I woke today at 6:15 a.m. with the realization that my friends are packing their bags for the day’s journey and I am not. I’ve decided a rest day is in order in this larger city in order to rest my body (my knees are doing well but I have a quarter sized blister on my right foot), do laundry, purchase a few supplies (soap & replacement hiking poles for those lost on the other side of the Po River as we boarded Danilo’s boat) and ship home extra weight from my pack from items no longer being used. All those very good plans don’t make me miss my friends any less this morning. I hope their day of hiking is good to them.

I begin my day with a brioche and cappuccino. It’s Sunday morning which means the streets are quieter than a week day and open shops are a little more difficult to find. I settle in and read and journal a while before heading back to my hotel.

The rest of my morning is filled with an hour round trip walk to the sporting goods store and supermarket before returning for an early lunch, a visit to the duomo and a nap.

The afternoon concludes with laundry at the laundromat where I wait outside (it is empty and the doors are locked) convinced Google has again double-crossed me with an “open” on their map that ignores the siesta (this happens nearly every day; sometimes more often). Nope, not this time. One just has to know where the secret button is on the inside of the doorframe. After waiting in the Italian heat for 45 minutes for someone to reopen the laundromat, a young couple walks up with bags of dirty clothes and pushes the secret button. I feel like an idiot. I could have been in A/C the entire time doing my laundry. Only saving grace is I don’t know how to say, “Can you believe they’re still on siesta and we’re locked out here in this heat!” or I would’ve have convinced two other souls that I was, in fact, an idiot.

Tomorrow, I will begin week three of this journey. So far, I’ve seen countless Italian towns, I’ve encountered very delightful people, endured days of rice fields and mosquitoes, enjoyed delicious food on my many stops, taken in beauty every day and logged nearly 300 kilometers (185 miles). I’m curious what God has in store for me on the second half of this journey.