This morning was quite s bit cooler than previous days with a fresh breeze blowing.

The walk was mainly along pleasant tracks away from busy traffic in the valley.

Via romea germanica cusercoli

On one side of the river there were interesting rock formations.

I could see further examples as the path climbed above the valley

Via romea Germanica cusercoli

I passed quite a big horse breeding farm.Via romea Germanica italy Santa Sofia

Yep, Lamborghini make tractors!

I had a bit more climbing today, about 700m, but there’s more to come in the next few days.

The path was a boggy in parts due to recent rain.

Some how I managed to get lost three times today. Some of it was my fault, not paying attention but elsewhere it was hard to distinguish the road as so much grass had grown in the last few months of wet weather in Italy.

There’s a path here somewhere !

At one stage I wasn’t sure which road to take as the obvious one seemed to be heading in the wrong direction .

An elderly man pulled up in his car and I asked him if this road headed towards Santa Sofia. He said ‘I don’t know but where are the bees?’

So I asked if he knew where the road went to and he said’ I don’t know I’m not from here but where are the chestnuts ?’

I moved on.

I surprised some wild boar but they ran off too quickly for me to get a photograph.

I don’t think this is the right way!

Via romea germanica cusercoli

Look for the red VRG arrows!

Via romea Germanica italy cusercoli

I passed a few pretty little towns.

Via Romea Germanica italy

This church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Pianetto is a fine example of Tuscan renaissance architecture.

As I was approaching Santa Sofia which incidentally has the VRG symbol on the town name sign

On the outskirts of town a car pulled up and for the second time on this walk someone called out ‘Are you Paul ?’ This time it was Luca who with his wife runs the B&B that I was staying in. He guessed it as me as not many people arrive in town by foot.

Santa Sofia is located on the Bidente river which for a long time divided the town into seperate parts as the river was the border between the Papal States and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

There’s a beautiful Roman bridge in the edge of town.

This evening I had dinner with Flavio who is the treasurer of the Italian VRG association and family an a friend . More wonderful hospitality !

Tomorrow I have about 900m of climbing over 24km to Bagno di Romagna.