It’s 11.35am, 27°, clear sky with only a few tiny little clouds here and there. I’m standing at the same parking spot where I ended the previous walk, and I’m about to tackle segment number 5 of this 10-part loop.

Contrary to what I did up until this point, this time I’m gonna try something different: I’m going to write this post as I go, rather than writing it the following day. I’m typing this in a chat with myself, on Telegram. We’ll see how this goes. If I end up enjoying the experience, I might even consider making a private group chat for the supporters and do one of these walks “live” for the people who are interested in following along. It could be a fun experiment.

Ok, the route on my watch is set, off we go. Right away, we leave the parking spot behind us and we venture into the woods. Has rained quite a lot over the past few days so hopefully the trails is not a muddy mess.

This whole area is quite interesting because it’s mostly forest but every now and again there’s a cluster of rocks scattered around. More than once I went looking for climbable boulders, not for myself since I’m not a climber, but for my brother.

As always, we’re following the yellow and white trail marks, a reminder that we are on the right track. I always wondered if they picked the white and yellow because those are the colours of the Vatican and these walks are all about churches. I might look into that at some point. I never walked this specific trail before and walking on new trails is the main reason why I wanted to do these walks. I’m loving it. The ground is also so soft because of the rain. And it seems like we have picked up a passenger already.

If you are keeping scores, mark one for team Jesus. I was thinking that one cool photography related project could be to take pictures of all of these religious shrines that are scattered all over the valleys. Could be fun, I’ll add it to my list of potential random projects.

First intersection of the day. We are taking the right and going down. We need to reach a nearby town, go through it, emerge on the other side, then walk up to a ridge and most of the walk is gonna be up that ridge. I’m quite excited because I thought about walking that part of the valley for quite some time and I’m finally doing it.

What a lovely day to be out in nature!

And we have reached the first civilised outpost. We need to go through it and carry on in our journey down to the next village before we start climbing back up. But first, I’m gonna zip off my pants because it’s too warm for not wearing shorts.

Ok legs are free, so much better now. We can carry on and walk through Cepletischis.

If you’re interested in moving here, this one’s up for sale for the very high price of 15000€. Yes, I’m not missing a zero, that’s 15k.

As always, there’s a monument to remember the people who died during the World War. As I said before, these are everywhere.

And literally on the other side of the street, another small one. This one’s quite neat, never seen one before with a cross like that. It has a forced perspective of some sort.

We’re now on asphalt for a little bit. Not a fan of walking on the road but sometimes it’s unavoidable. We’re headed to wards the next village which I believe is gonna be the last one of the walk, basically till the end.

Another enjoyable aspect about these walks is how everyone is friendly. You say hello to all the people you encounter (which aren’t many) they smile and say hi back. It’s a simple thing but I appreciate it greatly.

That’s a dream house right there.

We’re about to reach Polava, a tiny tiny village with a Buddhist monastery that the Dalai Lama visited years ago.

And what a cute little village this is.

We’re still walking down but not for long because right in front of us there’s the ridge we’re gonna walk on for the next couple of hours. It’s almost time to do some cardio and start going uphill.

We’re over the bridge and it’s time to climb up. Hopefully the trail is not too slippery, but I don’t hold much hope.

Heart rate is going up! Which is good, need to get back into shape. The temperature inside the woods is amazing and it also smells wonderfully.

Time to score one point for team… Buddha? This was unexpected. I mean, I knew about the monastery but I wasn’t expecting to find one of these out in the wild. This is so cool.

Looks like the trail goes up through a dried creek. Interesting. The GPS says I’m right on track and the trail is marked but this is weird. I wonder how this looks on a rainy day.

As expected, this part of the trail is both steep and slippery, which is a very unpleasant combination. But we’re almost halfway through the climb so it’s not too bad.

Time for a mini break to rehydrate and this is a good excuse to talk about today’s sponsor: water. Feeling thirsty? Feeling dirty? Need to make pasta? Water is here to help you out doing that and much more. Since the beginning of time, water, always at your side. Also, a big thank you watch for warning me that “a climb is about to start”. Good job.

