Saturday November 4. 13.5 km. Cori.

Despite yesterday evening having decided to take a bus to our destination today, by this morning our aches had dissipated and we were ready to walk again. We left Velletri in sunshine and 13 degree temperatures. Groves of olive trees alternated with grapevines and fruit trees - oranges, kiwis, pomegranates. After some roadside walking, our path wound its way through fields and low hills.

Somewhat more than halfway to Cori, a cute medium-sized dog leapt over a wall and bit me on the lower and upper leg. Luckily Theresa was there to scare it away and then to deal with the owners. From their emotional voices I thought they were angry at me, but quite the contrary. They drove us to a clinic in Cori, stayed with us, made sure we got to a pharmacy for antibiotics and big bandages, and took us to our B&B.

All our worries dissolved with a lovely aperitivo at a local bar and a superb dinner of antipasto, greens, gnocchi and steak. Delicious flavours, inexpensive, and very friendly townspeople. I’ve been told not to walk much so tomorrow we’re staying in this small town, and a description will follow in tomorrow’s blog.

We were afraid we would have to climb up to this mountain-top village! Thankfully, not.

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September 5

I landed at Heathrow this morning at 6 am, a very inconvenient time to get a room and rest! But my student residence accommodation includes a common room with handy couches for a short snooze. The neighbourhood abuts on Regent’s Park, complete with gorgeous flowerbeds. The Queen Mary’s rose garden in Regent’s Park. My neighbourhood wandering took me to the Wallace House which used to be one of the homes of the marquesses of Hertford. The Hertfords were fabulously rich, mainly from extensive land holdings, and in the 18th and 19th centuries avid art collectors. They obviously had Trumpian home decorating tastes. Here are two of their many clocks, all of which need frequent ‘fine tuning’, it appears. I particularly liked two 18th c British paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds in their collection: Mrs Carnac and the hauntingly strange Strawberry Girl.

Sat Oct 4. London.

19 days walking on pilgrimage paths for a total of 395 km or 245 miles on foot (not that arduous - an average of 20.7 km per day, and lots of ‘rest days’ staying put in one place). All of that undone in 1.5 hours on a Eurostar train. I’m not entirely sure what conclusion I’m drawing from that comparison, but I’m back where I started, in London. On my way to my lodgings (I’m staying in a Buddhist retreat centre) I decided to visit the first visitable place to cross my path, which turned out to be the Foundling Museum. Horrified by the sight of infants being abandoned on 18th c London streets, a prosperous seaman, Thomas Coram, spent 17 years raising awareness and funds, as well as obtaining royal permission to build London’s first children’s charity. Opened in 1739, the Foundling Hospital continued its work until the 1950s, and actually is still active as a non-institutional resource, under a different name. Here is a photo of it in 1935. So many similarities to ...

Saturday September 6

I have given myself today and tomorrow in London before starting the walk. A good thing because I’m having technical difficulties getting on to the AirB&B site that I need to access for my Monday night accommodation… Today I had a lovely walk to Canary Wharf along quiet streets bordering the Thames. The tide was high and the water a bit agitated, but the sun was warm and the strollers happy. Over 25,000 bombs fell on this area of London in WWII as the Germans fully recognised the importance of maritime trade to British resilience. Some warehouses have survived (or been rebuilt) and the extensive blocks of post-war flats are very attractive (and very very expensive.) I had a pleasant break in a sixteenth century pub, the ‘Prospect of Whitby’, where Charles Dickens would come to listen to dock folk - original flagstone floors and a pewter counter on the bar. From the waterfront balcony patrons in earlier days could watch as pirates and smugglers were hung from a gibb...

Celia Walks

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