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Via Francigena – Up & Down, Up & Down
Day 4 We anticipated a long day (15 miles) with lots of climbing (2300 feet) as we made our way to our next stop in Gambassi Terme. After a stretch of road walking the path took a turn onto a dirt track, plunging us into to the quintessential Tuscany countryside. We followed along, up and…
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Via Francigena Easter Sunday
Day 3 Our day was a success. We found morning coffee and food. Had a mostly uneventful walk, had time to explore at the end of the day and somehow made dinner reservations with our bad Italian and their not so great English.
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Via Francigena Tests Our Readiness
Day 1 Rain ushered us out of Lucca Friday morning. The guidebook mapped out a city walk for today, but also suggested an alternate, rural (muddy) route with some climbing. We chose the easy, flat city trek for the first day out. This was probably the right choice given how tired our legs and backs…
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Our Via Francigena Begins
The journey gets real. We arrived in Lucca, Italy today where our Via Francigena begins on Friday – tomorrow.With help from an incredible taxi driver (he refused to leave us stranded), we left luggage at the appointed spot, a dingy bicycle shop attached to a car park garage, where the Friday pick-up driver will transfer…
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Via Francigena Prewalk
After three plane flights, a train ride and a 25-minute walk to our Bed & Breakfast, we arrived in Florence, Italy for a two night recuperation stay. Several months ago I stumbled upon a blog post by the Jetsetting Fools featuring a free walking tour in Florence. Perfecto! I stashed it in our Italy email…
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Via Francigena Here We Come
Our first stop will be Italy where we plan to walk from Lucca to Rome along the Via Francigena. After reaching our destination of Rome, we will fly to England where a walk along the Cotswold Way awaits. Because we will spend a good part of this trip off-trail, we will take advantage of a…
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Our Television Premiere
Last week we had the pleasure of chatting with Stephen Long about Reg’s book, Camino Sunrise – Walking With My Shadows. Stephen hosts a community television show called The Writing Life, shown through Comcast in McMinnville, Oregon. A few years ago, when Stephen was thinking about walking the Camino, a friend suggested he read Reg’s…
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Spring Cleaning
If you happened by our site yesterday, you probably noticed big changes. No, it was not an April Fools’ Day trick, but instead a bit of spring cleaning for carryoncouple. We launched carryoncouple.com in 2013, and have made very few cosmetic updates over the years. We were past due for a facelift, and there was…
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Local Publicity Appreciated
Many thanks to Ashland’s local online news source Ashland.news and to Lee Juillerat for his excellent review of Reg’s latest book Hoofin’ It On The John Muir Trail. Book review: Hiking book author approaches writing step by step-by-step March 16, 2025 Reg Spittle’s wife, Sue, talked him into hiking Spain’s Camino de Santiago and taking…
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