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Although the day dawned clear and sunny, the weather boffins assured us that a reprieve from our recent heat wave was at hand. The day was supposed to cloud up quickly, with sunshine yielding to thunderstorms and torrential downpours.
This stage was relatively short, and since the temperature was supposed to moderate, and we couldn’t check into our next lodging until after 1:00, we were in no hurry to depart. It was 9:45 before we hitched on our packs and left Bagnoregio.
The tourists were beginning to arrive as we walked out of town. Traffic was heavy, and this was particularly problematic as the Via leaves Bagnoregio on a curving road with little room for hopping into a ditch when a truck races toward you. Near the top of the hill, we encountered two men painting lines on the newly asphalted roads. They didn’t seem to have any way to control the traffic (in the US, there would be flaggers to slow down the cars) and I wondered what the accident rate was for Italian road workers.
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| Striping the Road |
We turned onto a quieter country road, once more crossing an altopiano. The clouds were thickening as predicted, and they had become particularly dense in the north and west quadrants of the sky. I knew we were in for a race for Montefiascone if we didn’t want to be soaked.
The Road to Montefiascone
Our quiet country road terminated at a busy statale. Cars were racing past, and I was glad that the Via vectored us around this road. We crossed the statale and hiked a short distance to a small electrical substation. The road ended at the building, and there was no obvious way to continue. The building was surrounded by blackberry brambles and other thorny denizens of the forest realm. We spent ten minutes searching for a path forward, but found nothing.
That meant we would need to return to the very busy statale and take our chances on a narrow road with fast moving traffic. I know that my reader is probably growing weary of reading my complaints about the overgrown paths on the Via, but this time it involved a serious safety issue. If the path that has been selected to protect walkers is so badly overgrown that walkers cannot find it, then that is a problem. It becomes a greater problem when it forces hikers to endanger their lives because they cannot get through on the designated route.
Adding a little spice to the mix was the fact that the thunderstorms were now upon us. Thunder was grumbling on three sides, and the wind was bending trees and shaking leaves around us.
Gathering Storm
“We need to walk as quickly as we can along this road,” I told Mary. “There is supposed to be a sidewalk in a couple of kilometers, and if we can reach that before the visibility drops, we should be all right.”
We hiked along the narrowest of shoulders as the storn’s fury increased. Cars flung themselves toward us, headlights blazing. When it appeared that they hadn’t seen us, or couldn’t swerve because of oncoming traffic in the opposite lane, we threw ourselves into the ditch.
The rain began. We took refuge in a driveway, a little off the road, and put on our backpack covers. Battened down, we returned to the highway. Visibility was dropping, lightning was flaring, large trucks and fast cars were whipping past in the sheeting rain.
The rain intensified and then, on the other side of the statale, I saw the sidewalk. It suddenly began, with no apparent logic. We crossed over and gained a significant margin of safety. Now the traffic was rolling by a good meter from our extremities. Even though the rain increased, I felt much more secure.
We walked into town in the pouring rain, arriving like Poseidon amidst a vanguard of water.
In the city, we dashed into the church of San Flaviano. This is a famous pilgrim church. Montefiascone is at the intersection of two ancient pilgrimage routes: our Via Romea, and the western Via Francigena, which begins in Canterbury, England, continues down through France, and then comes down the western side of Italy. For the last six days, the two routes share the same path.
San Flaviano is a strikingly beautiful example of a romanesque church. Ancient frescoes adorn the walls and in one corner is the tombstone of a courtier named Defuk. In the year 1111, the German emperor Henry V traveled to Rome for his coronation. In his vanguard was a famous wine lover named Johannes Deuc (commonly known as Defuk). Defuk was so devoted to the grape, that he had his servant travel in advance of the royal party, and wherever the servant discovered a town or wineshop that served excellent wine, he chalked the Latin word “est” (here it is) on the door.
When the servant reached Montefiascone, he was so taken by the quality of the wine, that he wrote “est est est!” on the city gates. When Defuk saw that signal, he tried the wine, loved it so much that he refused to leave Montefiascone. He remained in the city and drank himself to death.
A salutary warning.
The two other main attractions of the city are the cathedral and the rocca dei papi (fortress of the popes). The cathedral is significant in that it has the third largest dome in Italy (after Rome and Florence). We had a look, and while the dome is large, I am not certain that the cathedral would make my top ten list of churches that we have seen.
Duomo, Interior
At the top of the hill is the rocca. In the early thirteenth century, Pope Innocent III ordered that a fortress be built for the popes in Montefiascone. Part of the reason was to help secure this part of the papal states, and the other was to serve as a potential refuge should the pope be threatened. Later popes enlarged or remodelled the fort; some popes, like Urban V used it as a summer residence.
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| Rocca dei Papi |
Today it stands in ruins. A portion of the tower of the pellegrino remains, as does a smaller building. While it is no longer suitable as a fortress, the views from the top of the tower of the pellegrino are fantastic.
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| Tower of the Pellegrino |
One other noteworthy item: in one of the main piazzas, a sign has been painted over the archway: 100 Kilometers to the Tomb of St Peter.
We are getting close.
Today’s Distance: 14.5 KM
Total Distance: 1070.3 KM
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