La Storta towards Rome 18/9/17

18/9/17 Monday
Day 45

La Storta to the outskirts of Rome ?30 km

Sun, hot.

What should have been an easy 19 km walk, is not.
After the usual bar breakfast, we walk too far along a busy highway and miss the turn at the first park.
Using GPS and human directives, we continue to walk further- a lot further, in the wrong direction.
My friend also has mechanical problems with her bicycle which necessitates dismantling various pieces of steel and throwing them on the already-spewing neighbourhood rubbish heap.

I revert to Sloways on my phone whose battery is, of course, dwindling fast.
Walk on: uphill all the long way in the heat. New blister. Aching feet.
Lunch at a restaurant produces euphoria and fuels us with positivity (and me with forgiveness!)

Veer off the VF by many kilometers towards our chosen Ostello.
It's closed.
Plumbing Problems.
If I were not still so tanked with optimism and positivity, I might not have been surprised.

Redirected to a convent where the check-in is laborious and fraught with miscommunication.
The price is expensive and the nun is not willing to negotiate pilgrim prices. We hand over the money in exchange for a key.

“Sorry”, she says as she calls us back; she forgot to include the tax.


28 Accommodation Carmelite Convent (shared room with sheets, towels)
16 Lunch and B/F







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