D38 Bolsena to Sutri

After my 120km leg with James (who was pushing on having ridden from Canterbury on a rather Heath Robinson adapted bike and was clearly a little ride weary) I again applied my 'piano Miami's principle (slowly slowly in Italian charmingly aching one of my favourite Greek phrases and a new philosophy for my third age siga siga) I had a lovely day at the lake swimming and reading (finally getting into my kindle -Homers the Iliad and the Odyssey).

The next day, refreshed and revitalised I made Montefiascone for morning coffee, a superb hill top town important stopping point in the Via Francigena. One of the many churches is especially significant architecturally as combining Carolingian and Romanesque elements (see my earlier entry from the Loire on Carolingian architecture above). I also found proof on a room painting on the wall of the transfer of ideas up and down the Via Franciscan in the medieval war with another version of the three rich kids meeting death story described when I diary encountered it in central France North of Orleans.

And finally of interest in the church here is the tomb of the Defuk, a nobleman travelling with the Holy Roman Emporor Henry V in 1111 on the Via Franciscan who sent his servant ahead to test the wine and write EST on the gate if it was any good so he could stop with certainty of good booze! Montefascione earned a triple EST,EST, Est and it is said Defuc drank himself to death here....with the epitaph on his grave 'because of too much  EST ES T EST here lies my lord'....fortunately this correspondent had stopped early in the day here and had plenty more miles to do so (on this occasion) was not led astray unlike Defuk.

The afternoon ride looked promising with a volcanic spa bath opportunity ahead so it was particularly delightful to fall in with Camilla, one of the few line cyclists I came across, also headed in the same direction. She turned out to be an astrophysics student needing some space on the pellegrino road to decide her future and we enjoyed a couple of hours over lunch working through the six hot spa 'puddles' charmingly mislabeled on the signage....just the thing for tired cyclists - we even got free entry as pellegrinos.

The afternoon catch up session (time slipped away lazing on those volcanic pools) had me riding like crazy with a now expected late afternoon storm sending thunder and lightning but thankfully little rain all around me - exhilarating as I raced over the hills to Sutri (with a false summit at a little town which I didn't have time to explore called Capranica. Indeed in retrospect I have now learnt I was crossing the epicenter of the Etruscan area occupying the land between the Arne and the Tiber and could usefully revisit Vetralla which was rushed through. But anyhow I was pleased to reach Sutri and determined to enjoy a morning exploring it further.