Day Three of walking
Labro to Grecco
16 km 7 hours –

Today my legs told me that it should be a day off. Being in a medieval town atop a mountain is not an easy place to be with sore calf muscles. Sam felt much the same. Then to have to read that we would be going downhill for 300 metres then to rise up to 750 metres didn’t help.
The owner of the house we were staying in in Labro suggested that we might be keen on a ‘flower’ holiday. New to us and on further enquiry he described it as staying in one spot and venturing out to various places from there.

His establishment was suited more to staying in the one spot and not going very far as it was quite beautiful and peaceful. We thought of it as a place to write or draw from. And wished we were!!

Before leaving we climbed to the church at the top of the village and enjoyed yet more frescos.
We were ready to go at 10.30. It would be another 2 days of walking before we would have a rest day!
Our attempts to buy our lunch (roll with prosciutto and cheese) failed at the village, but we were told that we could purchase at the next hill top town.

The delightful part about the next small village was that not only were we able to buy our lunch we also found a great spot to have a coffee. The shop keeper generously gave us cake to eat as well.

We meandered through the town, along a canal embankment where we admired fish swimming then on through the forest and grassy fields. We enjoyed our lunch around 3pm!

The pleasures of this walking trip was that we were never in a hurry. There was always time to stop for the view! The biggest drudge was up the hills then to go down. Often we talk about zigzagging paths but this felt more like ‘N’ing the path; going straight up then down before rising up again!
We left Labro at 600metres, dropped down to 350metres and then steadily rose to 750 metres. Oh, to be a bird!
The paths that were used to climb up the hills were very stoney. The same for the decent. We were so glad to have the poles as well as the instructions from Sam on how to hold them and work them.
We walked through the Sabine hills. Quite spectacular, especially the wooded areas. The tricky bit on the climbs in the forest was that we couldn’t stop as there were so many mosquitos. No good opening your mouth for an inbreath either or you would be sucking them in. and no time to stop and put the ‘bushmans’ on!!!

The beauty of the cyclamens and other gorgeous flowers around us made the tough bits not so bad.
When the notes said ‘gird your loins’ you knew that it was going to be tough!


I kept thinking if this is tough what is tomorrow going to be like as it is listed as a tough walk. This day was listed as ‘easyish in the morning with heart pumping on occasion in the afternoon!

Some of the walk which we did follows the pilgrimage route of St. Francis. His route in Italy goes from La Verna to Rome. And Greccio is a significant stop as there is a sanctuary to him there. The St Francis’ way is a pilgrimage that ‘intends to reintroduce the Franciscan experience in the lands that the Poor Man walked through on his travels’.
We made it and enjoyed a hot shower, a pleasant beer and then a quiet dinner, off to sleep thinking about ‘the hard climb to begin tomorrow!