The Inevitable First Try
The Via Francigena is an ancient route that pilgrims walked during medieval times to get from Canterbury to Rome. We heard it talked about here and there, and in February, when Daniel's brother visited, Daniel wanted to find it. We drove to Vetralla, about 17 kilometers from Viterbo, parked the car, and walked up to the town to find the route. On the way we ate our Pane Pizza Dolce pizza, played catch with the nerf football, took photos by a pilgrim sign. But once we were in the town, we didn't know which way to go. We walked down the main road one way, walked back, decided to walk out of the town in the other direction, spent likely two hours hanging out on the side of the road while waiting for Daniel to come with the car, playing soccer, chatting, enjoying the sun.
By about five o'clock, a few missteps later, we had walked and driven a bit more, and Daniel had found the trail. We parked in a lot and walked the Via Francigena, a wooded trail in green. We walked about half an hour out and then back to make sure we made it back in the sunlight. Tom and the Sebastian and Hannah kicked a soccer ball, the kids having created some game. Connor and Mary battled ninja-style with sticks. Daniel and I walked and talked.
It was not the hike we'd imagined, but we were glad that we had at least found the trail, and the little red and white striped signs that indicated that we were indeed on the Via Francigena.
Try Two: Italian Style
One Saturday I saw my colleague Santo out on his bike. He told me that he was taking the train to Montefiascone and then biking back to Viterbo. I went home and told Daniel and the kids.
A few weeks later, Hannah was asking to go biking, so we planned our second Via Francigena outing: Montefiascone to Viterbo. We told the kids that it would be a few hour outing, and then we could return and they could relax (we value relaxing quite a bit in our house). We walked to Passione e Pedale on Saturday morning to rent bikes; Daniele, the owner, had moved his shop, so we walked across town to find his shop. I think it might be easier to bullet point the next three hours.
10:30am Arrive to P e P; Daniele's not there. Bummer. His colleague (a real estate agent who is also renting some of this modest office) says, He's not here this morning, but you can call him.
10:40am Call Daniele, who says, Sure! I can meet you at noon. I'll bring the bikes to you. Send me sizes. We're bummed that we need to wait til noon, but it's okay.
10:40-11:45 We sit on the grass at Piazza della Rocca, eat our pizza (from PPD), read, chat, play games. Alessio's
nonna walks by and says hello.
11:45am Daniele calls to say it's going to be 12:30 rather than noon. Dang it.
11:50am We go get gelato.
12:20pm Daniele calls to say that it's one of those days: he got to his van and he's got a flat tire. He says that we can still rent the bikes, but we'd have to get ourselves to him, about a mile away.
12:30pm We can't turn back now. I call him back and say we're on our way.
12:30-1:15 We find Daniele and his colleague/girlfriend Martina and bikes to try. We ride around parking lots testing out our bikes. Happy happy. He says he'll charge us for only half a day for our rentals (even though, really, he doesn't have a half-day rate). I adore him and Martina -- they're kind and helpful and funny, too.
2pm maybe? We catch a train to Montefiascone.
My times might be off, but they're pretty close. It was a typical Italy experience, and we could do nothing but go with it. In Montefiascone we stopped at a bar to use the bathroom, buy a snack, and ask how to get to the trail (exactly what we should have done in Vetralla weeks before!!).
Ten minutes into the trail I felt like I was in the movies -- this is the Italy that they show in films and describe in books. The fields. I know there's a better way to describe this beauty, but I don't have it. When my friend from home calls, I pick up my phone, and she lets me blather on about how we are out in the country and it is gorgeous and I love it and this looks like every Tuscany postcard and painting I've seen. It's sunny and beautiful, and I can imagine nothing better.
Three kids go ahead; Mary stays with me and Daniel. We eventually catch up to the other three, speedsters and adventurers and kids that are certain that they are going the right way and haven't made a mistake and convinced that we would have found each other eventually. Daniel disagrees; he points out that they're actually headed back in the direction of Montefiascone. We spend another hour debating the route, revisiting the scene of the turn, determining that Daniel is right. I sit down and take a photo of what looks to me like a card from our VanGogh memory game.
