Woke up to this view out of the hotel window in Gubbio –

After breakfast, (man do they know how to make coffee here!), drove to Pietralunga, and arrived during a morning market in the square in front of an old church…

We parked the car then walked off along the route to Gubbio.

This stage, from Pietrulunga to Gubbio, will be a long hard walk – about 27kms and 8hrs walking, Sandy Brown says in his guide book. Do the maths on that, and it’s only about 3.4kms per hour. Not very fast at all, which means there are lots of hills. And no towns, villages, cafes, or any place to get a feed or a drink.

We’ll have to either take all our food for the day, or have Elena meet us part way with the van, and some lunch.

This morning we hit the first hill about 3kms out of town – a long steepish ascent of about 200m, which certainly got the heart pumping.

But the scenery was stunning. The photos don’t do it justice.

What we learned from today is that Sandy’s directions in his book are very accurate. Also, it seems that the route in parts is well marked.

And the GPX tracks on the iPhone work a treat. But having the phone’s GPS function drains the battery very quickly.

Also I’ve done two walks now without my knee brace – the other day’s long walk, and today, which was only about 8kms, but up and down that steep hill. My knee has been twingeing, but is holding up.

There’s no doubt it’s going to be a gnarly little walk, this Via di Francesco – but through some breathtakingly beautiful countryside, and in the footsteps of St. Francis, which is a potent energy imprint.

Tomorrow we head towards Florence, and on Sunday we meet up with the first of our group. Very excited to soon be starting…