All Roads Lead to Rome

The Romans were famous for their road construction. They began building a network of roads (each one called a Via) well before the time of Christ. One of the major roads was the Via Cassia which connected Florence amd Rome and still exists as a modern highway today. There are remnants of the original road that are still in use as farm roads and paths. We walked several miles today on the stones of the Via Cassia Antiche and watched a farmer drive his tractor on it. The Romans had strict engineering standards, the roads were 8.2 meters wide or about 11 feet. I have watched the main street near us in Rocky River (Hilliard Blvd) deteriorate after it was just newly paved two years ago but parts of this Via Cassia Antiche road still exist over 2000 years later. 

We walked from the hill town of Montefiascone to Viterbo today. We came upon an area of natural hot springs which has since been “modernized” with 5 concrete pools. It was free for pellegrini to enter so I said yes. Spending some time sitting in the very warm and sulfur smelling water was a fun diversion but it felt even better to get back on the trail an hour later. 

Our lodging was in the neighborhood of a crowded, narrow maze of streets in the center of Viterbo. It turned out to be a B&B type arrangement with a very elegant bedroom in an ancient building. When the off-site manager showed up, we found out he also runs a restaurant so that’s where we ended up eating a delicious dinner, no doubt prepared by our host. We also were thrilled to run into Vittorio at the restaurant. He was one of the very first people we met on the trail when we started walking two weeks ago. It turns out that he will get to Rome a day before us as he is combining two hiking segments tomorrow. He had been so encouraging to us and we felt like kindred spirits as we sat at adjacent tables. Buon Camino Vittorio!

Total mileage today - 12.2 miles

Pilgrim Monument - Montefiascone

                              The Via Cassia Antiche

            Wishful thinking… the classic Fiat 500L

          Parco Terme Bagnaccio - the original baths

The current 5 pools filled by the hot springs, Each one has a different temperature.

                  One of the gates to Viterbo.

Our room is in this ancient building - those are the old community laundry facilities in the piazza in front of our door.

It’s nice when you know the chef! (La Chimera in Viterbo)

The restaurant is in the open air courtyard of a gracious old building.