Ufff, that was tiring. This climb was not fun, it was so, so slippery. Anyway we’re now at the beginning of the ridge. The lovely town of Toppolo is 40 minutes away but we’re headed in the opposite direction. Also, so many goddamn ticks. I’m so tired of these damn insects.

But we’re finally at the sight of the first church of the walk, the church of San Martino (18/44). It’s very odd looking for being a church, it looks more like a building used by farmers more than anything.

I learned that the church was used as headquarters for the Austrian soldiers during the War of Independence in 1848. Very interesting.

Most of the climb is done, I still have some 100 or so meters and the rest is primarily downhill. Which, considering how slippery the trail is, is not going to be fun. But that’s how it is so down we go!

I was so close to falling on my back. That would have been very unpleasant. But on our way down we have a great view of Mount Matajur.

Another couple of points for our teams, we cross the road and it’s time to climb back up a little bit. It’s a lot warmer now and I’m sweating a lot. But that’s good! This is good exercise.

Every time I see one of these old shacks I think at how cool it would be to turn them all into tiny cabins where people can go sleep for the night. It would be so awesome and such a nice way to encourage a certain type of tourism.

This part of the trail is really beautiful, the pictures I’m taking on my phone can’t capture how nice the light is today. I really need to invest in a good camera and stop using the phone to take photos.

This descent is great, there’s a slight breeze, the trail is not too steep so it’s very easy to walk and not too taxing on my knees. And it’s a lot less slippery, which is something I appreciate considering I risked falling 5 times already.

And we have reached quite possibly the most beautiful church of the walk: the ruins of the church of Sant Egidio. This is not part of the 44 but I like this so much. It’s really in the middle of nowhere, at the top of a mountain. And there’s not much left other than what you see in the photo. Lovely place, I should come sleep up here one day.

Only 5km left to go, we’re at the final stretch, and this is now a very enjoyable stroll into the woods. I’m not taking many pictures because the view is mostly the same and there’s nothing exciting worth photographing. Except for the second church of today’s walk! This is the church of Santa Lucia (19/44) which from afar looks more like a garage than a church.

This descent is looooong, but according to my watch we have almost no meters left to climb (it actually says 10 meters but my watch can’t be trusted). I’m currently taking a quick break sitting on a rock. It’s so warm now.

We don’t have a lot left to walk, some 3 and a half km but I’m tempted to eat the apple I brought with me. At the same time I don’t want to take the backpack off my back because I’m all sweaty and the sensation when you put it back on is awful. I guess the apple is gonna wait to be back at the car. Ok, getting back up and we’re walking again. All of a sudden, out of the woods and straight into a field with tall grass

We’re about to get back into civilization for the final stretch of the walk. My feet hurt. Damn shoes! But I decided that I’m not gonna change them. Too easy that way. It’s a lot more fun to try make things work.

There’s a lovely view from up here. And a very nice breeze.

Second to last church of the day, the church of San Bartolomeo Apostolo (20/44). This is nested inside the small village and it’s a lot less bucolic than the ones we have seen earlier today.

Down the main road we go. Not fun to walk on concrete my feet are not having a great time now.

But thankfully we’re about to go back into the woods. We’re almost there, about 1km left to walk. I was worried I was going to walk on concrete all the way down. This is so much better.

We’re almost out of the woods again and almost at the site of the final church of the walk and the end of the walk.

And there’s the last church of the day, the church of San Giusto (21/44), nested in the middle of a group of houses. If it wasn’t for my watch vibrating I’d have missed it completely because the road runs underneath it. I lived close by for more than a decade and I never noticed there was a church here.

Ok, only a few hundred meters left to walk. We have a bridge to walk across (so many bridges on these walks), one I walked many times before since the closest supermarket to my house is nearby.

And we have arrived. And yes there’s another church in the background but that’s not part of the loop since it’s “modern”.

And there you have it, we’re halfway through this series. The next walk is likely going to be the most challenging one of the bunch. But that’s a problem for future me. As always photos from the walk are available on the shared drive folder and the data from my watch is available. See you next time!