After a couple of late nights and a lot of walking I crashed out at 10pm last night not waking until 8am! I had a European breakfast (to Australians these questionable) and didn’t arrive back into Consuma until 930. By the time I provisioned up, I got away 10am.

The walk to Stia was rated as hard Stia with climbs of 500m and descents of over 1000m along a 17km route.  

I had to be in Stia by 4pm for my board conference call as Chairman of the Board of Alitalia Loyalty, Ciao to all my Italian friends, “separati ma non dimenticati”. I was a bit worried so made an effort to push myself on the flat bits but I was making good time so I went back to pilgrim mode. 

Overview of the Walk

I loved the walk immediately. It started with a beautiful walk uphill through beech and pine trees. Locals were out walking, most commonly 2 woman together, quite often daughter and mum, or in this case also some old men who had baskets and were out looking for mushrooms – the mushrooms are amazing in Italy. Later in the walk as we passed through ancient forests logged sustainably for hundred of years.

The walk was through the most amazing countryside. You feeling people are living a different lifestyle, so far removed from the world I have just come from back to an era before the world became digital … you don’t see people together focussed on their phones you see them talking, and being Italians passionately. It was common to see people growing their own vegetables and fruit.

The walk itself was largely downhill, one quite step and this was the challenge with the exception of a two super steep climbs … the one at about 2 hours 40 minutes climbed 100m quickly .. and the author of the book says ‘it is tempting to take the wide gravel road to the left’ … yep  … and it got more tempting as the climb continues.

Heres the overview of the walk but it the beauty of the country I will remember. 

The map shows the isolation – I was without mobile coverage for most of the day.

This snapshot from my Motion X shows the walk and its steepness; max positive 17% climb, max decent 25.7%. 

Highlights

After the forests, Gualdo was the first little settlement I came to, a settlement that has its first recordings in 1139. It was a super quaint little community with beautiful stones buildings. 

After Gualdo, I headed steeply downhill and pretty quickly lost mobile phone coverage…OMG. The walk was fabulous, the trail was narrow and you felt so remote walking through forest, mushrooms sprouting up, Walnut trees, creeks to cross, abandoned ancient stone buildings and the occasional amazing vista of the Apennines or a Castle. 

The forest itself has been commercially logged for a thousand of years; this is not a big scale industry but more local. The wood is cut in the forest and allowed to dry undercover for some time before being transported. Walking through the forest you got the sustainability of it all.

I met Jim and Eddie again today they started from Florence on the same day (as did 3 Dutch ladies who were challenged to train for hill climbing in Holland!)

Lunch I left to a few Km’s outside Stia; funnily enough I don’t get that hungry and snack healthy along the way. Lunch was great, real artisan stuff; Proscuito, Pecorino cheese, bread and (walnuts picked up along the way) all washed down with a cup of tea.

It was great to finally see the Stia, a town with a long history. A lot of places were shut though.

My accommodation was to expectations … real basic pilgrim stuff. I think I am the only person here.

Dinner was great. I went to Pizza Da Vincenzo. My starter salad and Pizza were amazing.

Tomorrow is a super tough day; I am combining 2 sections; the first to the Monastic community of Camaldoli (17km, 1000m ascent, 600m decent) rated Hard and the second to Badia Prataglia (8km, 500m ascent and descent). So all up a huge day.

But don’t forget please support the Black Dog Charity if you have not already

In honour of the great work Black Dog institute are doing in helping many families, corporate organisations and communities create awareness and support to deal with the pressures of life, I am raising money for this important cause.

I have made my $3,000 target –but lets not stop there –  no amount is too small . 

https://teamblackdog.everydayhero.com/au/walking-the-st-francis-way

If interested, you can read a daily debrief of my walk and see some pics on my blog: www.youcanlive2.com  Its still work in progress and you can subscribe for updates at the bottom.