Preci to Norcia

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Day Five Hike - May 29, Friday; from Preci to Norcia, Hotel Grotta Azzurra

Our guide states: From Preci a splendid route ascends steadily to meet an ancient path winding through trees to the majestic Abbazia di San Eutizio, once one of the cradles of the Benedictine monastic order. From here, a medieval trail leads across the flank of Monte Macchialunga, through the village of Campi, and along the valley to another pass. The path finally descends via a couple of ancient villages to Norcia, the birthplace of Saint Benedict, 6th century founder of European monasticism.

After breakfast we all met downstairs in the Lobby. We had made arrangements to be driven 5 kms. up the road to shorten the day's hike. The woman at the front desk said she'd drive us up to another Abbey where I trail began. She stated she could only take four of us in her vehicle. With our limited language differences we thought we'd asked if she could come back and get the remainder of our group to give them a ride as well. John, Anna, myself and Jeff all piled into her small SUV. Jeff kept trying to say that he'd be happy to sit in the back so that we could all fit in but it seemed to not be necessary and so the four of us got a ride up the road and were delivered in the parking lot of the Abbey. None of us wanted to visit the Abbey and we were ready to get hiking. Jeff told the three of us, John, Anna and myself to go on ahead and he'd wait for Carla and Don and they'd catch up to us. So, the three of us got on the trail. The trail immediately began to climb up the hill. We got up a ways and there was a nice overlook where we could see the Abbey below us and so we stopped to take some photos. We knew that the trail would split at one point and we'd have to make a decision whether to take the high trail or the low trail. We had discussed the night before that John, Anna and myself would most likely take the low trail and it was expected the others would take the high trail. We got to the split in the trail quite quickly well before the others would've gotten a chance to catch up to us. We stopped and deliberated for a bit and came to the conclusion that we would indeed continue on the low trail. I said we should leave a marker for the others to see so they know which way we go. John arranged small rocks to read - RAJ and an arrow pointing going up the low trail at the junction. The three of us proceeded up the low trail. At this point the trail basically followed along with no elevation change and it meandered through the trees. We came upon the Abbazia di San Eutizio which was tucked within the trees in a lovely, quiet setting of wildflowers blooming all around. It was quite lovely. We walked out of the trees and onto a gravel road that circumvented the fields below us. The fields were illuminating various hues from a distance. We soon came upon a field that was profuse with purplish red flowers that resembled clover but was far larger than any clover I've ever seen. John walked down into the pasture to take a close up of the beautiful flowers. On the left side of the road the grasses were long and softly billowing in the slight breezes. Interspersed in the grasses were red poppies and other wildflowers causing a riot of color and contrast within one frame of a persons vision. The hills sloped upwards and we could see along the top of the mountain above. I kept looking up top with the hopes of seeing a person or two along the horizon but never caught anyone up there. As we were walking a young Monk in a brown robe came up walking towards us. He had a large group of college age young men and ladies and I ascertained that they were Americans as they passed us. They were obviously headed up to the Abbey. I was wishing we'd stayed at the Abbey a little longer and perhaps we could've been able to see inside as this young Monk most likely had a key to enter. Oh well. Our gravel road turned a curve and we came upon a cemetary that sat next to another Church. I could hear women talking in Italian within the cemetary and I poked my head inside. They were changing out the flowers and chatting away all along. I didn't feel comfortable invading their space and so I walked back out. We got back on the road which was now paved and which lead us to a very small town called Campi. When we got to the junction a small, very cute dog decided to walk with us. We kept trying to discourage him but he was determined to stay with us. As we were walking alongside the busy highway another dog also joined us causing us to cringe quite often as neither of them was concerned with the many speeding vehicles that would fly past us and then slam on their brakes to avoid the two dogs playing in the road. Soon the road came up a hill to a small bar and our trail turned up a hill back towards the mountain. We were able to discourage the second dog from joining us but the first one could not be dissuaded no matter what we did and so we just allowed him to continue on with us. By this time the first small dog was developing a personality with us. He would always walk ahead of us well within sight and he would walk on our trail, well before we determined where our trail was going. He'd make a turn and then wait for us to make sure we followed him. I guess we now have an escort. Once we got to the top of the hill and were to turn right at a four way stop, we once again decided to leave a marker for our companions coming up behind us. On one corner there was yet another church. We left more stones arranged with RAJ and an arrow alongside the right side of the street and proceeded down the trail. The trail then ducked into some bushes that stunk so greatly I had to cover my nose it was so strong. Fortunately the trail broke out of the low bushes and began to climb on a wide old road tucked underneath the trees and the stench resided. Below us there was a large pasture and I could hear shouting from one man to another further up the trail from us. I stopped to listen and took a recording of their Italian shouting. I could see that one of the men was herding some sheep. We walked through another small hamlet with lots of men working construction on a house. As we walked past we could hear them shouting at the dog following us and yelling, Pecorino, Pecorino. We thought that must be the dogs name and so we too began to call him Pecorino. We followed the old road for a bit and came to another crossroads wherein the directions stated to find the ruined castle and then turn right up the hill. I had been viewing the ruined castle in my camera when John asked if either of us could see a ruined castle. We walked up the road alongside an old stone wall and then turned right onto another track which followed along the hillside. The trail continued on a wide trail underneath the trees. We walked out of the trees and into a small hamlet and found a picnic table underneath a large tree and close to a water fountain. We sat at the picnic table and began to enjoy our packed lunches. Todays sandwich included one with fresh tomatoes and motzarella cheese and maybe some basil too. The bread was fresh and thick and nice and soft and the sandwich was the best one we'd been given for all of our hikes, in my opinion. The other sandwich was just ham but it too was on the fresh bread. They both tasted very good. While we were eating a very old Jeep lumbered up a side road and parked in the same parking area we were in. An old man stepped out of his vehicle and sat himself down on a bench not too far from us underneath some trees. I wondered what he was doing but soon forgot about him as he just sat there quietly.

