Why we walk and study Italian

Three years ago, when we walked the Cammino di Francesco from Assisi to Rome, we put up a post entitled “Why We Walk” (which is here if you’d like to read it). This is a follow up on the same subject after studying Italian for a few years.

Walking, we experience some of the most wonderful, unplanned and unexpected moments. Today, we set off from Lucca to Altopascio with a bit of concern. Leslie Ruth hyperextended her knee a little in the hills between Camaiore and Lucca, which was causing some pain. We found a knee brace at a farmacia, and took it easy in Lucca, although there was so much to see we did walk 16 kilometers (10 miles). With ibuprofen, Leslie Ruth’s pain was manageable, and, after a good night’s sleep, she felt ready to carry her pack the 18 kilometers (a little more than 11 miles) to Altopascio.

She did well, but, after about 12 kilometers she was ready for some more ibuprofen, or vitamin I, as walkers call it, and we were both ready for a break. We stopped in Porcari; all we knew about the town was that it had the only bar for the rest of our day’s walk.

There was some sort of fair going on, and the bar was full of locals eating, drinking, and interacting with the owner. Now that our Italian has improved, we understood most of what was being said and we were able to join right in. When she found out we were pilgrims walking the Via Francigena, the owner pulled out a lovely pastry, cut it into four pieces, and gave it to us a gift. Karl asked about her espresso machine(we’d never seen one like it) and she explained that their coffee producer had designed it himself.

Had we not had kilometers we wanted to go before we slept, we could have spent hours there, it was so much fun.

Refreshed, we continued to Altopascio, arriving in time for lunch. We like to make lunch our main meal of the day if we finish walking in time, so we chowed down.

This evening, we didn’t feel like eating dinner, so we went into town for a glass of wine. What a scene we discovered at the local bar! They were doing apericena (or aperifood, as they called it), where they lay out a lavish buffet which any customer can enjoy.Sort of an Italian happy hour. We drank Montecarlo wine, the local white, which was excellent. We weren’t too hungry, but we nibbled at some items on the buffet.

The bar had a great meat counter with all sorts of meat and cheese.The counterman took a liking to us and gave us a small platter with some of his lardo (lard – which may not sound good but tasted wonderful)and some of his porchetta, which was up there with the best we’ve ever had.

Leslie Ruth, who has studied porchetta over the years, threw up her arms and told the counterman the porchetta was bellisima! They had an animated conversation about all sorts of things, including the problems the United States was having. He assured her everything would be all right; all we had to do was eat more porchetta!

Someone from the bar took a picture of us to post on the bar’s Facebook page, which inspired Karl to post a review of the bar on Google Maps (search for La Dogana Altopascio if you would like to read it). The barista translated it for the rest of the staff, and they loved it.Once again, we could have stayed for hours, but tomorrow’s walk beckoned, and we made a reasonably early night of it.