Vetralla to Sutri (24 km)
We ambled out of Vetralla at about 9 in the morning on what was promising to be a warm and sunny day, probably our warmest so far. We crossed and recrossed the busy streets a few times to avoid traffic as we headed out of town.
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| A quiet morning street in Vetralla |
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| Shell motif in the plaza fountain |
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| St. Benedict, the patron saint of Italy |
A short way out of town we stopped at the St. Benedictine monastery to fill up our water bottles.
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| Peaceful woodland path through the forest |
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| Enjoying the shade when we could |
Walking through the hazelnut orchards we saw first hand the source of all that Nutella that Italy is famous for! We paused for our picnic lunch adjacent to two ancient towers. One of the towers had signage that identified it as "The Tower of Orlando," dating from the 1st century A.D. Orlando, being the nephew of Charlemagne. It's hard to escape history in Italy, even in the middle of a hazelnut orchard.
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| Walking through hazelnut orchards and past ancient fortification towers |
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| Interesting trail marker in hazelnut grove |
Later on in the day we had planned to stop in the walled town of Capranica for a break. We found ourselves following a cobblestone path that we should have followed into the town, but due to some confusion regarding the signage we found ourselves following a route that led us down and around the base of the town, lower and lower until finally we were at the far end of the town. By this time it was getting later in the day, and the prospect of climbing back up the steep road into the town was not so appealing, so instead we continued on, as it was still going to be another 6 or 7 kilometres to Sutri.
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| Following the cobble path down and around Capranica |
Looking back with chagrin at Capranica, we were sorry that we had missed it. It did look enticing. I guess we'll have to go back one day!
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| Looking back at Capranica |
After Capranica the trail led us past more hazelnut trees and then into a tangle of stream crossings on log bridges until finally the walled town of Sutri came into view and we climbed the steep staircases to the town, itself.
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| Our first view of Sutri |
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| Climbing the staircases into Sutri |
Sutri is an archaeological site and is of some interest to us, so we are taking another day off to do some exploring.
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