10. I find my feet.

Funny expression, no? Ah, my beloved English language and its quirky expressions. There they are – right at the bottom of my legs. Where I left them yesterday. Sounds like Eccles and Bluebottle.

No. I’m becoming a walker; I’ve lost my fear. I can look at a hill a long, long way away and say “Yep, I can get there alright.” A photo from today’s walk illustrates this:

Just below centre is the long streak of the town of Aulla where I started at 9:30. Then there’s a tiny white dot, a quarter from the left and halfway down. That’s the church at Bibolo, 3.5km from Aulla and 330m higher. That was a steep haul. Then three-quarters across and near the bottom is Vecchiatto, 1.5km from and 110m lower than Bibolo (that bit was easy). Now I’m 2.5km and 260m higher – another steep climb.

So in 3 hours I zigzagged (horizontally and vertically) my way over 7.5km distance and am half a kilometre into the sky; and I can trace it all in this one photo.

But look at that sky! And here:

And here:

Yes, I did get rained upon, but beautifully and softly. Less than a shower, more than a drizzle. My rain jacket was useless because my sweating produced more water inside the jacket than would have precipitated from above. So I walked gleefully drizzled upon in T-shirt and jeans.

For the first time on this short adventure, I felt that I did not need to rush today. I paced myself, stopped and savoured odd things like long areas of disturbance where (I’m guessing) a dog had been digging either for porcini mushrooms or maybe truffles. Many, many little streams bubbling down the hillsides in waterfall-ed leaps – there is so much water here; it makes an Aussie weep. Wayside shrines to the Madonna – more in this poor and more primitive area than before. I thought more about my photography, rather than just snap-and-run.

The walking today was a pleasure. Yeah, I could make it to Rome.

Next year.