Via Degli Dei

The longest forest bath/shower I had ever taken

To be honest I haven’t seen much of the Via degli Dei at all. Instead of feeling like walking on clouds I was walking in clouds. The rain turned into a drizzle, the drizzle turned into a heavy cloud and then back into rain. I had basically taken the longest Forest bath ever and this forest shower was wet but at the same time so full of life that I simply had to keep going. 

I started the 26th of April 2021. The same day the Regions of Italy were loosening the travel restrictions and I could take the train to Bologna. There I would embark on a hiking adventure of three trails through the middle of Italy. (Needless to say in 2021: this was obviously not Plan A or B, but Plan C I was finally putting into action here.) So with itchy feet and quite nervous about traveling for the first time in more than a year I arrived in Bologna.

I started the first Trail: The Via degli Dei. The way of the Gods that would lead through the beauty of Emilia-Romagna and Toscana, crossing the Apennine mountains and arrive in the most beautiful city of Italy (at least I would say so): Firenze. About 125 km of walking through spring on this pretty popular and well marked trail. 

I started by getting a little city map in the tourist information. The official website of the Via degli Dei is providing a really good description of the trail (trail notes in English and Italian), but I hate walking and getting lost in cities, while being overwhelmed and filled to the rim with noise. I walked my way out of the city center towards the Santuario della Beata Vergine di San Luca. This sanctuary is sitting on top of bologna and that means the trail starts with a steep climb up. And as if to welcome me on the trail it starts raining. Luckily at that point I am walking still under the longest arcade of the world. Arriving on the top I seek shelter inside the church and during the whole trip I prayed a lot inside churches, not just because on pilgrimages I feel so much more spiritually connected to those who walked there before me and built holy shrines and sanctuaries but also to have a break from the rain. It took me 15 km of walking that day to fully realize I am actually doing this. This moment came sudden I stood there and started crying floods of tears. For month and month I had been waiting for this moment: traveling, hiking, camping and finding myself in the lush green of spring. The abundance of new born life around me made me cry and smile at the same time. I passed through parks and nature reserves, villages and pastures until I was too tired to continue. I built my tent on the lawn where I stopped, cooked some dinner (awesome black beans and mash) and as soon as I went inside my tent the rain started again. 

The next morning I would realized that my now most frequented app on my phone would not be anymore WhatsApp or Instagram, but the Weather App. Forecasts showed no sign of sun but once in a while the rain would change into a drizzle so I learned how to build and unbuild my tent quickly in those breaks. Also my tent wasn’t anymore as waterproof as I had hoped. Luckily it was big so I could avoid the puddles inside. When I climbed Monte Adone (the first of five mountains named after Gods - this lead to the name Via degli Dei) I was beyond disappointed. The ascend and descent were slippery and visibility was lower than 20m. Since I had no view for most of the trail I stayed inside my head a lot. While walking past chestnut forests and getting back into the rhythm of solo-trekking I revisited memories of past hikes (strangely I remembered hot sunshine and melting ice creams). While my hands froze around my walking poles, the wind was merciless and it got darker and darker around me (although it was probably only six in the afternoon). I literally didn’t know if this oasis I stumbled on was from a different world or had been really there. Covered completely by mist I saw a shadow of a toilet? Was it a toilet though? I walked towards it and it really looked like one of these old outhouses you found in the back of a farm. I opened the door and revealed a beautiful surprise. A shelter just big enough to contain the white plastic chair and a shelf full of memories, a guest book, and the walls filled with old photos. I searched for my head torch and closed the door. I was dripping so much that shortly after the ground was covered in rain, but I was in a sheltered place.  A refuge built by trail angels who will probably never get to know how much it meant to me in that moment. I made myself a hot herbal tea, dinner of mashed potatoes and vegan ragu and when rain turned into clouds I built up my tent right next to the little shelter that was too small for laying inside. Those moments make backpacking special and even though I like hiking in the sun, would I have been able to enjoy this little weird dirty shelter as much on a splendid warm day?

The worst thing about backpacking in the rain? Without Question it is getting into the all wet clothes in the morning. Not just is it tricky to pull all wet shorts up over my ass, or does is hurt how my nipples shrink together under the freezing cold and wet of my bra, but additionally I have these injinjii socks where all toes are separate which is a blessing to not get blisters on my toes. Nevertheless; me who usually doesn’t curse had to notice a few damning words slip my mouth trying to put my toes in the very wet separate sections of my socks. I started another day of non stop rain and slippery mud under my feet. I walked through stunning beech forest and tried to tell myself how healthy I am going to be after all this forest bathing. I had heard in a podcast, that a wet forest is sharing even more beneficial pheromones and ions with us than a dry one. So I walked and sucked it all up. My hands were as wrinkly as a grandmas fingers after 3 hours in the bath tub but who said Italy is all sunshine? I think it was Berlusconi, and he’s not famous for honesty. Anyways I could feel that all this water would make spring explode and make everything lush green with a little bit of sunligt. With fog around me and no visibility I had all the headspace to concentrate on what was directly under my feet. Here I was in the year 2021 walking on this old cobble stones in the middle of the forest surrounded by ancient beech trees. The Via degli Dei partly traces the Flaminia Militare an old roman road. And it was just magic to walk there on the same stones like all these soldiers and traders more than 2200 years ago. That is one of the most magic things when walking in Italy on old pilgrim or historical routes. Even though I might be the only person around now I am just one of many who has done this strenuous climb or admired this beautiful tree or will sit on this rock having lunch or will wonder when the rain will stop. Well my weather app doesn’t make me any false hope. It shows rain and nothing else even for the nearer future. 

