I got a good nights sleep and didn’t make it down for breakfast until 9am. There was another Italian pilgrim at breakfast. She was walking for a few days, before going back to work.
I was on the road by 9.45, hoping for a better day than yesterday. It was going to be hot, it was already 26 degrees as I left the hotel. Most walkers had stayed in the previous town, Altopascio and had passed Galleno, by the time I got started.
The day got off to a bad start when making a wrong turn, and the GPS not picking it up as the wrong and right track were close to each other. By the time I noticed I had to walk back as there weren’t any short cuts to get back on track. Then, back on the official path, it came to a dead end at a locked gate to a house, just as I was caught up by a group of 3 other walkers. A lady came out of the house and told us the path was next to the house wall. I wonder how many times she did that?
I continued through the woods together with Rod from the group that had caught up with me, an English-New Zealand-American, now living in Los Angeles. We walked and talked for 5kms until we reached Ponte a Cappiano, where the two others from the group were taking a break next to the bridge across the Canale Maestro. We spoke for a few minutes and were joined by a German walker.
I continued along the canal, and through what was once the greatest inland marsh in Italy, but now mostly drained.
The temperature must have reached 30 degrees by now, and the walk was mainly through open countryside. I reached Fucecchio, hoping to find somewhere to get an ice cream. I visited the large church, San Giovanni Battista, and passed through the town, neither finding ice cream or a open bar, and rested on a bench. I’d walked half of today’s 25km.
I set off again and another group of 3, two Italians and a very talkative Australian caught up with me as I was filling my water bottle. We walked together for several kilometers, still primarily through open countryside, following the Arno river, before heading south towards San Miniato Basso. San Miniato has a lower (Basso) and upper town, the upper town ca. 150m above the lower town. We stopped outside a house that had a freezer box full of water that you could take and make a donation, I filled my water bottle, before starting the climb.
I must have followed the cycling signs instead of the walking signs, as I ended up taking a longer path up to the village, but finally arrived after a very steep climb.
I entered the town next to the cathedral, which was about to host a wedding. The front of the Cathedral is decorated with white ceramic basins representing the arrangement of the stars in the Ursa Major and Minor. I also took a picture of the monument of Mr. Arturo Gallerini, his dog Parigi and the world’s biggest truffle of 2520 grams. The area is famous for truffle and San Miniato has a yearly truffle festival.
Passing the Cathedral I entered the scenic Piazza del Seminario (today Piazza della Repubblica) where the Bishop’s Seminary building stands. Construction began in 1650 and was completed 63 years later. The building’s facade is decorated with 30 frescoes of allegorical figures of virtue, each linked with a sentence from the Bible explaining its meaning. Allegorical frescoes, like all religious images, were at the time considered fundamental to passing on to the public a set of moral teachings and dogmas, as well as being emotionally involving. Today, the building no longer serves as a seminary (previously it housed 12 clerics). It houses municipal and diocesan offices, religious institutes as well as the Seminary Library, an archive of unpublished and old documents and books. You can visit it, but need to make prior arrangement, which I hadn’t.
I bought an ice cream and sat down in one of the many squares to enjoy it, before walking towards the agritourism where I was staying tonight. It was a couple of kilometers outside town. A couple of cyclists asked me to take a picture of them in front of a white church. I walked out of town, enjoying the beautiful views of the village and surrounding countryside.
I made it to the agritourism and bumped into Rod and his friends, who I had walked with earlier. Rod had been hit by the heat and not felt well, so he’d taxied the last few kilometers. In the evening I had a very enjoyable dinner together with Rod and his friends Kevin and Sofie, despite the food not being great.
It was “only” 25km and a moderate elevation profile of 510m a lot of which was due to the climb up to San Miniato. However, it was very hard going due to the heat and lack of shade. Walking with others was a welcome distraction.
