The wrong starting point

original plan

This time, I started the journey with @spherinder together to Italy. We traveled from Zurich through Chiasso on the 29th, using the night GA travelcard to get to Milano. Today is the second day of our trip. We plan to walk a section of the Via Francigena for a few days, until January 2nd, and return on January 3rd. That was our original plan.

Jollibee in Milano - the most popular Filipino fastfood

We spent a bit more time enjoying our morning coffee and then visited the Filipino fast-food giant, Jollibee, near the Duomo di Milano before taking a train to Berceto. Our plan was to start walking there, a good starting point not too far from La Spezia, where we will end our trip. We hoped to enjoy the Tuscan landscape during our hikes.

About the food. It has been a while since my last time trying out Jollibee in the Philippines when I visited Boracay when I was still in middle school. I cannot fully recall how it tasted like, but the small chicken menu we ordered in Milano was pretty good.

seems like we started wrong

After a quick stop in Parma to buy some Parma ham for our trip, we reached the Berceto train station at 4 pm. That’s when we realized that the actual town of Berceto was a couple of kilometers away from where we were, in Ghiare.

We started our walk without much delay. Since it was getting dark, we decided to walk along the road used by cars. @spherinder found a muddy safety vest left by construction workers and put it on the backpack, so cars could see us better.

Soon it started to rain heavily. No one else around here would have walked in such a downpour, and our unusual behavior caught the attention of some people. This included a kind lady driving in the opposite direction who wanted to make sure we were okay, and a police car that passed by.

Two young policewomen were in the car. They rolled down the window and it seemed like they were asking us in Italian what had happened. Communication was difficult, but we managed to understand that they were trying to get us a taxi. @spherinder wanted to keep walking, but I was okay with taking a taxi since walking along the street with cars zooming by was not as enjoyable as we had expected.

After giving us the phone number of the taxi driver, they drove away. They advised us to contact them if anything happened, to put on the safety vest, and to stand there quietly. They also suggested we send our current location to the driver. However, it turned out we couldn’t find the driver on WhatsApp somehow.

We waited another 10 minutes without seeing any cars, until finally a car appeared. We waved at it, thinking it might be the taxi we were expecting. It turned out to be a man in his mid-30s with his young child. He kindly offered us a ride to the town of Berceto and called the taxi driver to let him know he didn’t need to come. It seemed the taxi driver hadn’t set out yet, so we felt a bit more relieved.

where to stay

After saying goodbye to the kind family, we explored the town a bit. We found that most of the accommodations for pilgrims listed were closed until April 1st. We ended up staying at B&B Gioli.

The host, Marino, was a very kind man. His house was cozy, making us feel warm and welcome. He immediately offered us a bottle of beer when we arrived and happily chatted with us in English. He mentioned that he retired 23 years ago but is still keen on learning English.

Under his recommendation, our day ended with a great dinner at Pizzeria Romea.

Tomorrow, we will finally start our first hike on the Via Francigena.