About halfway through our lunch I looked back down the trail towards the water fountain and saw Jeff walking towards us. What a nice sight to see! Jeff came and joined us and related how he'd waited at the Abbey until 10:30 and when Carla and Don had still not shown up, he too began to walk up the trail. He said he did not see any of our trail signs and had used a topo map to get himself to where we were. It sounded like at the small bar where we had walked up the road Jeff had instead walked through the whole small village before rising up to the trail and so he had missed all of our markers.

It was not long after Jeff arrived that a herd of sheep also came up the trail. They all immediately went to the water fountain to get a drink. It appeared this was part of their daily ritual. The old man who had been sitting at the bench got up when the sheep approached and he stood between the sheep and us sitting at the picnic table. He leaned on a tall stick and whenever one of the sheep would try to venture our way, he'd shoo them back by waving his stick and moving in between us. The sheep that had arrived at the fountain first just drank and drank and never stepped off so any others could also get a drink. The ones behind just kept pushing and pushing until they hopefully were able to get a drink as well. Another man came up from behind the sheep and he too walked over to the fountain. He got himself a drink and they barked some orders and the dogs surrounded the sheep and moved them down the hill and out of our sight. Once the sheep had moved away it was then the dogs turn to get drinks. They all piled up to the fountain and drank their fill before turning to chase after the sheep once again. It was the perfect lunchtime entertainment, all for free and just by being in the right place at the right time. Since our lunch was now finished we loaded on our packs again and hit the trail. From here we worked our way to the top of a mountain pass. Once we reached the top the guys decided to leave a message for Carla and Don. There was a wooden bench alongside the road and they left stones placed that read 1:20 and then John hand wrote a note stating we had passed there and that we'd see them when they got to our hotel. The trail did a long, very long descent from there on a rather rocky trail. We reached a paved road and then a two track trail that lead us to the town of Norcia. The buildings in Norcia are built with earthquakes in mind. The base of a lot of the houses are wider than their tops providing good stabilization. We found the gate we were told to walk through and began to climb the streets within the old town of Norcia. Pecorino, the dog, walked up to a persons front door step and upchugged whatever he'd eaten the day on their front step.

We found our next hotel, Hotel Grotta Azzurra. When we walked into the hotel around 2:30-3:00 in the afternoon we could see that the restaurant was full and bustleing quite loudly. Next to the door to the restaurant there was a full coat of armor standing. It all looked to be very exciting and appealing and it was nice to be "home", once again. The four of us got our luggage and checked into our rooms. Jeff and I had the only room with a balcony overlooking the street in front of the hotel. We laid down for a rest. Soon John came to our door and said he was going to go back up the trail and make sure that Don and Carla made it okay. I had just made a suggestion that we go and purchase wine, etc., and Jeff said he was going to go with John to look for them. After they left I went out in search of wine and cheese. I walked around the back of our hotel and soon found a small grocery store. The woman inside did not speak any English. I found some local wines and also purchased some pecorino cheeses and returned to our room. Just as I finished getting cleaned up, Jeff, John, Carla and Don all returned. We told them to bring their chairs and glasses and come to our balcony once they got cleaned up for our daily ritual of drinking inexpensive red wine and local cheeses. Ah, the life!

This was another night that we had to purchase our own dinners. Jeff's book listed a few top choices and so after consuming our two bottles of wine and cheese we walked to the first one on our list. As we walked past one store front a very handsome young man said quite plainly in English, hello and how were we, etc. We laughed as it was not common to be greeted in such a fashion. The Trattoria we were trying to eat at was closed and so we decided to go back to that young man's store and see if he could give us any good recommendations. The young man whose name now escapes me was from Chicago and he told us his story on how he ended up in Norcia. He had a map that he placed pins in for people around the world who had entered his store and we all placed our pins in our appropriate States. I was the only one from my town in Wyoming, imagine that. He suggested a great Pizzeria that was inexpensive and so we walked there. As it was cooling down and threatening to rain again we chose to sit inside. They walked us down into the cave-like basement where we enjoyed some more great food. After dinner, when we walked outside it was pouring rain. Thank goodness our hotel was just around the corner. It poured hard all night long and I worried about having to hike in a downpour such as this.

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Photos

walking through Norcia
notice the extended base on the houses

Comments

[Carla]

Hiking to Norcia
Great recollection and very well written. You might want to mention that Don and I only found one of your markers...the MOST important one saying you would have cold beer waiting for us when we arrived! : ) Also, I think you should include that I thought it would be a good idea for you to go back and talk to "that cute little monk!" as he was working in a store for the Catholic church...and he was from Indiana, not Chicago. His name was Homer! How could you forget a "young" man named Homer silly! LOL

[robinlnu]

memor(y)
that's exactly why I wanted you to read this and exactly why I needed to write out a journal. just think what I'll have forgotten in another week from now!