👣 17 km by foot – Tuesday 7 September

We headed out in the woods as a group of about 20 people, after a meeting with one of the councils of the municipality of Vetralla. Despite the 32°C, the weather was great inside the forest, the Bosco di Fogliano. An association from Turin that walked the Via Francigena with a group of young adults with disabilities, mostly autism, put up a sign on the trees, saying: ‘the forest doesn’t need us humans, it’s humans that need the forest’. Never forget that!
We soon also came across a cultivation of hazelnut trees of the property of Ferrero…which means these fields are one of the key Italian sources of Nutella! We then started encountering a typically central Italian pine tree that mostly grows close to the sea, very tall with leaves only growing as an umbrella at the very top.
We had a break at the Torri di Orlando, ruins of old towers, where the Capranica 2000 association was waiting for us with a yummy lunch. I had a brief interview, with our videomaker filming everything, together with Silvio Marino, in which I spoke to him about my viewpoint on the Via Francigena section in Lazio – hopefully helpful material!
The mayor of Capranica joined us during our lunch break and walked with us up to Capranica – where we arrived super early. The official stage goes from Vetralla to Sutri, but we have our accommodation solution here in Capranica for tonight. That’s why today was quite a short day! Here, we visited the church of San Francesco, had a tour of this very cute town and then had – incredibly – a lot of free time (call it free time, well…I caught up with a lot of work, which also feels very good). Luckily we have these shorter, relaxing days now and then!

HIGHLIGHTS
– Walking through the Bosco di Fogliano
– Observing the vegetation patterns changing as we move on
– Lots of free time in Capranica!

TODAY’S WALKERS
Myra Stals, social media manager (EAVF)
Luca Faravelli, project manager (EAVF)
Marika Massotti, social media assistant (EAVF)
Paolo Piacentini, advisor to the Italian Ministry of Culture
Silvio Marino, Regione Lazio
Pietro Nocchi, mayor of Capranica
Trip n’Roll (Federica and Andrea), RTR ambassadors
Crisula Barbata, RTR ambassador
Amici Via Francigena di Viterbo, with president Vincenzo Mirto
Amici VF in Tuscia, with president Alessandra Croci
Members of Capranica 2000 association
Angela Raggio and Linda Tambosi, Ragazze in gamba
Enrico Baroni, videomaker
Several local walkers