I took a well-deserved day off from writing up our adventures while we were in Ferrara. We managed to balance some sightseeing with quite a bit of time sitting in piazzas, enjoying appertivos and watching the world walk by. I will say that Ferrara is an easy city to like, and I look forward to a future return.
Dawn broke and we were off on one of the longest stages of the journey, roughly 30 KM or 18 miles. The weather threatened to be hot, so we wanted to get away early.
This is a problematic stage. Not only is it long, but it ends in a town so small that there isn’t even a restaurant. Mary and I had realized this the night before and secured a couple of bags of snacks for our backpacks, but it really made no sense. Why would the guidebook recommend stopping here, in a place where you can’t even buy dinner?
The first 7.5 KM followed busy roads out of Ferrara. Here is another reason that this stage is winning early votes from me for worst stage of the entire Via: we were endangering our lives by sharing our route with fast-moving cars. This was especially problematic after passing the Ferrara suburb of Chiesuol del Fosso.
We walked along a very narrow, shoulder-less road, with cars flying at us at high velocity. Italian drivers are generally quite good (although they do not like to slow down unless absolutely necessary), but it only takes one person texting while driving to clip a hiker who has no place to walk. Sooner or later there is going to be a tragic accident.
As I trudged beside the road, a car dashed past, braked, turned around, and drove back to park in front of me. A man climbed out.
“Are you following St Anthony’s Cammino?” he asked.
“No,” I said, “Via Romea Germanica.”
“Where are you going today?”
“Traghetto,” I answered.
“Would you like a ride?”
Would we? The sun was melting our shoes off our feet, the asphalt was grinding our bones into sand, sweat soaked my shirt, and I was tired of playing the torrero with the passing cars.
“No,” I replied, “but thank you. We need to walk.”
He smiled, climbed back into his car, and sped away.
I kicked myself for the next thirty minutes, until I grew too tired to kick any more.
Knowing that there were no dining facilities in Traghetto, we had planned to stop at a pizzeria in San Nicolo, a tiny town that was approximately two-thirds of the way to our destination. If we could get one solid meal into our bellies, it would be easier to weather the evening with some snacks.
Imagine our dismay when, already salivating at the thought of lovely italian pizza, we reached the pizzeria and found that it was closed. Closed for a week-long holiday. There went our last chance for real food.
There were two bars in San Nicolo. The first we tried did not have panini (sandwiches) or other luncheon food. The owner did have a couple of old croissants rotting in his display case, but we rejected that alternative.
The second bar did offer a limited range of panini -- cheese, salami, prosciutto, cheese and prosciutto. It wasn’t glorious but it was something.
We left San Nicolo, crossed a bridge over a canal, and had just settled back into our walking when a voice called out, “Hello.”
A tall young man, wearing a straw hat, backpack, and hiking boots had unexpectedly overtaken Mary. He carried a long wooden hiking stick.
It was our first encounter with another pellegrino, Timo, from Germany. He had started in Germany and was on his way to Rome. However, Rome was only an intermediate stop, for he planned to continue to Jerusalem. A very long walk.
We spent the last two hours of our day walking with Timo. Fresh conversation helped pass the time, as did the fact that a portion of the trail followed a path through woods and vineyards. We had mixed emotions when we reached Traghetto: happiness that a long, hard stage was done, but a little sadness that our new friend would be going on without us (Timo was aiming for Argento, the endpoint for tomorrow’s stage).
It was, however, nice to discover that we weren’t the only pellegrinos walking the Via right now. We may be few and far between, but there are others with us, just over the horizon.
Today’s distance: 30.1 KM
Total distance: 503.1 KM
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