VF Stage 6 – Sutri to Campagnano di Roma – 25kms

We find ourselves in Campagnano di Roma, some 36kms by car from Roma! You can smell the Roman pizza from here 😊

We really have been blessed in terms of our timing being here on the VF. Whilst we would appreciate some much cooler walking weather (it has been beyond tough from time to time walking in this heat), at each of our overnight villages or cities, there always seems to be something significant on when we’re in town. In Viterbo, it was the food, wine and music festival for our small community in the medieval quarter of town; in Rome it was the massive concert in St Peters Square; and in Sutri last night, we just happened to be in town for the Feast Day of Saint Dulcissima, the patron saint of Sutri. She was martyred on the 16th of September in an unspecified year between 284 and 305 AD. This is attested to by a marble plaque found in the 17th century at the site of her martyrdom and burial, in the Catacombs of San Giovenale, near the current Sutri cemetery. So we enjoyed some wonderful street food, a performance of classical pieces in the local cathedral (with organ and trumpets), before heading up to the main square for a big band concert. Whilst in Sutri we visited the amazing pre-BC Roman amphitheater. Apparently it is one of only three ‘Scavi’ amphitheatres in the world (one other in Italy, with the other in Africa). This means that the amphitheater was carved out of the rock as opposed to being constructed like the Colosseum. It was dug out of volcanic rock, which apparently was ‘easy to work’. There are also quite a few tombs from that era dug into the rock as well. We were also lucky to visit a small church carved into the rock. We were only permitted to be in there for 7 minutes, as they limit visitations to protect the frescos on the wall, painted in the 1200s.

Given we had 25kms to walk today to Campagnano di Roma, we hit the trail about 6am. Despite following official signs, we had to turn back after the first 750 metres, as we were walking back towards Siena, not Roma. We did our best in hot conditions. We managed to make it approx. 5kms from Campagnano di Roma, having walked the 25kms up until that point. One of our accommodation hosts, Rino, kindly offered to collect us in his car. We waited for him at the beautiful Monte Gelato waterfalls. I think the young pilgrims in our party were quite devastated to learn that the waterfalls weren’t actually a flowing stream of gelato! Many of the other pilgrims we meet today (the trail is getting busier) went for a swim at the falls, to cool off. Two of the other pilgrims we have seen daily over the last week – either on the trail or at a bar each night – is Emily from the US, and Massimo from Italy. Emily has been travelling for 7 years and has walked 4 variants of the Camino in Spain, in addition to other walks – a seasoned Camino vet! Massimo, 65 years young, has not only walked 2000kms from Canterbury to be on the journey with us, but he is also continuing south from Rome, walking the Via Francigena South, all the way to the ‘bottom of the Italian boot’…another 1000kms. Unbelievable!

Tomorrow we are opting to look around Campagnano di Roma in the morning, before catching the bus to La Storta. We then have 17kms to walk to the Vaticani, arriving Friday.