{"id":901,"date":"2019-02-18T14:13:45","date_gmt":"2019-02-18T14:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/?p=901"},"modified":"2021-12-04T17:21:39","modified_gmt":"2021-12-04T17:21:39","slug":"day-69-sarzana-to-massa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/?p=901","title":{"rendered":"Day 69 Sarzana to Massa – 8th August"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Distance: 24.3 km \u2013 Elevation +700 m -670 m<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weather:\u00a0<\/strong>Sunny. Temperature: High 31 degrees<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was 7.00 am as I passed by Sarzana Cathedral \u2013 the Basilica Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, and it was closed as it was last evening. I passed, on the way out of town, the Sarzana fortress \u2013 the Fortezza Castruccio Castracani which was also closed. Soon I was in open countryside with wide views across the wooded valley to the Apuan Alps beyond. It was all flat walking today and the time quickly passed as I walked through a succession of small communities to reach Avenza. Despite the flat walking today my legs felt tired from the three previous days crossing the Apennines and I decided to take a more direct and shorter route into Massa rather than follow the Via Francigena. It followed a busy secondary road and five kilometres from my destination I came to what is best described as a transport caf\u00e9 \u2013 the Trattoria Ristorante Bum Bum. It was 2.00 pm and the large and full restaurant was buzzing with the noise of chatting lorry drivers. Finding a spare table I ordered a cold beer and the set meal \u2013 a large plate of spaghetti Bolognese which came with a salad and a full basket of bread \u2013  cost including the beer was 15 euro. I really enjoyed that unusual and unexpected moment. I often find that if I go off piste, away from the usual route, the unexpected happens! I had booked into the Hotel Annunziata and arrived at the hotel just after 5.00 pm. The hotel was an absolute delight and run and owned by a delightful gentleman who asked me in excellent English \u201c Are you going to  Rome to see Papa\u201d. The hotel was situated in the quiet back streets of Massa, some 6 kilometres from the sea, which I had still not seen. It was too far to walk after a long day of 25 kilometres and knowing that I had decided to follow the coast line tomorrow I stayed local to the hotel and after a shower and rest I found a small restaurant where I enjoyed a not too large pizza and a glass or two of  a tasty white produced in the local vineyards. The Monteregio di Massa Marittima wine region produces Tuscany’s best white wines.<\/p>\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n

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Sarzana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Early morning leaving Sarzanna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Castelnuovo di Magra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Avenza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Lunchtime close to Massa<\/figcaption><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Distance: 24.3 km \u2013 Elevation +700 m -670 m Weather:\u00a0Sunny. Temperature: High 31 degrees It was 7.00 am as I passed by Sarzana Cathedral \u2013 the Basilica Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, and it was closed as it was last evening. I passed, on the way out of town, the Sarzana fortress \u2013 the Fortezza Castruccio Castracani which was also closed. Soon I was in open countryside with wide views across the wooded valley to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=901"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5208,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901\/revisions\/5208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}