Through the night there was another noisy thunderstorm and I didn’t sleep too well. I made an early start at 7am and before leaving, I went for a final visit to the sublime abbey church.

Casamari Abbey church.

It was a beautiful day and much less hot than days past. For the first time on this walk, the path went across open fields. You have to be a bit careful in this situation, as it’s impossible to have signage and easy to head off in the wrong direction.

The area I’m walking through is more heavily populated than what I’d seen in previous days and there’s some industry.

I’m seeing vineyards for the first time on this walk.

After around 10km, I arrived at a town called Isola del Liri which means Island of the Liri. The river of that name splits into two for a distance forming the island on which the town was originally built. It’s perhaps the only town in the world with a waterfall in its centre.

The waterfall in the middle of Isola del Liri.

I was trying to find my way out of town when I ran into someone who asked me “Sei l’australiano?”- “Are you the Australian?”. He’d read the posts I’d made on the Italian Facebook site associated with the Cammino di San Benedetto.

Pino and Paul.

Pino was heading in the same direction as me on his daily walk. Together, we headed up towards another abbey.

The path follows the Fibreno River for some kilometres. It flows from a lake, in turn fed by subterranean water streams under the mountains.

The Fibreno.

Just before the abbey are the ruins of an ancient Roman bridge. We went to take a look and my foot fell into a hole in the stonework, hidden by weeds. My fall came to a halt when my knee hit the ground.

Trying to extract my foot from the hole. Even in this tense situation I thought of my readers and took a photo.

Try as I might, I wasn’t able to pull my leg out. Pino rang the fire brigade, but as he was talking to the operator I eventually got my foot to pass back up through the small hole.

It seems once rung, the emergency services have to respond, so they sent an ambulance! It was very embarrassing response for what wasn’t really a serious graze on the knee.

After that little interlude, we set off again for the abbey. It was built in the 11th century on the ruins of the house where the ancient Roman statesman and scholar Cicero was born.

San Domenico.
The crypt of San Domenico.

Pino and I parted ways and I headed off on a steep climb towards my destination of Arpino.

Steep climbs are usually rewarded with fine views.
A raptor of some sort, hovering high above.

At Arpino tonight I have a little hotel room with a view of the town.

The view from my room.
A section of the Roman street surface had been uncovered in the centre of Arpino.

I had a very nice dinner at a family restaurant that Pino recommended – three courses and a half litre of wine for just €25. I even had a desert as it looked so delicious- Abignè con crema.