Started the day early at 5:15 a.m. in the dark this morning (days are getting shorter; headlamp was used for first time since campgound) to beat the heat climbing these hills in the current stage. Caselle is that first serious climb in the topography graph below. I chose to climb that last night to stay at a B&B just outside Fornovo.

The B&B was my least favorite spot of the trip. The facility itself was clean and air conditioned but the host was down right creepy. Took me more than half my hike this morning to shake the creepy out of my system. No pictures. I don’t care to remember it.

First adventure of the day was a random river crossing (3 of them actually) for absolutely no reason other than to trouble the hiker. The trail later connected (less than 1 km further down) the paved road I’d left 20 minutes earlier. In the interim, I had to scale down the random river crossing bank (pictured above) and up the other side which was even steeper (it had a ladder that took me half way up river bank/wall; I had to scale by grabbing roots and scale up on my belly with pack). I crossed back over this dry river bed 250 meters further up river. Ugh. The last waste of effort was crossing through the field of alfalfa pictured above only to cross back over the now infamous river again. All this for the trail to wind back to the original paved road. In the organizer’s defense, I think this now dry riverbed was well over its banks relatively recently as bridges were washed out as was the trail on my GPS map.

The day was filled will lots of walks along the highway on paved roads and very steep, rocky climbs (I was too preoccupied with foot placement and breathing to take photos). The photo of my morning break above was after a very steep 250m climb the guidebook described as “relentless.” Again, my guide Sandy doesn’t lie. Not a dry spot on that shirt or those pants at 9:00 a.m. and the trail was completely shaded. Brutal climbing day.

Ahh … Cassio!

At the end of the day today, I encountered a surprising charm of a small Italian town (Cassio, population 130) with an excellent bar/cafe (I order nearly one of everything – that good) and a very good restaurant. The hostel and hostel host were also very hospitable.

Creepy night has been redeemed by a quaint little town.

Last thought … I’ve been surprised on the range of emotions I’ve experienced on this pilgrimage and their intensity. I noted in an earlier post a desire to be more in touch with my emotions. I’ve been in touch with them on this trip. Aloneness exposes our deeper emotions and a lack of comfort, privilege and control intensifies them. I’m very subject to the world around me (e.g., quality of trail, quality of housing, availability of companionship, physical exhaustion, temperatures, etc.) on this trip and it exposes me. It doesn’t feel great but that doesn’t make it wrong or bad. Just is (& worth acknowledgment and reflection).