Travel Journal: Italy – Walking Rieti to Rome – Summary

Ciao!

I’m settling back in to my normal busy schedule at home and have just started to dive in to the immense amount of pictures (and video!) that my family and I took during our two-week trip to Italy. My family included my mom, my Grammy and Grampy, my (great) Aunt Diane and my 2nd cousins, Ginger and Daryl.

By now, all friends and regular Instagram followers know that I went on this amazing trip, but I thought since what we were doing there was pretty unique that I would do a summary post to share a little background. That way, the rest of my posts can just focus on pictures and a few fun stories.

“One country, 7 family members, 6 days and 85 miles (56 for me). One sprained ankle, 2 bum knees, 1 broken tooth cap, a few dozen blisters and a few sunburns and scratches. Daily stops for gelato and Coke Zero, 6 fresh picked peaches from a generous farmer and a handful of apples from yet another generous stranger. Hundreds of acres of olive trees, a 4th century bridge, a 12th century castle and way more inclines than we were expecting. Getting lost 4 out of the 6 days. Lots of lizards, a few guard dogs and endless beautiful views. We were one big hot mess by the time we made it from Rieti to the Vatican, but we made it with quite a few stories to share.”

This caption from my social media post summarizes quite the adventure we went on!

For the first half of our vacation to Italy, my family did a self-guided walking tour from Rieti (north of Rome) over the course of 6 days back to Rome with our finish line being the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City. Every time I share this I get quite a few raised eyebrows and lots of questions so here are the basics:

• We went through a company called Hidden Italy that operates several guided and self-guided walking tours throughout Italy and Spain. Our walk was the last section of the Cammino (walk) of St. Francis.
• In addition to the guide book, what we paid for included organized breakfast and dinner everyday and accommodations for 7 nights.
• Also, every day our luggage was picked up by a transfer service and taken to our next accommodation for us. So no, we weren’t strictly living out of only our backpacks.
• Our accommodations varied from hotels, agriturismo’s (bed and breakfasts), apartments (more AirBnB style) and a 12th century castle!
• Our route took us on mountain trails, pedestrian paths and a few country roads. So with a few exceptions as we approached towns, we didn’t walk on major roads with heavy traffic.
• Our guide book provided pretty detailed instructions as well as signs and color markers (blue and yellow that you’ll see in a lot of pictures) to look for. The guide book also provided a history lesson about each of the places that we stayed overnight and any historical markers along the way.
• According to our guide book, our mileage ranged from approximately 8 to 16 miles a day for a total of 70 miles. We got lost a couple of times or took detours for food so our total mileage was more around 85 miles. Plus we are pretty sure there were a few places where the guide book was a bit off.
• In regards to getting lost, it was a mix of our own faults and a few directions in the guide book that weren’t crystal clear. We found that as we went through towns that was always where the directions messed us up. But we always eventually figured it out.
• The “walk” was definitely more of a hike on most days and we all agreed that overall it was much harder than the company advertised.
• With the exception of a few protective guard dogs, we felt entirely safe the whole time and experienced quite a few acts of kindness from locals along the way.
• Most of the walk took us through and had us staying in small towns that weren’t very touristy, meaning that there was a language barrier most of the time. But a smile and some patience usually went a long way.
• The last day of the walk started on outskirts of Rome and led us to the Vatican.

The big headline about the walk that you may have already seen on my social media is that I SPRAINED MY ANKLE ON MILE 2 ON THE VERY FIRST DAY. I was concentrating on the guide book and stepped straight into a big pothole. It was a high sprain and since this is definitely not my first one I knew as soon as I went down that it was not good. So while my family continued on the walk, I waited 3.5 hours on a bench at a nearby water filling station we had passed for the Italian woman working there to drive me to our stop for the evening. She hardly spoke a word of English but another man there for water in the morning helped arrange it. About an hour in to my wait I heard a very familiar “hello.” It was my family, who discovered that we had originally went the wrong way when we passed the water filling station. Which is what I had said and was checking our guide book for when I stepped into the pothole. So if we had went the right direction in the first place my foot would have never found that pothole. The good news is that I made it safe and sound to the next bed and breakfast we were staying in but that experience just adds to the story. The Italian woman, Gabriella, started to leave without me until I hopped and yelled after her waving the piece of paper with the address on it. She drove a small RV (as a Criminal Minds superfan my radar was up!), we had to take a detour to make a bank deposit and once we reached the dirt road where the secluded bed and breakfast was, she didn’t think the RV would fit so I got out and hobbled the final mile. It might have been a little sketchy, but Gabriella turned out to be our Good Samaritan and will be a forever reminder of how important extending kindness to strangers is.

I rejoined my family and managed to hobble through days 2, 3 and 4, before sitting out day 5 so I could finish the last day (6) on the walk through Rome. I’ll be entirely honest, I have a pretty high pain tolerance but I was in quite a bit of pain and am pretty darn amazed that I was able to do what I did. By the end of day 4 my whole foot was twice as big as the other one which was also quickly covered in blisters from doing most of the work. My family insists that they didn’t think I complained too much all things considered but I know that I was pretty cranky overall and am really grateful for all of the grace they gave me. Unfortunately, it definitely put a damper on things at times and I can’t say that I’ll forget that part and remember only the good parts, but it does make quite the story!

OK, that’s it for my “summary!” I’ll be back to start sharing pictures and more about the rest of the trip soon!

Thanks for tuning in!

Update: Now that I am done blogging about the trip, here quick links to everything that I shared!

Walking Rieti to Rome – Summary
Doors of Italy
Exploring Rieti
Self-Guided Walk Day 1
Self-Guided Walk Day 2
Self-Guided Walk Day 3
Castello Orsini Hotel
Self-Guided Walk Days 4 and 5
Self-Guided Walk Day 6
The Colosseum and Exploring Rome
St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museum
Pompeii and Naples
Venice
Florence

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And just for fun here are some of my other past Travel Journal posts:

Nashville, Tennessee – Girls Weekend
London, England
Estes Park, Colorado
Thailand and the Philippines
Tumon Bay, Guam
New York City – Girls Weekend
Lake Tahoe, Nevada
Antigua, Guatemala