Today we passed through the small town of Sabbioneta. It is completely enclosed within Renaissance walls, and has UNESCO status in conjunction with the city of Mantova (Mantua). Both places were ruled by the Gonzaga family, who produced a saint and a shocking number...
Into Verona on the Via Postumia
We have spent the last two weeks moving slowly across Italy on and off the Via Postumia. Our best days are always the ones Andrea Vitiello has carefully planned on either the cycling or walking Via Postumia . For reasons of time and availability of affordable...
Vicenza to Lonigo
There are few things more annoying than reading endless blogs about beautiful towns and villages. Wouldn’t it be refreshing to read for once that we arrived in a cesspool of a place that smelled like sewer gas and looked like a dollar store exploded in the central...
Gluttony Tick Style
I’m sitting in the waiting room in the hospital at Cittadella. I had a brief glimpse of the intact medieval walls before turning into this large modern brick structure. Yesterday a watched a blood engorged tick backing out of my leg after a good feed. I...
Treviso
After a 34 km walk and half a tub of ice cream Gord was still up for a walk around Treviso. Italy is amazing; step into a Cathedral and stumble upon a painting by Titian. In Treviso it’s his Annunciation. We also were treated to some frescos in the crypt from the 13...
“ Stai Attento!”
We are staying at a lovely house with our host Lilica in a small community halfway between Portogruaro and Treviso. I offered to cook spaghetti carbonara and she laughed and said that’s what she was going to make. She insisted on making us dinner and we had a lively...
It’s magic after the rain!
Yesterday was a rain day. It was only the fourth soaker on the trip so far. It feels like something magic when the rain stops. Suddenly an overcast day is fantastic and a small square of blue, or a ray of sunshine makes me feel jubilant. Today we had a number...
Palmanova
Before we departed for this Camino I had a casual look at our route across Italy on our mapping app. Zooming into one of the many undulations on the track, I was surprised to see a perfectly symmetrical nine pointed star. This is the town of Palmanova, which we...
Aquileia
Gordon: Have you ever heard of the city of Aquileia? Neither had I, but in the second century AD it was the second largest city in Roman Italy. Attila the Hun gave it pride of place in his depredations in Italy, almost completely destroying the city...
Last Coffee in Slovenia
Today we left Slovenia and walked across the border into Italy. We made our way across Slovenia on the Jacobova Pot between the Hungarian and Italian borders in 13 days and 323 kms. We have now come 751 kms from Budapest. The Camino in Slovenia is well...
Camino Spirit in Slovenia
Tomorrow we climb out of the village of Podraga in the beautiful, deep Vipava Valley and say goodbye to Slovenia. It was our first time in the country and certainly won’t be our last.When we first crossed into Slovenia in stormy weather, one of the members of the...
Lake Bled
Gordon: We met Maja, a Slovenian pilgrim, on the Camino Francés in 2011. In the intervening years I have accumulated wrinkles and Arctic blonde hair (to use Mary’s euphemism) but Maja has been considerably more busy. She has acquired a charming...