A pleasant day with few busy road sections, but some gnarly climbs as we transited across the valley and onto the hills. The landscape has changed from the coastal greenhouses and hillside olive groves, to hazelnut and fruit orchards, and now the valley is primarily livestock farming.
We had our first encounter with an obviously unfriendly dog today. Most dogs are confined to properties, but not this one, and when we could see his teeth, we activated defensive measures to ensure that he kept his distance (in reality about a foot more than the length of our walking poles. It was one of the few times I’d have preferred my stout wooden Camino staff than the lightweight walking poles!
Our accommodation in Faicchio (actually we are in the adjacent village of Fontanavecchia) is one of those ‘the Camino will provide ‘ situations. There was a miscommunication with the property owner, and we followed google maps to a cottage high on the hill above the town. Once we connected (and we’d sent a photo of the house via WhatsApp) he sent a friend to to let us in as he’s out of town. Not only that, she just returned with baskets of provisions to save us making the tiring trek into town for dinner. We haven’t received ‘Il conto’ yet, but avoiding extra trips up and down the hill is in the Mastercard category of ‘priceless’!
2saunter 