I’m starting to not trust our VF App. It said today was a moderate day with little climbing. The majority of elevation would happen the first half of the day and then we’d be coasting in the afternoon. I was onboard with that, psyched myself up for what I expected to be true. B-flipping-S. It was nothing like that and I was feeling pretty darn duped! Oh well, another day on the Via Francigena. I can tell you right now, George will never do this route again! He is all sorts of done! Moving on.

The morning was doable. Actually it was exceptionally nice. I think I know what the Lazio Region is known for. It is comparable to the Central Valley of California. Fertile lands that are meant to grow baby grow! Once we left the thriving metropolis of Acquapentente, we entered fields on top of fields, loaded with fruits and vegetables.

I ended up talking with a foursome from Northern Italy as I had no idea what I was looking at. The huge fields that were planted so perfectly are their golden potatoes. Oh I have to tell you, potatoes here are nothing like our russet potatoes. They are yellow, creamy texture and they roast them with rosemary and a pound of butter. Then drizzle with olive oil and you think you went to heaven! They are one of my favorite things in Italy. Who would’ve thought? George would disagree and tell you pasta hands down and preferably lasagna, but I am hooked on their potatoes. I can’t get enough of them. Other things I saw grown were Chick Peas, Olives Orchards for days, Peppers and Eggplant. No tomatoes but I’m sure they grow them somewhere else!

We made it to our one and only town around 11am. It was San Lorenzo Nuevo. We stopped and had panini’s, macchiato’s and drank lots of water. It is not terribly hot but the humidity makes you think it’s 90. After our lunch and George’s final chocolate croissant, we hit the trail. Well at least I thought we did.

Once we headed out of town, we had our first sighting of Lake Bolsena. It’s was formed by a volcano that erupted 105 BC or near that time, and is now a source of recreation and tourism. It is about 1/4 size of Lake Tahoe but seems much bigger from my view point.

So back to the trail. I’m pretty much the navigator on this trip. I plot a course out in the morning and for the past 12 days, it has served us well. When we left, I assumed, first mistake, that the trail would take us off the main road and we would head south. And south we did, and then at a pretty good decline. As I’m following this path that resembles a trail, I realize I haven’t seen a sign for awhile. Number two clue. I come to a screeching halt, look at my trusty map and realize we are way off course. Dang it, and back up the incline and to town we go. After scratching my head for what seemed like an hour, I finally got us back on course. It was a terrible design of signs that even the Germans headed off course. In fact on the same line I originally was on. Lucky for them, I rerouted them before they made the fatal error and had a bonus mile on top of our already 18 mile day. Compass Head relinquished her title!

Once back on course, we were in the woods on a bonafide trail overlooking the lake. It was quite nice with some trees to shade us, a slight downhill, great views of the lake and a few rocks to make it interesting. Yep, we were back.

The afternoon was a bit longer than we thought and both of us were running out of water. George spotted a nice resort and we left trail in search of H2O. They had a pool, so there must be water. This place was completely deserted. Finally after my failed attempt of breaking and entry, only to find nothing but a bottle of vinegar, I knew we were in deep trouble. Nope, that didn’t taste good, but George found a bathroom with running water. I guess that’ll do. We filled up our water bottles, nodded farewell to the nice but abandoned resort and made it back on trail with water bottles filled to the brim.

We finally arrived in the Old Town of Bolsena inside the castle walls. Our GPS went haywire and for the life of me, we traveled around like mice caught in a dead end maze! I was ready to pull my hair out, when by the grace of God, we found a real street that led us out of the castle walls. Praise the Lord, we will actually get through this day.

Gelato was found and that cures all ailments. We put away our walking sticks, and being powered by nothing but cream and sugar, we made our way to Lake Bolsena. After milling around what looked like the streets of Carmel, we found our fine digs for the evening. Thank goodness. That was one heck of a day!

With all that we go through, all the ups and downs, hills and valleys, the Lord God never leaves us. His perfect peace is upon us from now till eternity.