Fort Denison

A fortress built on a small island in Sydney harbour in the 19th century to protect us against the Russians.
Now it is used mostly for fine dining and parties.

Credenziale del Pellegrino

This is the Pilgrim's passport kindly mailed to me by the people at the basilica in Assisi. As well as providing evidence of being on the camino, it includes maps of the routes.

This is the plan: Assisi to Rome along this route:

This is one of the camino routes in Europe which are shown in this map:

Sydney by night

Silvery clouds during s break in the rain.

First thoughts

I will be (please God) in Rome in 5 weeks. After a couple of days in Rome, I plan to walk from Assisi back to Rome. This is part of the Via Francesco, from Florence to Rome.
I don't want to plan too much, but these are some things I have learnt about this route:

The way starts from the Santa Croce church in Florence. The first 8 days go through the Casentino nature park. 

When you leave the park, you arrive at La Verna, where St Francis received the stigmata. 

Straight after this, you arrive at the Montecasale convent, where St Francis met 3 robbers.
The path then follows the Apenine mountain range, then arrives at the Medieval town of Gubbio, where St Francis is said to have befriended a wolf.
From there you walk along a 48 km path that has been constructed from Gubbio to Assisi.

Three kilometres south of Assisi is Santa Maria degli Angeli and the Basilica.

From Assisi, the path goes over Monte Subasio and passes the famous convent Eremo delle Carceri and the nearby town of Spello, with its restored frescoes.

From here we go back to nature and the towns of  Spoleto and Bevagna.

Next the town of Montefalco lies in the hills, with more frescoes.

Then we reach Spoleto and then follows some days over the mountains.

Then follows the villages of Ferentillo and Poggio Bustone.

Then we reach Rieti, which is the geographical centre of Italy.

The next town is Stroncone. 

Soon after this, the path leaves Umbria and enters Lazio (Latium) and its olive trees. This is not a tourist area (yet) and backpackers are not provided for and there are not many hotels.

We pass Vescovio and the famous abbey Farfa.

The path ends in Rome at St John in Lateran. It was in this basilica that Francis received permission to set up his new order in 1223.

Foggy Sydney

Sydney Opera House at 9 this morning:

Back on the road

I was able to go for a morning walk for the first time in more than a month, and I really needed the exercise. These are some photos I took today:

A Brazilian by any other name

For some reason, Brazilian soccer/football players usually have only one name. In the "good old days" these were sometimes spectacular, such as Socrates. Who ever calls their child Socrates?

But now, the world tends towards plainness, and the current Brazilian team has players called Fred, Jo, Oscar, Maxwell etc. Some are a bit more imaginative, like Hulk and Julio César. I wonder what happens if there are 2 Fred's in the same team?