This covers two nights at the Hotel le Mure because the distance between the two cities is 31 km (19.4 mi)—a little bit much for one day. Since it was very hard communicating with the driver through the English-speaking receptionist, I gave up on the idea that the driver would pick me up after a one-way walk. I didn’t trust that he could find me, so on the first day, Sunday, I headed to the next day’s destination and ended up walking 16 km (10 mi) round trip—a cushy walk with nearly empty backpack while enjoying the scenery.
On that walk I became aware of the Umbrian custom of growing olives next to their vineyards—this dates back thousands of years and is called “coltura promiscua.” They really complement each other in terms of ripening time, similarity of processing procedure, and infrastructure. Mixed farming of the two crops may have other benefits: the Umbrian practice of coltura promiscua was credited with regional resistance to phylloxera!
At the end of the first day, I explored Citta di Costello and ran into a German walking buddy I met about a week ago—it was the two-night stay that enabled meeting him. He had meanwhile chummed up with three other German ladies.
Today I headed out from the hotel with a Dutch couple to a “midway” point that allowed us to continue to Pietralunga. Although they had their luggage shipped and walked with day packs, I soon left them behind me. My lodging at Pietralunga is a Agriturismo stay—not sure what qualifies it as such. I always likened it to a farm stay, but today’s stay isn’t even close. Before finding it on the outskirts of town, I stopped for a beer at the local bar and used their toilet. I was surprised to find an Asian-style fixture—only the second one of that kind while on the road—never in any of my lodgings. It was explained that they used to be popular and are quite costly to change out so they just leave them. They’re usually in the unisex toilets.
pics comments:
dog that first chased me and barked at me, then befriended me and walked with me about half a mile!
you see the bricks used in Città—only good building material
my luxury hotel room in Citta