Friday, September 21, 2018

Altotopascio to San Miniato

Caio!

Last night Dennis and I had an included dinner in our hotel.  It was surprisingly good.  We started with pumpkin gnocchi that was light as a feather.  Surprising how many heavy-as-lead gnocchi there is.  I thought I was getting scallops scaloppini which sounded a little weird but I didn't want the other two choices.  It turned out to be veal scallopini (guessing the chef used a translator app?) which was in a lemon sauce.  Think Veal Piccata without the capers!  Fabuloso!  We asked another hiker named Dave from Portland, Oregon to join us and he was excellent company. Retired IRS Agent!  He and I exchanged federal agent stories.

Today we started on a dream hike!  The trail was well marked as I had requested in my prayers and just like a cherry on whipped cream, we had shade.  OMG...this was the best.  We stopped and had a pizza Marguerite that had no comparison in the US.  Then the afternoon was Hades in August.  As Dennis said we only got lost two times but the second time encompassed the whole afternoon. OMG!  We got lost then backtracked and stayed lost.  We were supposed to have an 18-mile day and miracle of miracles, it only turned out to be 19.2.  And just to add to our exhaustion, our hotel, the Hotel Miniato sits on top of a mountain...severe uphill at 18 miles.  Whew.




We were on a totally historic route.  Pilgrims from centuries have walked this trail and now it is being revived.  


We passed numerous beautiful gates such as this one.  


Look at this handsome fellah!  He was outside all by himself.  



We were pooped.  Dennis got up from a short rest while a took a bath in a real tub with jets! He walked like a 120year old man.  I am proud to say I only walked like a 100-year-old sprightly woman.  We were so tired we had to drag ourselves to the town for a glass of wine.

We had an included dinner and we both got a pasta with walnut sauce that was so tasty.  Truffles are local so we had an appetizer with black truffles on toast that was amazing.  We were too full for dessert.

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