The hostel last night was in a 15th century basement in the church piazza. We went to a bar in the piazza for the usual coffee and brioche breakfast and weren’t charged as they offer free breakfasts to pilgrims !

I have organized accommodation for tonight but the washing didn’t dry – 1 out of 2 ain’t too bad!

The walk today was mainly through the heavily urbanised Massa area. Luckily a lot of the pathway was on footpaths though we did have more dangerous narrow roads to walk on also . For some kilometers, the footpath was lined with mandarin trees which had ripe fruit so we were able to catch up on our vitamin C intake whilst walking along . Also of interest were the many marble holding yards and processing factories along the way. Massa is only a few kilometers from the mountains of marble at Carrara where quarrying has been undertaken for thousands of years and the likes of Michelangelo Buonarotti came to select his pieces of marble.

The big slabs weigh about 15,000 kg !

We are seeing more  and more olive trees after crossing the Appenines. At first there were isolated groves but now they are taking over the landscape . There is a butter/olive oil line across Italy which marks this line of cultivation and hence traditional cooking techniques. It more or less follows the Appenine chain east west .

Today my blisters didn’t get too much worse but my heels started to ache again. I think after my long walk over 30 km tomorrow to Lucca I’ll have a rest day on Friday before continuing south. Over 200km traversed now – a third of the way through my walk !

 

A marble storage yard. the big blocks weigh up to 15,000 kg.

 

Suburban Massa . A few hours later I was using one of these clothes lines . I had peg angst – what if my washing falls fown into someone elses terrace ?

 

Walking across yet another set of hills. The Tyrrhenian Sea can be seen in the distance .