- Day 41 - day 8 for 2026
- Monday, 4 May 2026
- Berceto to Pontremoli - 28 km today
- 951 km on my Via Francigena before
- 28 km for today
- 979 km on my Via Francigena (143 km for 2026)
Today was going to be hard: from 840 m asl up to 1,041 m asl then down to 300 m asl on rough tracks. Both Nadine and I knew this would be impossible for us. And I am sure Sigeric would not disapprove as he had arranged for a taxi to meet us in the square at Berceton.
We decamped from the hostel at 07h. I looked around the corridors near our room. I suspect it had been either a residential school or seminary to train young men for the oriest hood. Now adorning some nearby walls were some well executed memories of an event in 2019 for young people from Hungary, Czech Republic, Russia and a few others.
And we repair to Da Romano (who gave us pizza the night before) and find a lively mob. Cappuccino to start. As we have almost 4 hours before we go to the square, we exchange details of our families and photos that are on our phones. I go for a walk in the nearby park and notice a womsn with a baby. I ask (in English) if she has a camera and may I take a photo of the two of them. She seems grateful for the opportunity and it is done.
We meet the taxi driver who says we will stop at the pass between the hills, about 6 km on, for photos. First a sign just before announcing 1041 m slm (sur le mare) and then at the pass itself. We take some steps for better viewing points snd photos of both sides of the pass. It is 20 km of a steep winding road with several roadworks. I look across the valley to the verdant growth and where the Via Francigena track will have several walkers and remember we had been told it is quite rugged. The advice in one advisory is expect to take the best part of the day. There is no phone coverage: in the event of some disabling accident ...
We pay the driver and make our way to our hostel. The instructions are that it “At the entrance, in the Castello del Piagnaro”. We walk up the wide uneven stony psth to the entrance. After check in we are taken up a sloping path, through and arched tunnel into a courtyard and told our rooms are at the top of a set of stone staircase. We settle in and Nadine suggests we meet at 5 pm to explore the city and find a meal.
At 5 pm we gather and make our way back down the stone stairs and paths to a square. We don’t know it yet but every thing we need will be close by. The doors to a large church are open and we enter. There is enough light to be safe but not quite enough to appreciate the many works of art and there is a lot. Unlike the church at Berceto with round Roman pillars, here the columns are more elaborately decorated in a restrained Roccoco style with light blue colouring. Back outside Nadine sees a tower thinking it might be a church: it is but now used for secular performances. Back over our second bridge with a sign saying destroyed on 25 April 1945 and restored in 1947. With the first date I am reminded of a poster I had seen two days before at Medesano advertising an event on 25 April 2026 commemorating the end of the war that day in 1945, “81 years ago”.
We continue our walk about and cross another bridge over another river and see they merge just down stream from this point. Echoes of the River Taro at Fornovo two days before: both rivers have many largish boulders on both banks and there is much stone in the light water flow. With the exception of a few shops on one corner we are amongst houses. We have been walking, slowly for almost two hours and it is time to find a meal. Nadine searches for possibles but either they are just bars or are closed. We ffind Trattoris di Norina down a long enclosed corridor: it is open but not taking order unti 7:30. Returning to the square, two places that looked decidedly closed just after 5 pm are now alive and pumping. One just does cocktails and up market finger food while the other offers beer and nibbles: we sit down.
We return to Tratorria di Norina and get a warm welcome. Also joining us is a guy (of my age) from the Netherlands. He has good English and some French and we three talk as we eat. He wants to know why I come to Europe to walk. For me that is easy: i have walked for eight days, covered almost 150 km, seen many things and talked with many people and found food during the day and a bed at night and can expect to walk another 550 km to Rome. This not something I could even contemplate in New Zealand. He nicely persists and trot out the Ed Hilary saying “I did because it was there!”
We are finished in due course and return to the Castello, agreeing to leave at 7 tomorrow.
And so to our own beds.
footnote
Sigeric was elected Archbishop of Canterbury and, as was the practice then and now, went to see the Roman pope to be given his badge of office, a pallio. His 80 day return journey was documented at time and forms a basis for the Via Francigena route that Nadine and I and many others we have encountered so far. Needless to say, Sigeric and his entourage would have use of the expressways of the day. In many cases those route form the basis of todays roads used by cars. So walkers on Via Francigena have what is left over.
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