4-8-10 From San Arcangelo to Castiglione del Lago

4-8-10 going from San Arcangelo to Castiglione del Lago, all along Lago Trasimeno


so I only had thirteen Kms today, according to my camp ground hostess. I had coffee at the camp ground restaurant... spend a long time packing my gear... I was still kind of limping from blisters... then hit the road...stopped at a church to rest and to talk to the bodhisattvas..diff religions but I feel they understand each other...

no getting lost here...along the lake I went... sometimes the traffic I had to share road with was a bit intimidating..but in part I am getting used to local speed... and the truck drivers are very considerate and conscious... it's the little mini cars tail gating each other I kind of have to watch out for...heat gets up around two in the afternoon...and about four hours into walking my pack starts bothering me... but I make it into Castigione del Lago by two thirty. I see a hotel sign and find out it's closed... bellow is a bar disco... I get water and pop..they definitely think I am odd.... .then try to find a room...some lady who has a guest house which is full, talks to me at length in italian, from her balconey...interestingly I do understand some of the things she say...like her guest house is full ..go up to tourist information, they can tell you about dorms and rooms available.. and she tells me in general how to get there... I keep walking up hill towards the castle I see...and come across a no star hotel (there are signs telling you how many stars things are, for me stars equal money) I go inside, it's run by an ancient woman ..the decor is charming and tacky... at first she is a bit mistrustful and she only speaks italian...but we come to an agreement... no internet here...ancient radio built inot the bed post...charming and old school like the lady running the place... after I bath and do the mandatory laundry of the day... I leave again...she turns from mistrustful to concerned and steers me in the right touristic direction.. I climb up stairs and end up into another mideavel-l given over to healthy tourism- old town... I choose not to go check out the insides of the castle... I get info and head down to lake in hopes of catching ferry to island Maggiore. I think this is where I was at when I was five or six.....i remember beautiful gardens and white peacocks... I had been in italy in 2002 and had not been able to return here... and again my luck was not with me.. no ferry even though two diff sources had said there was..and from the part I could read from ferry schedule there should have been...

never mind.. lake is nice..i eat some thin bread stuffed with potato something and drink more water and hang out by rather pleasant coast of lake. Then back up through old town, I stop at tourist office to ask about wifi.. the man there had little english but made it sound like next to my hotel was some sort of wifi hot spot...not uncommon in italy...but later, I could not find it.. he also was surprised about lack of ferry but then it turns out this time of year only on saturdays... I console myself by buying interesting salsa's made of mushroom and olive and another of artichoke hearts for my bread... I saw a herd of what appeared to be Franciscan monks heading for the local church...i was in hot pursuit cuz buddhist or not I like to stalk monastics... but it appeared they where going into a funeral so I did not go into church after all..

I wandered back to my hotel.. I did find a closed internet place along the way.... I think it was five thirty now..the land lady had warned me to use the side door and special key if I came in too late because she might be asleep...well apparently five thirty was her bed time cuz I had to use the side door...again I had these extreme chills even though it was still sunny out... I put on my thermals, turn on the heat and huddle in bed.........i discovered that there is german channels on the tv here... I think it is the nearness of swiss boarder for one, and the endless amt of german tourists that like to tourist this area... I ended up just eating sandwiches using cheese and the fancy salsas just bought... and going to bed earlish...after a couple of german programs... I learned that apparently Tiger Woods is trying to clean up his image and there is some sort of painfully awkward commercials in america about his deceased father talking to him... the german news reporter said dryly, it's the kind of emotionality americans seem to be into, but it is not winning over many in europe... a wee bit snotty...but interesting..why in hell do german's care about Tiger Woods anyway? Then there was some Bavarian news about these cops who have so much time on their hands they can give warnings and admonishments to kids riding bicycles and doing dangerous things.....they even have time to write letters to their parents and if the parents dont respond..they do a home visit...wow.... must be nice to live in such a low crime area.....what does this have to do with the pilgrimage? I dont know...tee hee...can we put this into the 'cultural minutia' category?..i suspect...knowing my love for tangents that this might be a quickly burgeoning category...