SUNDAY, JUNE 25: - DAY TEN - Cassio to Berceto & Tugo 19.5km

SUNDAY, JUNE 25: DAY ELEVEN- Cassio to Berceto & Tugo 19.5km
Sil: Felt a bit bombed after a fitful sleep with all the noise from the locals who sang and laughed right outside our window until the early hours. Marion, Kathy and I explored the little village (hamlet?) of Cassio and visited the church before packing and leaving the hostel. What a lovely pilgrim day we’ve had. The day started on the quiet SS road with VF markers – concrete stele with a terracotta pilgrim relief – lining the road like a guard of honour. They are actually quite confusing because they are spaced out every 15 meters or so - unlike the Camino where a "stele” with shell usually indicates the path one should take. After a few hundred meters we branched off onto a gravel path.
From then on we climbed very steeply through a shady forest, sweating like pigs and being forced to stop and get our breath every few meters. Then the path deteriorated into a narrow, rutted chalky track going straight up the side of the mountain. Kathy thought we'd reached the top when she saw the sky through the dense trees and shouted out to us but the track curved onward and upward – a-la Polly Shorts. Finally we crested the top coming out at a tiny village and visited the church before continuing. Then it was up and down through fields and forests until we crested a hill to see Berceto nestled between hills in the valley below us.
We followed a cobbled pedestrian path into the town to find a Sunday market in progress. There was a service in the Cathedral, which is dedicated to S. Moderanno, so we couldn’t go inside. We visited the very helpful tourist office for a stamp and collected a few brochures as well - had a coffee and pastries at a pavement cafe, bought some fruit, salad and bread and continued on our way up into the hills for another 7km.
I recognised our hostel from the photo on our daily info sheets. It is in the middle of nowhere - a huge, squat, deep rust coloured country house on the side of the road with no other sign of life anywhere close by. Downstairs is a bar and restaurant called the Via Francigena. Our dorm is upstairs and as we are the only ones staying here we have the place to ourselves. We had a shower, washed our clothes and had a salad, cheese and ham lunch. Will have dinner here tonight and will attack the dreaded Cisa Pass tomorrow.

Marion: There is such a lot of history around the towns that we are walking through. Cassio where we were staying last night is recorded in the description of the return journey of Philip Augustus, King of France in 1191 and the little town of Castellonchio’s main road is paved with slabs of sandy stone typical of the medieval era. All places were once sites of medieval fortifications. There is a beautiful church in Castellonchio in the middle of the village.
Just outside Berceto we passed a shrine with an effigy of Saint Moderanno - he was the head of the Abbey built in the 18th Century and it is mentioned by Archbishop Sigeric in his diary. We got stamps in our pilgrim’s passports at the information centre. We now have about 16 stamps in our passports.

Kathy: I offered to carry lunch today from Berceto to our B&B which was about 7km along the road. We had bought 2 large tomatoes, a bag of shredded lettuce, some sliced Parma ham and gorgonzola cheese. We had also bought a homemade-organic-ingredients, loaf of brown bread from the market, sold by weight! Rayna and I also had a banana each and an apple. This was all put into a shopping bag...Well... I think my arms are now 10 inches longer - the bag got heavier and heavier and at some point Val offered to take it over and we both decided that this was probably a very good plot, because as soon as I'd handed over the lunch bag it felt like my load was halved and I could do an extra 10km with the backpack. Val had a similar experience when she handed the bag back to me!
I'm still battling with hay fever itchy eyes and itchy legs every time we go through fields. The eye drops the Italian Pharmacist gave me have been fantastic and I'm using them frequently so am looking after myself.

Rayna: Well, I was the "Sweeper" today and the girls gave me no work, all remembering their sticks etc. etc. which we certainly need going up the steep hills. It was very hot especially after leaving Berceto as we walked mostly along the main road. There was very little shade. There were many motor cycles out today, even a cycle race with very good seconding that passed us going from Berceto towards Cassio.
After our late lunch Val and I crashed and had a very lekker 40 winks, broken by Val's alarm woofing at us. We are now soaking up the late afternoon sun.

Val: We are in Parma country - Parma ham and porcini mushrooms and of course the real Parmesan - but the mushrooms are only in season from September. The restaurant is part of the hostel and has a real "Mama" in the kitchen. Good menu of home cooked dishes featuring lamb, wild boar and guinea fowl. The body however needs a break so will be choosing something a little lighter tonight.
Whilst we seem to have a preoccupation with food it is not surprising given the demanding days we are having - we average 7 -10 hours of off road climbing in high temperatures. It is hot by 0800am until late evening. We are drinking coke and water to replace the electrolytes regularly. We are also carrying heavy backpacks, supposed to be maximum of 6-7kg - mine however weighed 8.5kg at the airport check-in - surely a little black number cannot weigh that much?
Not surprising then that my highlight and reward is a cool glass of wine and an espresso nightcap and of course something special to eat - our stomachs rumble all day as we burn up the calories so quickly.
So far I have managed to get a glass of wine every night, should I not for some reason, perhaps our song will go a little like this (to the tune of James Browns - "I feel Good")

