St. Francis' Way - Page 6

Assisi - Spello

At the cafe near our accommodation we took our breakfast relaxed, because today's route was also short, but it was tough. Something important, unfortunately, I could not include in our planning, the visit to the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, 4 km away. This played an enormous role in the life of Francis, is also beautiful, but we did not manage everything with our strict schedule. Immediately after Assisi, the path led steeply into the forest, for a long time it went up to the almost 1300 m high Monte Subasio.

After a rest we descended briefly, we visited the Eremo delle Carceri, now a monastery. Very small, with many tourists, so we were quickly back on the road. Again I got lost briefly, with GPS we quickly noticed, then we tackled the steep climb to the summit. This was already extremely exhausting, but at some point we stood on a green meadow on the mountain, lonely, quiet, a dream. Here we rested for half an hour, Manu always wants to enjoy a lot, and I always get restless after my break cigarette 🙂.

After more kilometers up gentle hills, past the summit cross with insane views, came another long ridge across meadows in the direction of some poles towards us. From there it was downhill, initially over beautiful meadows, later sporadically through the forest. Spello appeared in the valley while we wandered downhill through olive plantations. It is like most very old towns on a hill, has narrow winding streets and is lovingly maintained.

An old Italian welcomed us at the accommodation (Hotel Il Cacciatore, 75,00 € per room including breakfast) and explained to us where there are stores and restaurants. There was not much to discover here, just a contemplative lovely place. We wandered up and down the alleys for another hour and finally ended up in the bar, in the evening then in an excellent and inexpensive pizzeria.

Spello - Montefalco

After breakfast on the lovely terrace of our hotel, we first marched downhill through the whole town, then out to the town gate and down a busy road along before we turned onto quieter roads. It was mostly straight ahead today, with only a hill at the end. So we ran for a long time on a dirt road along a dike, then came again busier roads, but also a meadow where no path was visible at all. Even another pilgrim couple we met once and together we took a wrong turn.

Arriving in the town of Bevagna, we treated ourselves to an ice cream and relaxed briefly. After that, the route was mostly on roads, occasionally dirt roads, along the Montepennino to Montefalco. The town also had medieval flair, we rested in the central square and then looked for our accommodation (B&B Frantoio Brizi, 45 € per person including breakfast). Here was just a wedding, so a lot of hustle and bustle, but quickly came the son of the hospitalera to show us the accommodation. It was very tidy, many pilgrimage books lay here, but first Manu took possession of the beautiful terrace.

I had agreed with the hospitalera by mail that we got a place in her restaurant in the evening, because today it was properly full, a star chef was here. So it happened, after shopping and a terrace beer there was food of the finest. Manu was blown away by the selection and packed the plate pretty full. For me it was but soon too loud, typical Italian just 🙂.