Lake Bolsena to Montefiasconi June 11

                                                                   Current Day.                         Trip to Date

Distance walked- miles.                                15.1.                                       390.4

Gross Climb- feet.                                        1970                                      31,276

Song of the Day:  Summer in the City by the LovingSpoonful

 Hot town, summer in the city 

Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty 

On today's hike we left the seaside resort of Bolsena and walked v straight up to Montefiasconi.  As I mentioned yesterday, Lake Bolsena was formed by a volcano, with the town of Bolsena at water level.  Montefiasconi is somewhat  on the "rim" of the ancient volcano.  Montefiascone is a town of about 13,000.  It was once famous for hosting the papacy during the 1300 and 1400's.   

It was very warm last night, and as with all the Italian hotels, the air con didn't work.  So, not a great night for sleep. However, that did not stop us from having a very good hike today.  The first 2/3 of the hike was up hill, primarily through covered trails.  Today was one of the highest levels of climbs that we have had on the trip and we feel it in our calves and thighs tonight.  We walked along a rushing stream for a portion of the hike which was also nice.  Often, we had a view of Lake Bolsena. Then we had about 6 miles along highways, where we were constantly playing dodge ball with the cars.  Once again, we lived to tell about it, but there were several close ones. By this time, the temperature had reached 90 degrees.  

One of the best parts of today was seeing a heard of sheep being moved. We had to move out of the way to make room for the sheep:  

We arrived in Montefiasconi at the Hotel Urbano in early afternoon.  Once again, a very nice hotel in a very old building.  We spent much of the afternoon touring around this very hilly town. Here I am at a sculpture for pilgrims.  You can see Lake Bolsena far in the background:

We had a great lunch at a restaurant overlooking the lake, and liked it so much, we went back for dinner.  

Tomorrow we have a relatively short hike of about 12 miles or.  Not as much climb as today.  Heat wave continues though, and isn't supposed to end until Sunday, the day before we get to Rome.  I would say light a candle for us, but perhaps have a cold drink is a better idea!