23 rd September HAPPY BIRTDAY OLIVIA!!!
Heavy rainfall in the morning, which I took as a good excuse to sleep on a bit, after another indulgent trip to GINO?s OSTERIA.
Time warp (alcoholic one), he?s Keith Richards brother, Gina?s sister, it must be a conspiration to deceive the sanity of my mind????. But it was another great evening.

Gino, I really hope we will meet again next year, you are worth a lot of hangovers.

Heavy rainfall, I was saying, and (a little bit ) of hangover from Gino?s.

By about half past ten, when I?d had my Capuccino and brioche at the bar on the Piazza, where there was a lot of shouting about the footballistic events of the weekend, it had stopped raining and I packed up and started walking along the lake.

There were signs for the VIA FRANCIGENA and there was a path along the lake! This started to look good! (It only lasted for about an hour and then all signposts and paths disappeared again).

Part of the path took me along a campsite mainly occupied mainly by Germans. Why some of them were putting on suntan lotion with the sort of lousy weather there was today, was beyond my comprehension. Maybe they liked the smell of it?
Another bit along the road and another FRANCIGENA signpost (the last I was to see ? so much for the planning of my last bit of road into Rome ?. ) took me into what was supposed to be a regional park.
It was actually a stretch of tarmac road through a bit of woodlands, with funny, abandoned looking concrete bungalows.
I originally planned to stop over in Montefiascone, which I reached by about 3 p.m.
Whether it was the miserable grey weather or not, I don?t know, but MONTEFIASCONE didn?t inspire me that much. It was another 18 km to VITERBO.
MONTEFIASCONE is on a hill and there was an incredible view, bathed in some misty sunshine, towards the plain and the volcanic hills south of VITERBO I was headed for the last 4 days of my walk.
18 km, three to four hours walk ? Should I or shouldn?t I?
I went for it and made it to VITERBO by about 7 p.m. It was all along the road and about 1 hour through the northern suburbs of VITERBO.
Highway flyovers, Giga-markets, Huge furniture stores, roadsides full of junk ?. It felt like walking through TRAFIC by JL Godard and reaps the Palme d?Or for the worst bit of my walk.

It was also probably the worst hotel I slept in. It was clean and all, but was one of these 60?s building with horrible purple and grey colours (reminding me of Sartre?s remark about these two colours in LA NAUSEE). A soulless bit of building and abode.

I tried to make up by having a walk around the mediaeval part of town, which is very nice and quite big. I felt quite tired and looking around for a place to have something to eat before getting some sleep into myself, I noticed a panel indicating OSTERIA SAN CLEMENTE, typical local cooking. I only meant to go there to pay a tribute to Clemente of Ferrara, because those claims for being ?typical? are always a bit suspicious. Mind you, this place was not Florence ?. So I gave it a try
There was another panel after about 5 minutes, and quite a few more which took me out of the old town, out of the walls, all AROUND the old town and when I finally reached the place, there was a sign there that it was open Sat &Sundays lunch & diner, but it was shut, no lights ?.. nothing.
I recapitulate: I?d done near to 30 km on a well known pilgrim?s way that had 3 signposts for the whole track and hardly had any walkable paths and followed about 7 signposts in 10 minutes to a restaurant that claimed to be open but was shut ?.. It?s what you call a successful day by any standard, I suggest.

(I also lost my way trying to get back into town but eventually made it to a Trattoria that was half decent and went back to watch some telly at the hotel ??. But fell asleep rather quickly ?.. )