inadvertently left open, enabling it to withstand an attack by invaders.
By this time it was hot and the whole town was asleep. On my walk back, I found a couple of modern-day murals. I returned to Bar Roma for an egg salad sandwich on white bread and a Coke Zero. I bought a beer to bring back to my room.
I spent the afternoon relaxing and writing in my journal. After I enjoyed my beer, I took an hour nap. Darina called and told me the stage to Radicofani wasn’t as daunting as we’d been warned it was. She said the walk was shorter than the guidebook said and that there was an Agriturismo about 3 hours along that served lunch. She even climbed up the tower for amazing 360 degree views. She had boundless energy; I guess it helped that she’s 20 years younger than I am and super fit. I didn’t regret not going.
I ventured out at 6:30, withdrew some money from the bank, and went for dinner at Bottega Maius L’Enoteca. I enjoyed two glasses of white wine, 3 types of crostini, Cacio e Pepe, and a delicious Tortino al cioccolato in raspberry sauce. The place was owned by the very elegant wife of the guy renting me the Teatro BB. It was air-conditioned, very classy and had a great playlist with fabulous ambiance.I used my Shazam App to find what the songs were and I surprisingly found “Help” by Aaron Taylor and “Thelma and Louise (We’re Not Looking Back)” by Izo FitzRoy. I wished I’d remembered to turn it on earlier.
I certainly wasn’t dressed for such a classy place because I had ditched a bunch of my belongings in Bagno Vignoni in hopes of reducing my backpack weight. Some of the things I threw in the trash there were my “nighttime outfit,” two disposable rain jackets, and my headlamp. Getting rid of that stuff really didn’t make much difference in my pack weight because the thing that weighed most was water, which could not be reduced in the heat.
The elegant woman, maybe Elisa (?), asked if I was the guest at Teatro BB. I asked how she knew and she said she’d seen the photo of my documents at her house.
Back at the apartment, I talked to Mike for a bit. I saw Alex and Jandira finally post pictures of themselves at an outdoor concert and Jandira was really showing (she’s due in October). It brought tears to my eyes. I wanted so badly to get home to see the family. They’d be visiting us in August and we would have a baby shower for them.
I loved loved loved my rest day today. And lucky for me, I’d have another tomorrow as I waited for Darina to walk from Radicofani. I really couldn’t wait till this ordeal was over and I was back in the comfort of my own home.
Steps: 7,372; Miles: 3.13. No Stage walk for me today.
Weather: High 92°, Low 75°. Sunny. Red Warning for Extreme High Temperature.
A Day in Acquapendente
Tuesday, July 18: Acquapendente is not really a town where anyone would want to spend two days, but I was happy to stay there if it meant I didn’t have to walk in the heat and if I could stay cool in air conditioning. Luckily the Teatro BB guy allowed me to check out at 11 am Tuesday morning, extending my stay in air-conditioning. The woman at Casa Girolamo, the apartment Darina and I had reserved back in March, allowed me to check in as early as 9:00, but sadly that apartment didn’t have air conditioning. It had a fan luckily, but fans just push around hot air so it wasn’t all that comfortable, especially as the afternoon progressed.
After checking in at Casa Girolamo, I went to the tourist information and got my pilgrim stamp for the town. I stopped at a nice cafe, La Campanella Caffetteria, for a sweet treat and cappuccino. I got another stamp there.
Darina had walked from Radicofani but there was one dangerous stretch from Centeno and the guidebook recommended taking a bus from there to Acquapendente. It turned out there wasn’t much in Centeno and Darina had a hard time finding such a bus. She did get one, however, and I walked up to the bus stop to meet her and show her to the apartment. When she got off the bus, she was accompanied by a French guy, Pasquale, who was about 62 and had been walking from France. We would see him many times during the next stages.
After Darina showered and did her laundry, we went for a nice lunch in the air-conditioned Gran Bar. Usually all we see in bars are sandwiches behind glass that have been sitting there for heaven knows how long. The woman at Gran made us fresh sandwiches in buns with prosciutto and cheese and greens, accompanied by cold beers. We raised a toast to Darina’s two days of walking.
Although Darina said the path to Radicofani had been easier than the guidebook led us to believe, the walk downhill from Radicofani that morning was very steep and gravelly and harder than she expected. Knowing how much I feared steep gravelly descents, she said I would have hated it and it was a good thing I’d skipped the stage.
It was too hot for me to go out in the shuttered town, but Darina wanted to see it. So I relaxed in the apartment while she went out to see all the things I’d seen yesterday.
At dinner time, we went again to the fabulous Bottega Maius L’Enoteca, the place I’d eaten the night before. We had Vernaccia from San Gimignano and pizzas. Mine had zucchini and zucchini flowers and mozzarella. Darina’s had prosciutto, arugula and cheese. They were delicious. Of course we ordered the same chocolate cake I’d eaten the night before. Again, the ambiance at this place was fantastic, with a playlist that included “Sweet Water” and “Such a Fool” by The Meltdown and “If I Got It (Your Love Brought It)” by Aaron Frazer. Darina, as a middle-school teacher with a wonderful way with children, had a sweet conversation with the owner’s daughter.
Steps: 6,502; Miles: 2.76. No Stage walk for me today.
Weather: High 93°, Low 76°. Sunny.
The Via Francigena is an ancient road and pilgrimage route that runs from Canterbury, England, through France and Switzerland, to Rome and then to Apulia, Italy, where there were ports of embarkation for the Holy Land. In around 990, Archbishop Sigeric journeyed from Canterbury to Rome and back, but only documented his itinerary on the return journey, taken in 80 stages averaging about 12 miles (20 km) a day, for a total of some 1,100 miles (1,700 km).
This is the continuing saga of our attempt to walk the stages from Lucca to Rome, which are, in total, about 255.07 miles (410.5 km). Since we had to cut out stages due to time constraints, our actual goal was to walk 211.77 miles ( 340.8 km).
Running tally (UNCHANGED): (Day 8 & 9): 91.94 /211.77 miles (147.95/340.8 km).
This post is in response to Jo’s Monday walk: to Chapel Allerton and beyond.
~ wander.essence ~ 
Nice to have you a bit more chilled, Cathy. Air con saved your life! The art works in the Basilica are interesting too. Nice to find out of context stuff. Thanks for the link, hon.
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Thanks, Jo. I was so happy for these rest days. It turned out I would have a lot more of them! I liked that artwork too.
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A much more relaxed post! Sounds as though you made the right decision.
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I did, for sure! 🙂
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What a lovely treat to have air con and some time and space to yourself to just relax and recuperate.
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Yes, I needed it for sure! I was so happy for those two days, and more that would come later… 🙂
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