(This is how we learned VanGogh's painting: my dad and Jacqueline some years ago brought us back this memory game from the VanGogh Museum in Amsterdam. I want games like this for every artist I like and I want the kids to know. No luck thus far. Years later when we went to the museum ourselves, the kids were excited to spot the paintings they knew. Familiarity helps us all, makes us feel more connected and excited to see in real life what we've learned or seen or heard about.
Daniel's birthday was last week. Sebastian wanted to get him a puzzle since they've worked on two this year -- one from the Vatican of a map that has Viterbo on it and one from the museum we went to in Siena.....or was it Florence?.....Sebastian gets him a puzzle of the Allhambra in Spain, which Daniel learned about when he was in high school and which he wants to see when we go to Spain in June. I'm thinking we'll all get more excited for the site with the buildup of the puzzle.)
We bike at various speeds, and I'm usually last. I love this ride. And the kids like it, too, even if our intended few hour excursion ended up going til 8pm. Hannah can't wait to do it again.
Take 3: Just a Sunday morning walk
Daniel and I go for a walk some weekend mornings, not generally around the walls, because it's the weekend, and I like to switch it up from weekdays. We walk out Porta Romana, and we decide that we'll see where the Via Francigena route goes, following the red and white pilgrim sign. I'm somewhat amazed that we haven't followed this before. Now that we know of the Via Francigena, we look for it everywhere. The Vetralla debacle with Daniel's brother now feels so long ago, so long ago that we were so ignorant of this town-to-town path. We follow it for half an hour, staying on roads, though quiet roads, uphill, through Viterbo. We turn around to get back in time for church.
Take 4: Playing Hooky and Capstone
SYA students have to do a final project, named Capstone. It needs to be a project that is place-based, with research, hands-on experience, and doing. They keep a work journal, write a research paper, write a reflection, give a presentation.
One student is doing one hundred miles of the Via Francigena. She was going to write a book since she thought that that would look good for colleges, but some teachers helped her come up with something more place-based and out and about. She started in Bolsena, I think, and will finish at the Vatican today. Since she can't be out there alone, she recruits classmates and teachers to do parts with her. She'll do one leg one day, and a few days another leg with another person. I agreed to do one day, happy to be outside rather than at my desk and to explore more of the Via Francigena.
It's a Tuesday. I tell the kids they can come if they want. Connor doesn't want to wait around for the student to find where to get her stamp to make official that she's walked, so he says no. Sebastian has a test that he doesn't think he should miss, so he heads to school, too. Hannah and Mary -- who, I later learn, just postponed their homework -- are happy to play hooky and join me and Katie on the 17 kilometer walk from Viterbo to Vetralla.
This is Katie's Capstone project so she's done all the research. We show up with pizza and water, and we get to follow. It's sunny and warm. The girls are troopers -- they walk and talk with Katie and each other and me. We stop to look at wild poppies and a trench being dug for a pipe. Mary's takes videos of Katie for Katie's project. Hannah's legs get tired; I get tired. The other two forge ahead. We're on a schedule so our breaks are short. Katie wants to be on a bus back to Viterbo at 12:40, so we keep moving.
As we near Vetralla, Hannah says, "I know where we are! Do you remember this? I remember this!" I have no idea what she's talking about, but Mary does. They exchange more remembered moments, and as we keep walking and looking around, I get it: this is where we parked the Fiat that Saturday months ago with the gang and Daniel's brother. This is the hill we walked up. This is where we sat and ate our PPD pizza. This is where we took photos. This is where we should have asked directions but didn't.
Katie gets her stamp, I get a coffee and bus tickets, the girls sit and eat the rest of the pizza and drink Esta The. The bus arrives at 12:40, and we head back to Viterbo.
So this is what it's like to go on a planned, perfectly orchestrated excursion.
Possible 5 or 6 or 7: Where next?
I'm not sure when our next Via Francigena outing will be. But I have feeling that we're not done with it yet. Maybe next month or maybe many years down the road...