7 May 2009, Mignano Monte Lungo – Nothing quite like waking up in a country house to chirping birds and the sound of a nearby creek. And nothing quite like knowing that you have to hit the road again when you’d like nothing more than to relax in the garden and read that 350-gram book that you have now carried 180 kilometers without opening.

Andrea, whose house we stayed in, couldn’t quite believe that we had walked from Rome or that we were going to continue on to Mignano (even though it was only 20 kilometers away and he bikes 60 kilometers in the mountains behind his house several times a week). When we meet him yesterday he gave a little chuckle that was at the same time genuine and impossible to interpret. Something along the lines of “wow, impressive, compliments” or perhaps it was “wow, impressive, these four are nuts and I’m not sure I should trust them with my incredible country house” or perhaps it was “wow, impressive, I guess it’s hard to find work these days.”

He offered to drive us to Mignano and didn’t quite seem convinced when I explained that the point of a pilgrimage is to walk. And it’s a good thing we didn’t accept the ride because the walk today was nearly perfect. From the edge of Cassino we headed off onto the country roads and 20 kilometers later emerged in the Campania region in the town of Mignano Monte Lungo. Monte (“mountain” in Italian) is the operative word here as we were flanked on both sides for most of the day by proper mountains having left behind the hills of southern Lazio.

Our average daily length has been 30 kilometers, a pace that we will probably keep for the rest of the way to Bari and then Otranto. The weather has been on the whole very good with sunny and breezy days (about 23 degrees C as the high) capped by a bit of rain at 5 p.m. Today the breeze was absent and it rose to 27 degrees. No dramatic injuries to report for any of the four of us. Lots of blisters, of course, as well as stiff muscles, swelling in the tendons and general accumulated fatigue.

I hate to admit this next thing and to be honest I’m only putting it in here in the hope that not too many people get to the end of this post. Here it is: I went to Cassino and didn’t make it up to see the Montecassino abbey. This despite the fact that I have heard stories about the World War II battle there since I was ten and have seen countless documentaries, historical reenactments and all the rest. It just didn’t work out. The timing was off, we couldn’t get an early start cause we were far from the center, we couldn’t go up yesterday because Andrea (at whose house we stayed) came to meet us. Never mind, I’ll be back.