On the forth day on the Via degli Dei I woke up in my tent next to St. Agata and I couldn’t get myself to get up into the rain. I felt like I have lived already an entire life inside this cloud that is covering the Apennine and still I couldn’t yet fathom how worse it would get. I thought well two more days to go. I passed by wet forest and field, villages and churches. I had snacks under the porches of old Fram buildings I had packed my phone and everything into my backpack, the pages with the trail notes on it were melting under the rain and disintegrated in my pockets and I focussed on the way markers. I was beyond thankful for the really good marking of the whole way. That day I was so fast and made something that felt like endless kilometers. Although I have had a late start. I simply couldn’t stop much. From midday on the rain was merciless. It was impossible to find a dry spot to open my pack o take out some food, obviously impossible to eat something dry. It was too cold for resting so all I could do is keep going. My mood was getting dimmer mainly for the cold and the hunger and well being constantly covered in dark fog is kinda a mood killer as well. I climbed another mountain by walking up a rushing creek. I guess this had been a normal trail but now masses of water came down the opposite way and every time my feet took a step towards the mountain top they had to push aside the rushing water flushing down. And for the first time in days I started to shout out loud begging the for the rain to stop…. It didn’t. After hours of misery I arrived at the old Convento di Montesenario the moment was incredibly atmospheric and mystic all covered by fog and rain I could see the huge stairs and walls of the convent just when I stood directly in front of the doors. The doors were closed though and would reopen just in one and a half hours. The silence was so heavy, this could have easily been an enchanted castle that was not in lunch break but that hadn’t moved in 500 years. I went to the toilet. My teeth chattering and my hands barely able to hold my phone I called my Partner. I think being a very confident woman I am usually proud of my independency while out traveling, so calling my husband for help in this situation  made me realize how cold and miserable I was. There was no way I could stay one hour in the cold and get a place to stay tonight in reach. I had called all the places offering hospitality on the official list and all were closed for low season. I needed help. And as happy I usually am to sleep in my tent and rely on myself I can’t describe how thankful I was in that situation to have support! So while the looming hypothermia made me keep walking and walking and my partner tried to find a place to stay for me in Fiesole the rain stopped. And I still think of it as a miracle that as soon as I reach a big open lawn a cloud lifted and there it was: the first view of the day presented Firenze the end of this trail. I cried and smiled and couldn’t believe that there was actually a sun beam on the city. I had to think about all the movie scenes where the light I shining just on the holy land, or the chosen one, or the kissing couple. There is was shiny from the rain, the city that would hopefully offer me a dry place to sleep. After just finishing this wish in my head and putting the phone back into triple plastic bags that were more or less dry it continued raining. I climbed the last mountain of the trail. From Poggio al Pratone I had phone connection again and could call my husband. He managed to book the only AirBnB in Fiesole. I had the last 5 kilometers of the way in front of me. A drizzle and pain in my feet accompanied me the rest of my way. I arrived in this weird place with a parrot in the kitchen and decadent leopard armchairs in the room. I dropped my things and while the hosts explained me how the shower radio works all I could think about was the dry fluffy towels on the bed. I washed all my super wet clothes and after the shower I sat wrapped in a warm towel on my bed and realized fully that I had walked 125km across the Apennine in 4 rainy days. It was the 29th of April 2021 I had arrived in he periphery of Firenze and all I wanted to do was eat and sleep and dry. 

The next day was perfectly warm and sunny and all my gear that hadn’t dried over night was hand dried with the hairdryer. I was wearing fresh socks and clothes and decided to take the bus into the city centre. Since I hate hiking through a city and wanted to visit all my favorite places in Florence and on the same day get onto the next trail in Tuscany. But first a bit of celebration: I had gelato on the side of ponte Vecchio, I lighted a candle in the cathedral and admired the dome. I bought amazingly juicy strawberries on the Piazza di Santo Spirito and after basically not having seen a single human being the last days I was happy to simply people watch. 

I trashed the ripped pages of trail notes that told me about all the beautiful view points I hadn’t seen and I felt a little bit petty for myself of having crossed my favorite part of Tuscany without having seen it. But than I relised that this was not true. I had seen it. The wild and wet side of it. Not the grand views but the salamanders crossing thousand year old roads, the beech trees opening up their bright green leaves after a long winter, the old people at the side of a soccer field who offered me drinking water, the first orchids blooming and old mystic convents and churches, the small villages and villas on top of the hills. All the snails that slowly slimed their way through the world. The bird song that was just crazy intense as soon as the heavy rain stopped for a moment. I had walked through all this beauty and silence. 

I had taken the longest forest bath in a long while and I felt that this was the perfect start to a long adventure solo and peaceful, just me, Italian landscape and my thoughts.