Walking in Europe

Madonna dei Fornelli – Pian di Balestra – Passo della Futa: 2 days 22 kms.

Yesterday after a solid sleep and another lovely Italian breakfast at Albergo Romani of yummy coffee and several different cakes we set off on the trail early again. (Side note: Elisa, the owner single handedly cooked and served a 3 course traditional dinner for 28 walkers the night we were there!)

We walked up out of Madonna dei Fornelli up through the village, through a few fields and then onto an another shaded ridge line through a gorgeous sun dappled beech forest. We set a pretty leisurely pace as we only had about 6 kms to cover yesterday to the next hostel in Pian di Balestra. Being in the shade most of the way meant heat was much less a factor. We arrived quite early at the forest hostel Casa del Guardie so were able to spend the afternoon in their garden catching up on correspondence, reading, and yes- I confess- an afternoon nap for me 😴. We met some very chatty young hikers from Italy at the hostel with good English. So fun to hear about what they’re doing. And other very friendly hikers along the way. We are definitely an anomaly on the trail. Sharing where we are from always prompts a pleasant surprise and disbelief!

Today was a beautiful walk. From Pian di Balestra – where the Casa del Guardie provided an enormous breakfast (eggs for the first time in so long!), we regained the ridgeline which we would follow first along a really beautiful high country pasture then once again into the managed beech forest (using a coppice regeneration system – brilliant!). Today we managed to get out on the trail by just after 6:30 am, so by the time we were into the forest the morning was still quite cool and oblique sunlight amazing.

A highlight today were the sections of the trail that followed alongside the Flamina Militaire, the recently (1970s) re-discovered and excavated sections of an ancient Roman road originally built in 187 BCE for the Roman legions to patrol the Apennine ridge tops, and then by traders and travellers over the millennia. We also came across the remnants of an underground kiln described as built at the same time as the road built into the limestone for the purpose of slow burning wood into charcoal for cooking and heating.

We finished today at La Futa Pass a few hundred metres down the hill from the largest war memorial graveyard for German soldiers in Italy. It holds the graves of 30,800 German soldiers killed in WW2. An austere, stark, but humble remembrance.