The climb continues
From the first half of the day. The big excitement of the day was when we met these two Italian hikers who warned of us of aggressive dogs, told us not to walk the Via Francigena but to walk on the busy road. Our guide had us all walk together to be a bigger herd and not to look at engage the dogs. We walked expecting to be accosted at any moment, I even imagined being in an Italian hospital recovering from a dog attack. Not till the end did we see a bunch of sheep and then the shepherd and then the dogs.
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| Here we go |
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| Start of hike |
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| Trail |
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| Views |
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| The way |
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| Big excitement of the day |
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| Virginio the shepherd |
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| The sheep |
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| The culprits |
From our guides: The path now begins to climb, but our goal of the hilltop village of Radicofani is always in sight. Set on top of a 780-meter hill stands the mighty Rocca of Radicofani, a Carolingian castle built over 1000 years ago. This has always been one of the biggest challenges for pilgrims on the Road to Rome. Worth visiting are the Romanesque church of San Pietro and the one of S. Agata, in the town center, which house some works by sculptor Andrea della Robbia. After a short shuttle we continue onwards crossing the border between Tuscany and Latium and reach Proceno, our destination of the day.
Today we had a steady climb and at the time of writing, I am sitting in a small town called Radicofani. Here is a fortezza that we had in our view for most of our climb. There are a couple of churches here to, and after lunch we may pop inside to take a look.
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| This means the bottom of town |
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| The town of Radicofani |
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| The town of Radicofani |
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| The town of Radicofani |
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| Where we ate |
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| Our guide telling us about the town |
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| We split a plate of pasta |
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| I had the entire place to myself |
Where we walked
Today we had about 1590 feet of climbing over about 11 miles.
