Celia Walks

 Andria’s main attraction is its Cathedral. Emperor Frederick II’s second and third wives are buried here.  In general, Emperor Frederick II was an admirable Emperor: King of Sicily, Germany, and Italy before becoming Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 and King of Jerusalem from 1225.  It was he who admitted Muslims to his armies and worked for peace and harmony throughout his realms (while fighting a surprising number of wars). But his wives didn’t have it easy. He tended to seclude them, to forbid them to talk to or even see other men, including their own brothers, and he also neglected them, surrounding himself with a “harem” of other women. His second wife, Isabella, was 14 when he married her (mainly so he could get for himself the title ´King of Jerusalem’) and she died at 16 after giving birth to two children. All that story as a build-up to a visit to the cathedral - where no trace of these two ladies remains. So many relics - so many bits of bones! So nothing left but ...

Sun in the morning, rain in the afternoon. Today I stayed with the Via, and the Via stayed entirely on country lanes winding through olive groves occasionally interspersed with fruit trees or grapes.  In the morning there were a fair number of people gathering olives or tending the vines, but at lunch time they all drove off and with the rain, none came back. These interesting constructions are starting to show up in the fields. They must be old (they just seem to be repositories for garbage these days) and are probably the original “trullis” that people go to see west of here - trullis are little round houses that were built in great numbers in the past. Last night I was flipping tv channels when I came across Denys Arcand’s film “L’âge des ténèbres’.  His work is really good! I got a lot of the Quebec references but missed the subtleties as it was of course dubbed in Italian. It was a welcome cultural change. Today’s food intake wasn’t great. Rusks and apricot jam plus a cel...

 Another day where I managed to do two “stages” in one day by doing a fair amount of road walking. This wasn’t my initial intention, but a farmer stopped me as I set out on a muddy lane and strongly advised me to take the road, so I reached my supposed destination at 11.30, and it was a rather dreary town with nothing much to do or see. Unfortunately, I think I had a lovely pilgrim place to stay there with a very friendly family, but I just couldn’t face spending so much time in a nondescript place, so off I went to the following day’s destination, Canova.  Another nondescript town, but at least I arrived at 4.30 with less time to put in! Olive harvesting is still going on. Different types of olives ripen at different times, and also the degree of ripeness affects the taste of the olive oil.  With the huge fields of olive trees, more mechanization is needed. This machine shakes the whole tree to get the olives down.  At the end of the day I saw a number of small trac...

 Last night it poured rain, and this morning I could see that the mountains I had walked over were white with snow.  But the sun was shining on the plain and the wind had died down, so after a very substantial breakfast at the agriturismo (most of which I stashed away for the day) I set out and was soon back to walking in a t-shirt. The region I’m in now specializes in wind power and agriculture, with agri-industrial installations here and there.  The Via promised to wind through muddy fields, and the towns here are very small and sleepy, so I walked mainly on the roads and thus managed two days of Via in one day. No point arriving early at a destination when there is nothing to see or do at said destination! Snow… I know, nothing compared to what has been happening in the Sault! For some reason, when new power lines are installed, the old ones are just left to rot. I’ve seen this all along in this region. Surely the farmers must complain? Uninteresting and under-tended u...

Today’s walk was again through windmill territory, and the wind was howling!  So strong it almost blew me over at times. Didn’t walk through any villages, and I’m staying in a very small place tonight. Coming through this village this afternoon everything was closed up tight. Do people spend all of Saturday afternoon sleeping, I wonder?

 Today started in mist with a very steep climb ending at the hamlet of Celle. A bit more up and I reached 950 metres at a pass through this last lot of hills. Then down to the plain and a tiny rise on which is located the old town of Troia. It was a good walking day. This whole area is a wind funnel.  Wind mills everywhere: on the hilltops and as far as the eye can see in the valley.  A large electrical station near Troia looks like something we would see at home beside a major traditional generating station.  Walking through mud up to the first ridge with windmills. The wind blew away all thoughts and cleared out my head.  Morgane and I arrived about the same time at the hostel. We are the only two in a multi-purpose big old building that includes two dorm rooms with ten bunk beds each. No heating, so we spent quite a bit of time in a bar that was warm.    Troia is known for its cathedral, built in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.  Can you see...

