Monday, September 30, 2013

Walking with Angels Robbio to Montara

We had a short day today so we were in no hurry to leave Robbio. We had numerous interruptions in our sleep due to the Big Ben clock tower outside our window. It not only strikes on each hour, but it also re-strikes again after three minutes past the hour. I had put in my ear plugs, but Charlotte tougher it out. It was overcast and threatening rain so we dressed accordingly. We hit the bake shop for our usual pizza lunch and then the supermercato for our litre of orange juice, yogurt and cheese for breakfast. We were both slower along the trail today. Charlotte is nursing a blister on her small toe, in exactly the same place she had one last year. My leg is back bothering me again so we are definitely slower and we do take more breaks than before. We are still in rice country along with a lot of field corn. Our walk took us through a couple of villages and meandered through the fields. We are getting used to the Italian dogs that are left in the compounds of the houses, no doubt to discourage any thieves. Quite often there are German shepherds or Rottweilers. We rolled in Montara around 1pm today. We get a lot of looks from the locals. We are starting to look the part if the pilgrim. In the bakery this morning I was counting out the change and when I didn't have enough, I took out a five Euro note and the lady waved it off and took what coin I had put out. We kept asking in Montara where the Abbazia Saint Albino was and people just kept pointing, indicating that we should just keep walking in the direction we were going. Finally we came to a man in his yard and before we could say anything, he asked if we were going to the Abbazia. When we arrived outside the building we rang the buzzer and were shown in to a large reception area adjacent to the sanctuary. She showed us where the facilities and made up two folding beds for us. She also got the wifi working, which was nice. Later we called her into the room to make a reservation for us and out came the Italian translator on the iPad. Many laughs later we had a reservation in Garlasco at Saint Rocco. No idea what to expect, but that is the way we have been walking lately. We are having an evening meal provided in our room tonight as well as breakfast. It is really appreciated since we are so far out of town. We just had another pilgrim join us in the room. He is German and had been herding cows in the Alps and decided to walk to Rome. I had to do so Itslian translating for him. Madame provided a really nice three course meal for us last night, pasta, chicken, salad and fruit along with wine. It has been a fun stay here and now we leave for Galasco and Pavia. Hopefully our legs will go better today after the good rest. After a good rest Franco, the lady running the place, brought us breakfast at 7am. After some pictures, hugs and laughs we left but not before wishing Martin good luck on his way to Rome. He was going to be walking over 40kms to Pavia today.



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