Day 36 - Ronco to Meldola

Today was scheduled to be a shorter day (we have divided the next two guidebook stages into three), so we were in no great hurry to leave our odd little hotel. At 8:30, we loaded our gear and set out the door. We retraced the previous night’s route and near the Ronco church, we departed from the busy road that bisects the town. The road turned into a grassy path, and once more we found ourselves back up on a levee. I'm beginning to wonder if we will be on levees the rest of the way to Rome.

We had a difficult time last night finding a place to eat. The nearby restaurants were (mysteriously) closed on a Wednesday night, and the only option that was close enough to hobble to was a sandwich shop that served American cuisine. I don’t normally eat beef, but I felt compelled to try their steak and mushroom sandwich. It was very large and quite nice. I liked the mushrooms and melted cheese.

I suspect that the steak went right to my feet. They felt very good as we hiked through the woods, pain-free and as peppy as a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. I danced happily along for the first several kilometers. Perhaps I need more steak in my diet.

The first half of today’s stage was amazingly pleasant. We walked on soft ground through dark groves or beside large shade trees. We had little direct exposure to the sun. At one point we passed an immense field of dill. This farm was so large that it could have probably supplied the entire world with dill.

As we hiked, I found myself hoping that we had made our escape from the central stages of the Via. Today’s stage was the second of a six day sequence of stages which will carry us over the Apennine mountains to the Franciscan monastery at La Verna. Although it is never easy to climb over mountain ranges, I have set my mind on the idea that it will be cooler at the higher altitudes, and there will be shady forests and soft paths for our feet.

A Soft Path

If the first half of this stage was indicative, then everything would be fine. We were shielded from the soul-sapping sun, and strolled through bamboo thickets, passing wild cherry and apple trees.

A Bamboo Thicket

The path turned back to asphalt in the second half of the stage. We were set back out on the roads, and although they might have been a little quieter than earlier stages, we still experienced at least one near miss with an auto.

Coming through the forests, it was difficult to see how the land around us was changing. When we emerged, we saw that we were among rolling hills covered with vineyards. “It all seems so pretty again,” said Mary.

I had to agree.

Around the 10 KM mark, we approached the small town of Fratta Terme. This seemed like a good point for a break, and we looked forward to finding a bar as we passed through the town. We were disappointed, therefore, when the waymarks and book led us up through a vineyard, around the eastern side of the town. The walking route bypasses the town, while the recommended route for bicyclists rolls right through the center.

I am going to give up second-guessing the routing of the Via. Here is my recommendation: follow the bike route and go through town. Take a break at a bar.

We didn’t. I wish we had.

We returned to the main road, south of Fratta Terme. We still needed a place to take a break. I spotted a small white church and suggested to Mary that we sit on the steps in front of it.

Church at Fratta Terme

As we approached, we were pleased to see that the door stood wide open. It was a very small church: I counted six pews and about a dozen chairs. Apart from the obligatory Mary and Jesus statue in a niche on the right-hand side, the church was undecorated, spartan. We shrugged off our backpacks, took seats in the last row of chairs, and unlaced our shoes. I worried that someone might come along and throw us out --- we were, after all, taking a break in a house of worship. But then I had a different thought: a church is a place for worship, but it is also a place of refuge. It is supposed to succor the people, to offer shelter and sanctuary to all who need it. We are pilgrims. We have put ourselves through more than a month of hard walking, and on many days, we need a few minutes of refuge and respite from the difficulties of the road. So in reality, the church was doing what it was designed to do.

It was a happy thought for me. We don’t usually take our breaks in churches --- they are often locked up, or so splendid we would feel like trespassers --- but maybe we should do it more often. If our walk is to have a religious component to it, than nothing is more fitting than to revivify both body and soul in the churches that we pass.

The final challenge of the day was a hill. There was a direct road between Fratta Terme and Meldola, but the Via takes a route that resembles a reversed question mark, passing our destination, and then circling back to it. This semi-spiral also climbs about 200 meters, and then gives most of that altitude back before it reaches the town. I suppose the idea is to wake up our climbing muscles, which have been dormant for the weeks that we hiked in the flat lands.

Up we went, through the vineyards. At the top of the hill we had a fantastic view. The air was clear and clean, and we could see the campaniles of Ravenna in the distance. It was rather spectacular to see how far we had come.

The final descent into town was bone-jarring (steep and on asphalt), but we walked slowly to try to stop the formation of new blisters or other nasty injuries. Eventually we rolled into Meldola.

Meldola is a pretty town, whose streets were lined with porticoes. It had once been involved in the silk industry, which accounts for the nice architecture, but today it is a somnolent town. Nice and quiet.

Porticoes, Meldola

Today’s Distance: 16.8KM

Total Distance: 646.2 KM