Yet another day with a steep downhill start to ensure Sam’s knee never had a chance to warm up. We have moved out of the hills and into a landscape of big farming. We saw more abandoned and crumbling farm houses than we saw being lived in. One farm has partially given itself over to farming the sun, but it has surprised us that there are not more solar panels in use. It is southern Italy after all.
We saw our first live fox today, but didn’t get a photo as it was quick and brown. A few days ago we were only a walking pole’s length from another fox, but it had come off second best in a fight with a Panda (Fiat that is), and I maneuvered it to the side of the road as it was causing some drivers to take extreme evasive measures.
The town of Castelluccio dei Sauri is even sadder than Troia. The latter at least had an impressive cathedral. This little town just has a profusion of “vendesi” signs, reminding us of some of the dying villages on the Camino Frances in Spain. Being Sunday, it is like a ghost town. Everything is closed, except (we hope) the solitary restaurant. We got lucky once today, stumbling across a little cafe at a crossroads in the middle of nowhere. The guy running the place even spoke some English, and I suspect that every pellegrino on the via francigena stops by on their way past.
2saunter 