 A rainy cold day. The young Italian had thoroughly scared us yesterday with how difficult the path would be. It wasn’t, but the wind was extremely strong and the rain getting heavier so when halfway up a very big hill, on a country road, a farming couple stopped and offered me a ride, I happily accepted.  Morgane arrived shortly after me, and she also had been offered a ride and accepted. We chuckled over our less than purist pilgrim attitude.    The mountains have given way to rolling hills. Farm country, with small villages. Tomorrow is another country walk and a pilgrim hostel, one of very few here in the south, at day’s end. Then Morgane and I part ways, she following the Archangel Michael and I headed to the east coast ports. The Archangel on the path.

Second posting with photos. Wednesday was a longer day walking - left at 9 am and arrived at 4 pm with only three by-the-side-of-the-road stops. Lots of up and down, and an annoying path. Over the past two days, there have been no directional signs for the Via. That means you have to regularly consult the app on your cell phone to see if you are on the right path. Today there started to be occasional signs, but that led me to a bridge that obviously hadn’t been used for many years with a barricade saying unfit for foot traffic. So I had to devise an alternate route which led through an industrial zone. After that, picked up the Via path again. The path started off as a road, for no discernible reason became a track, because of recent rain became all muddy, then when shoes couldn’t become any more clogged with mud, became a stream running between two high banks of brambles. With wet feet and scratched arms, all of a sudden, again for no visible reason, a drainage ditch appeared for the ...

This is a second posting of this entry, with pictures. For some reason, I can’t get photos into the blog at present.  So I’ll try adding a bit more description in words. Hopefully the internet will get better, or else I’ll be able to figure out some other kind of solution… It was a varied walk this past Tuesday, and Morgane and I arranged to meet up in Benevento at the end of the day and share a small flat. There are several interesting things to talk about in Benevento.  The history here is somewhat familiar.  An ancient city, it was inhabited by the Samnites (peoples of the mountainous south of Italy) before the Romans conquered it in 298 BC.  The Roman Empire fell, and the Longobards arrived in the sixth century.  After the death of the last Longobard king, the town came under the rule of the Popes (1077) and stayed that way until the unification of Italy in 1860. One of the best preserved churches of the Longobards is the seventh century Santa Sophia here in...

 Not that long a walk, but an ascent of about 800 metres, followed by a corresponding descent on the other side of a mountain range. Here is the scene leaving in the morning - the mountains to be crossed are on the right. As the climb goes on, the view gets impressive. In the mountains. Vitulano is a village with nothing much to do. I arrived at my Air B&B about 1.30pm. It’s a large house with five dogs and three cats and a very loud family of parents and adult son. The father and I had lunch together - pasta, iceberg lettuce salad (the only kind all throughout southern Italy apparently), bread and cheese.  Reminded me of country meals in France - very simple. Unfortunately it is really cold in the house and they don’t seem to have hot water. Last night I had supper with a fellow pilgrim - the first I’ve encountered since Rome - and tonight we had drinks together. Morgane has walked here from her home in Nantes (north-west France).  She is following the ligne St-Miche...

 Breaking the German defences at Monte Cassino was key to liberate Rome but also to distract the Germans so that they would not reinforce defenses along the west of France.  Losses at Monte Cassino were very high. The Polish forces took the mount, but after the war weren’t recognized, and much of their country came under Soviet control. Polish cemetery Commonwealth cemetery.  So very well done: most stones have something personal. The simple inscription “our love is with you, Mom and Dad” on the stone of a 19 year old made me cry. German cemetery. Over 20,000 young men are buried here, and many more are unidentified than in the other cemeteries.  They are buried six together for each marker. What a senseless thing wars are. There is a story about a brief truce on the 19th of March 1944.  The two adversaries were dug in actually very close to each other, and between them the field was full of wounded and dead.  Soldiers emerged and both sides helped each oth...

Today was spent in Cassino, with lots of walking. I am here because my father came up through Sicily to the Liri  Valley just west of here as the Allied troops were breaking through the Gustav Line, established as a defense across Italy from west to east.  Breaking this line enabled the Allies to advance to Rome and continue northwards. My father was in the artillery, and after Italy was sent to the Netherlands. Cassino was totally destroyed by Allied bombing, so the town is all post-1945 builds.  Last night it was definitely a  youthful town, restaurants, bars and cafes all full of happy, noisy young ones.   The town lies at the foot of a high hill, on the top of which is Monte Cassino.  When the Romans were here they built a temple at the top. At the start of the sixth century, Saint Benedict was looking for a place to start a religious house, and chose the same mount.  He built a Christian sanctuary over the Roman temple, and from here his teachings...