Distance walked- miles. 17.3 434.3
Gross Climb- feet. 980 33,416
Song of the Day: Knock on Wood by Eddie Floyd (or the countless others who have recorded this great, great soul song):
It's like thunder, lightning,
the way you love me is frightening.I'd better knock (knock knock) on wood
I want to start with a special shout out to all the dads out there, particlularly my Dad in Iowa. Happy Father's Day to you all! Also, Happy Birthday to my brother Larry in Virginia.
Even though the highs were in the low 80's today, it felt relatively cool compared to the mid 90's of this past week. After having a rather crappy breakfast at the hotel (included in the price of the room- a coffee and a packaged croissant that you buy in the store for about 30 cents), we set off for Campagnano. As with the past several days, we saw no other hikers on the trail. Much of the trail was on exposed dirt roads, which made us appreciate the relatively cooler temps.
We walked through several miles of hazelnut groves:
Passed some great waterfalls:
Around noon, we began hearing thunder and seeing lightning all around us. This went on for about an hour or so, before it started to sprinkle, turning into a steady light rain. We finally decided to put on our ponchos for the first time on the trip:
Only to have the rain stop 5 minutes later! Off go the the ponchos (this isn't as easy as it sounds by the way). Finally we arrived at our hotel, which is again is a restaurant that also has a small hotel as a side business. The room itself is ok, although the view out the window leaves something to be desired. Not those great Tuscan vistas we experienced in several of our hotels last week:
After we checked into the hotel, it began to pour down rain. We were glad that we were not out walking at that point. Later we walked around the village and came upon an outdoor concert at the senior citizens center. The band appeared to be mostly young people in middle and high school, but there were also several older people among the members.
Later, we had an outstanding dinner at the hotel restaurant. Incredibly good food, clear that they operate a restaurant first and a hotel second.
It was a tough day for some of my favorites in sports yesterday. Spain got beat in the World Cup. Phil Michelson had a bad day at the US open golf tournament. And my San Francisco Giants blew a lead in the 9th inning to Denver. Must have been the hex of Friday the 13th. Speaking of the World Cup, tonight at midnight, Italy plays it's first game. It will be interesting to see if anybody is out and about on Sunday morning.
The forecast for tomorrow, and the next four days, is for rain. What a dramatic change from the heat of this past week. Our plan is to arrive in Rome late Monday morning, then tour around for several days before flying to Geneva on Thursday. Hopefully the rain won't get in the way too much.
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