To Campagnano di Roma - Feb 2

Be patient!

In a short time we have walked the five kilometers down a busy highway into Sutri, a pleasant town with tree-lined streets and another Medieval core of buildings. On the way out we walk up a street lined with huge pine trees. Now I know we are in the area of Rome.

A Sutri roadway.	Sometimes there are more signs than one needs.
This turns out this is a driving range not a golf course.

Last night we ran our working cash down to a bit more than 20 Euros. In Monterosi in mid-day I try to use an ATM machine to no avail. I try another machine. No luck again. We look for a place to eat and find nothing. Nerves were getting thin. We go back to the first ATM and Petra tries her card. As she does so, I realize I had read the machine wrong and asked to do a local transaction instead of an international one. The now very standard messages are different on these machines and I just didn't read before I pressed buttons. With the correct procedure, I have money immediately. The joke is that we don't even need it today. Even before the withdrawal we have all we need until tomorrow. We could have waited. What I had before in my pocket is enough for the wonderful fish Menu Fisso we finally find here and we will get everything for nothing tonight. So much emotional energy and for what.

The next few kilometers are another story. They take a lot of extra energy from us. We are not sure why, but the VF signs and the book direct us to walk down the shoulder of the autostrada, the expressway. Perhaps there are just no convenient alternatives. We walk on an access road most of the time and for a while on immediately adjacent pathways. But the bulk of a few kilometers is uncomfortably close to heavy, fast traffic.

As you see the signs say to walk on this highway.

In the afternoon, Petra calls the Parrocchia in the Campagnano di Rome, tonight's stop. When she finally makes contact, the woman on the other end says to meet her at 5:30 at Gonfaloni church, the "first church as you enter town." We garble the name and wait at Our Lady of Consiglione, a chapel on the edge of town. We are a bit early and see the sign to the Parrocchia so we head there. The woman is not there. I walk back to the chapel and wait for her. She doesn't come. I go back to the Parrocchia. We talk with others and realize we should be a Gonfaloni church. We go there, a church actually in the middle of the old Medieval part of town (the first one there). It is late and the woman is gone. We talk with a group of women standing in front. One calls the priest, Don Renzo, on his private number. He is at the Parrocchia. The woman drives us the kilometer and a half back. This has been a good lesson in sitting tight, being patient, the second time today. We could have just sat and waited when we first came and all would have been taken care of.

Don Renzo takes us up to a classroom, our sleeping room for the night. He then takes us back to his office where a young girl is taking a flute lesson from a teen-aged girl and an older man. We squeeze around them. Don Renzo takes our information, asks about our pilgrimage, and stamps our pilgrims' passports. After he asks us whether we ate and waves off our afternoon dinner as not counting, he orders supper for us.

At eight two women come in and ask Petra in the hall, "Where are the pilgrims?" "We are the Pilgrims." They come in our room and lay out salad, bread, cheese, meat, fruit, water, and cake, our supper for the evening. We have a very filling supper and save enough for breakfast and a couple sandwiches on the road tomorrow. Thanks, Don Renzo, you fed us well... for three meals.

We sleep on the tables with our sleeping bags like we did in Sivizzano on the second day out of Fidenza in December. Like then, this as a quite comfortable setup. We sleep well once the meeting breaks up that is going on below.

This is a very active parish meeting house. In addition to giving shelter to the passing pilgrims (over a thousand in 2006 according to Don Renzo) it is packed with kids in several activities when we arrive and as we go to bed a huge meeting with a psychiatrist and parish parents on childcare is in full swing. And there is also that kid learning the flute in Don Renzo's office.

Check out this tree. It's really an antenna.

Ronciglione 1 Feb Contents La Storta 3 Feb