Sep 25, 2023, Gubbio to Eremo San Pietro
Ken came to our room and I applied one of the Compeed Extreme hydrocolloid dressings to his blister. It didn’t look as bad as yesterday morning, but it's clearly a friction blister.
We visited the Chiesa di San Francesco then went looking for a pair of socks for Ken. We started along the route, stopping at the charming Chiesa della Vittorina where there was a statue of the wolf of Gubbio.
At Ponte d'Assi we stopped at Bar New York for cappuccinos. We were served there by the most taciturn person we've ever encountered, in Italy or anywhere. We couldn't get out of there fast enough. It was depressing just to be in the same room as him.
After a bit more road-walking we had to climb gravel roads up into the mountains. It was cold and seemed about to drizzle. The sky was overcast and it was raining over the mountains to the east. We were lucky, we never got any rain.
We reached Eremo San Pietro in Vigneto and met Rosa, with whom we'd eaten dinner and breakfast in della Verna.
We were shown to the dormitory and invited to choose a bed. Patsy took the top and I took the bottom of one bunk bed so I can kick the bottom of her mattress when she snores.
More pilgrims kept filtering in. It became like an Alpine Club dormitory. There were 22 beds, it's mixed sex, and there were ultimately 13 of us in total. I had earplugs and a flashlight but I wondered how much sleep I'd get. I thought it was bad enough with just the three of us.
There was a short service and ceremonial foot washing before dinner. We each had to remove one sock and in turn say our name. This foot was symbolically "washed" with cold water then dried with a towel before it was kissed, reflecting Jesus washing his disciples' feet.
This order of the church is connected to the Camino di Santiago, "Confraternita di San Jacopo di Compostella". During the service, the staff wore black tunics with two great scallop shells, Coquille de Saint Jacques, one over each breast, reflecting that camino. However, no one seems to be aware of the Kumano Kodo in Japan. That and the Camino de Santiago are the only two UNESCO-recognised pilgrimages, one Catholic and the other Buddhist.
Sep 26, 2023, Eremo San Pietro to Valfabbrica
I was one of the first to bed last night, at 21:30. Of the five men and seven women, Patsy said I was snoring the loudest. She said she hung her fleece down wafting it on my face and that stopped me for a while but the second time she did that I grabbed it and pulled it away from her. I only vaguely recalled that because I immediately fell back asleep.
Alarms started going off at 6 am even though no one was planning to eat breakfast until 7 am. Then Patsy was asking me for her fleece back but I didn't know what she was talking about. When she told me, I started laughing and Ken said that woke everyone up.
Breakfast consisted of coffee, toast, and various jams. Not very much for hungry hikers but I left a €105 donation for the three of us.
Upon departure, we were offered a benediction. We didn't get very far when we came to a really muddy section of the path. We checked our maps but there was no other way. Ahead of me, Patsy fell but off to the side of the trail rather than into the mud. Ken, Rosa, and Ines didn't want to follow us. After we'd passed the muddy section I called Ken's mobile phone to let him know we were through the mud. "Rosa has mapped an alternate route", he said. I told him, again, there was no alternate route but if he wanted to follow Rosa we'd meet up in Valfabbrica (or not!). Not twenty minutes later he called to say the alternate way was no good and asked if we'd wait for him. No, we wouldn't wait.
Patsy and I checked into our lodging for the night, Sui Passo di Francesco, the same place where we'd stayed in 2019. We took showers and hand-washed clothes. On Life 360 I could see that Ken was about half an hour behind us.
Sep 27, 2023, Valfabbrica to Assisi
We awoke at 7 am and finally got going around 8.30 am. As usual, it was a climb at the start of the day. Unusually, of late, it was sunny and hot even at 9 am.
We stopped at a bench, by a fountain, in the shade. Ines was sitting on the ground next to the fountain. I made hot water for coffee. Just as Ines left, Sarah and Maike arrived and we talked to them for a long time.
After an hour-long break we set off again, heading towards Assisi. It was hot now and so we three all used our chrome-dome umbrellas. We stopped at the Basilica di San Francesco for a look around.
Promptly at 15:00 we checked into the apartment I'd booked for two nights for €214, "Loft nel cuore di Assisi". Despite being advertised on Booking.com as being a loft with a separate bedroom, it wasn't a loft and didn't have a separate bedroom. We went shopping at the local supermarket, Tigre, to buy food for the next two days. We made dinner back at the apartment