Formia - Castelforte 12 November 2022

To day I did some 24 kilometres to Castelforte. It is a bit off the VF, but the guesthouse provides good accommodation for a reasonable price. Breakfast I have to organise myself. It was clouded and with a temperature of about 17 degrees C, the weather was excellent for walking. No sweat! No doubt that the previous day of rest helped as my feet were in great condition and I walked the distance like a dream albeit it was all flat. It was otherwise a most dreary walk on trafficked roads and asfalt so I'll say no more about it, other than that the Italians here drive like maniacs as if there are no other cars or pilgrims on the road. You have to be careful not to get run over walking along these roads. 

The landlord of the guesthouse, 82 year old Marcello was a nice man and drove me around the village in his Jeep to show me the sights, the restaurants and super market.

I visited the best meat restaurant in town and ordered an entrecôte, some salad and french fries. It was the most expensive dish on the menu. The restaurant was fully booked on this Saturday night and I got the last table. Pardon me for saying, but Italians can be quite noisy and just for fun I measured the noise level with an app on my phone and the general noise level was at 80 decibel at my table which was a bit to the side. Sometimes they managed to produce 85 Db which is normally the limit to start wearing ear protection! Another thing is that after each course almost all (especially women!) put on their coats and go outside for a smoke while discussing animatedly. 

After a while the waitress came up to me and asked how the beef was and I explained with my phone as translator that for this price the meat should have been more tender especially since they were a meat restaurant. She apologised and when I wanted to pay the bill, they gave me a considerable discount. After I had paid they were so nice and poured me a couple of grappa's, so now I feel good and will try to get some sleep. 

Good night. Tomorrow to Sessa Aurunca.