Angus' Travel Notes and Pictures

Subtitle: completely different to the TMB! The main challenge will be heat/hydration, limiting walking time to half days! I’m good with that..

What a difference to the TMB, but we’ve had a good first day on the VdD. Managed 20 kms today (less from now on), and the BnB owner in Sasso Marconi, came and picked us up to drive us into town to avoid the last 2 kms on a busy road and “pavement pain” on late-day feet.

We started early in Bologna to beat the heat, making our way from mile 0 at the Piazza Maggiore at just before 7 am (2 km to get there first!) along very quiet cobble streets and alleyways and under the ubiquitous covered sidewalks of Bologna. Eventually we started up a long steady incline of porticos and shallow steps leading from the original old city wall and up to a beautiful cathedral at Madonna di San Lucas. Then along a country road and eventually hooking up with a well marked but roughish trail SW then S along the Parco Della Chuisa and the Fiuma Reno River/Canal system (built in 1208 and diverts water originally from the Rhine!). Then a long stretch south along the canal/river through hard wood and shrub forest then back into farm country before ending the day here where the inventor of the Marconi radio was born. We are pooped (mostly the heat, but also a bit more distance than we thought).