Day One - 13 April 2019 - Sn Miniato to Gambassi Termi - 24km

 We did it!

Day One - San Miniato to Gambassi Termini - about 24kms.

We saw amazing views every way we turned, fields of vines and olive trees, beautiful old houses, and undulating hills as far as the eye could see.

For the first part of the day we didn’t see any other pilgrims but as we reached the half way point we came across 17 Italians out hiking for the weekend. We also met a guy from Israel and a French couple.

The last 4 km were uphill - not particularly steep but it went on for ever, and our feet were getting tired.

At last our refuge for the evening appeared - an old monastery converted into simple rooms for pilgrims.

Our route

The elevation - look at that hill at the end!

Leaving San Miniato

San Miniato from a distance

A first aid box for pilgrims

A book for pilgrims to sign

Pretty houses and views

When we got nearer to this house we saw that the
animals lived downstairs and their owners up stairs.

Nearly there!

These Italian hikers were walking for just a few days

What a beautiful house to restore as a resting place for pilgrims

Halfway up the steep climb

The one and only bar on today's route

Keep going up, that's Gambassi Termi in the distance!

The very old monastery which is our home tonight

Our 'cell', the ceiling is very pretty

That's a lot of flights!

Relaxing in the garden

Gambassi Termi - up hill all the way!

The journey.

9th April

We are on our way! 😁

Last nights snow storm wasn’t as bad as we expected but we are glad that we arrived at the airport last night so we didn’t have to drive on slick roads this morning. At the moment our first flight to Toronto is on time - so let’s hope it stays that way!

10th April

We made it to Florence and so did our bags! That was a long trip via Toronto and Frankfurt. Flying into Florence we could see the rather large hills that we are going to have to walk across! 

11th April

We are all ready!
It’s a long walk tomorrow with a long steep climb at the end but the views throughout the day are meant to be amazing. We just wanted to get started now! 😁

  

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25th March 2019 - Rose Bay to Lunenburg practice walk

 Our departure date for the Via Francigena is only 2 weeks away so we have decided that we should do some serious training this week.

We drove into Lunenburg this morning and left one of our cars there and then returned home. Then we donned rucksacks and hiking attire and set off on foot to collect the car.
Lunenburg is 17km from us or 19km if you take the scenic, hilly route. The weather was promised to be cool but sunny and The Knot Pub promised a reward of fries on our arrival!

19th February 2019 - Rose Bay to LaHave bakery Practice Walk

 We did our first practice walk today.

It was - 6 feels like - 8 outside, hopefully Italy will be warmer.
We decided we would walk to the LaHave ferry, ride across the river and then get lunch at the LaHave bakery before walking back.
Unfortunately we underestimated the amount of time it would take us to reach the ferry and we arrived about 2 minutes after it left for the other side!
We didn’t want to wait for 30 minutes for it to return as it was way too cold, so be walked back to the amazing Rose Bay diner instead.
After delicious soup and sandwiches we headed out for the final 3 km home.
It suddenly felt even colder, the wind began to blow and then down came the snow - not a lot but enough! 😁  It was a long cold 3 kms.
So our first practice walk in as about 15km - a good start.