♫ I feel Grim
Like a sad Pilgrim
when I can't find
A glass of red wine ♫

SATURDAY, JUNE 24: - DAY NINE - Settimo Vittone - Casio (Train/taxi)

SATURDAY, JUNE 24: DAY TEN - Settimo Vittone - Casio (Train/taxi) 3kms

Kathy: Covered over 200km today - no, not walking in case you were wondering! But, by train and taxi. We left Settimo Vittone at about 8am this morning with Moreno (host's son) kindly driving us to Ivrea by car. A really spacious Fiat Ulysses. We then bought tickets, validated them as required and caught the 9.35 train to Torino (Turin) a distance of 62km. As this train was "retardo" - late !! - we didn’t have too long to wait in Turin for our next train. This trip cost ± E4 each. After a yucky cup of station coffee, we set off for Parma in the next train. On this train we had allocated seats - coach 6, seats 111 - 115. This trip cost about E19 each. The first train we travelled in had open seats but these had compartments with 6 seats in each compartment - this train was going through to Bari- long distance - so was obviously an overnight train.
We finally arrive in Parma at 3pm and as it was very hot and we had a long way to go so we opted for a taxi to the Hostel Cassio instead of walking. This trip took 1 hour in another suitable vehicle (a Renault Espace) and it was luckily air-conditioned. The temp leaving Parma was 35oC but we climbed up and up to Cassio with the temp dropping to 25oC by the time we arrived at our youth hostel. What a welcome sight!

Marion: We’ve had a few different loo stops on our walk. The normal conventional toilet, a long drop which Val used, the bushes where one has to be careful where you choose to go otherwise if you choose the wrong spot like Rayna did, you end up crouching on a stinging nettle bush - EINA!! Today after changing trains at Turin we went to the station loo. First of all you had to put 70cents (± R7) into a gate to get into the loo area and WHOOSH - sliding glass doors opened and you stepped into a disco! Purple fluorescent lights! As soon as you sat down the loo flushed - what a fright I got! Upon leaving the loo one had to push a button and - whoosh - the glass doors opened. I wonder what other loos we will find.

Sil: There is something very special about waking up in a castle surrounded by beautiful objects and padding through to a gorgeous bathroom with marble tiles, glass and brass, I stood looking around me and thought "I can't afford this!" But it was only E23 each! And then breakfast - what a beautiful spread. I'm sure Val will do it justice. The owners of this beautiful place are very artistic - Senora Clementine Nicoletta is a painter, potter, gardener and baker. She has made all of the ceramics in the Casa - crockery, light fittings vases etc. as well as paintings and murals all in a very romantic style eg each room has the name of a flower and we were in the IRIS room. Her beautiful son Moreno, is a photographer of note and she showed us one of his photographs that won 2nd prize in a national competition.
When we planned this walk we asked the advice of Joe Patterson, Carol Welch and others about walking a 30 day Via F. All recommended skipping the section between Ivrea and Fidenza or even Fornovo di Taro. So today Moreno drove us into town and we left Ivrea by train for Parma. As we left the Valle D'Aosta the mountains on either side became hills and we entered into the flat plains of the Po Valley. The scenery was rather bleak and industrial. We spent an hour at the station in Turin waiting for a connecting train to Parma. It is a large station and we were able to buy Val another peaked cap – this one with handy scarf attached to the back. As we neared Parma the vineyards returned, green fields and rising forested hills in the distance.
Due to train delays we’d arrived later than planned so we decided to get a taxi to the Cassio Youth Hostel. Climbing the hills from Parma was a little like driving to Cato Ridge from Durban - the further we got the more rural the landscape and then "The Valley of 1000 Hills" (or lower 'berg) with few settlements and heavily wooded hillsides.
One thing that has really paid dividends is the daily info sheet prepared before we left with a photograph of the town or village, a photo of the B&B/hotel/hostel, a copy of the confirmation of the accommodation booked, a map of where to find it and a short précis of the history of the town and area. The driver recognized the hostel right away from the photograph on the info sheet.
It is the job of the Group Leader of the day to read the info to us and tell us the distance to be walked each day, what the terrain will be like and approx how many hours we can expect to walk. Tomorrow we walk about 20kms, beyond Berceto, and Rayna will be the group leader.
After the IRIS room in a castle, we will spend the night in a youth hostel dorm tonight! Val was to sleep alone in the attic room so we carried her bed down to the main dorm to join us. This YH is clean and the ablutions are modern and we had it to ourselves. We were able to buy a couple of VF souvenirs and Kathy and Rayna each bought a shirt. The fellow who booked us in even showed us a catalogue of VF memorabilia that one can order. This is Parma-Fidenza country and the Associazione Europea VF is very active in this area.
Although our windows face the road there is no other building close by besides the tavern across the road so I doubt there will be much traffic and we should all have a good night's sleep. Buona Notte for now.