Via Francigena (an 11 mile walk!)

On Sunday, in honor of our friend Keith's impending Monday birthday, we boarded a Co.Tra.L. bus near the Ipercoop and headed to the next town north, Montefiascone, for a walk back through time on the Via Francigena. The Via Francigena is a 1000+ mile long pilgrimage route from Canterbury, England to Rome. The basic route has been in existence for at least 1000 years although it has changed path and morphed over time due to regional conflicts, etc. It is interesting because, as a pilgrimage route, it was less concerned with going through particular major cities and more concerned with hitting important shrines, churches and abbeys along the way. In a happy coincidence for us, it happens to pass directly through Viterbo!

Upon arrival in Montefiascone we disembarqued and headed into the historic centro. The weather was cool and brisk, the first fall-like weekend we have had since we arrived. We stopped briefly for coffee and then again for a peek around the Duomo, also known as the Cattedrale di Santa Margherita di Montefiascone. It has a marvelous, domed ceiling that warranted a few pictures.

We next headed to the southeastern edge of town for a spectacular view of Lago di Bolsena before picking up the trail and plunging over the side of the mountain. We chose wisely. Going south toward Viterbo was almost all downhill. To have walked the other direction wuld have been strenuous, to say the least. Much of the path was actually on dirt roads through the countryside. That was quite nice, but the real treat came on the occasional section where the dirt road diverged and all of the sudden you were walking on an ancient Roman road (yup, original stones and all) through a canopy of trees with nothing to see to the sides except plowed fields and the occasional building. At that point it was easy to imagine exactly what the trip would have been like 7, 8, 900 years ago. We stopped for a picnic lunch and a bottle of wine at a hot spring in the middle of nowhere. We completed our walk with a strong tailwind to move us along and threatening storm clouds behing us to further hasten our steps. Ultimately all of the nastiness went to our east and we ended up back at the bus station dry, tired and content.