Sorry for intermittent blog posts but wifi has been impossible in the rural areas. We had a rest day on Thursday in Pontremoli which is a lovely historic town. Although we are now in Tuscany, the locals stress that we are in Lunigiana district. We've tried their local speciality of testarola which is like a savoury pancake and it's mushroom season here and they make a fab sauce with fried mushrooms tomatoes and red wine. The weather and walking have been fine...

The pic is the hostel we are staying in at the highest point called the Passo del Cisa. It's been another day of mountain scenery and bloody ancient mule tracks. Dinner in the hostel is great fun with 8 of us and a kind of Esperanto as we all talk together in a mixture of English, French and Italian. Drink lots of red wine, although the locals prefer fuzzy red wine. Lambrusco, but not as we know it. Tomorrow it's downhill all the way, hooray

This is where the screaming begins, as Roger warns me. We are leaving the fields where I've been curious about the most popular crop. A small pea like plant with blue flowers. We discover it's the only food for the cows whose milk is used for Parmesan cheese. They are kept inside so we only hear the occasional moo as we pass by. So it's up and up on "ancient mule tracks". Fine if you have 4 legs . Hard work with only 2 and a rucksack. And it starts to rain. We ...