For a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with the sweet 18 birthday party celebration right under our window that continued until the early morning hours, we decided to hitch a ride with our luggage half way to Casalbore, so we walked only 10 km today, accompanied by the sounds of the Village People singing YMCA ringing in our ears, a song that for some reason was played over and over for said 18 year old party. The real reason we rode part of the way is that the trail is in poor condition after recent rains, including several streams we would have to forge barefoot. We opted out.
Before leaving Benevento, we revisited the Arch of Trajan, which was constructed at the entrance to the city on the Via Appia in the 1st century CE to celebrate Trajan’s victory over Dacia, a territory that included parts of present-day Ukraine. It is a stunning piece of antiquity.
Casalbore is a very small village whose main attraction is a 12th century Norman Tower and surrounding walls that are in surprisingly good condition even though damaged during an earthquake in the 1600s. But the real attraction for us is our host, Valerio, at the Norman Towers Spa, also known as the Paradise Bar. He asked, as everyone has, how I come to speak Italian, I always answer simply “My mother is Italian” to which the invariable reply is “Where is she from?” When I told him she was from Naples, his eyes lit up. Valerio, also Neapolitan, treated us like celebrities or long-lost cousins and of course he has cousins in Western New York. He was a most generous, accommodating, enthusiastic host.
Walking the Via Francigena 
Hey you two! We’re following your every step through this gorgeous journey. So happy to think of your well deserved spa moment (not a full day, alas). So much walking, so little time. Safe travels! xoxoxScott and MS
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I am so glad you described that arch, so tantalizingly glamorously lit up in the nighttime photo in your previous post.
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Water
Drops to gushing
Trails turn into stream beds
Napolitano connection
Spa stop
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The spontaneous warmth and friendship of strangers is the good side of humanity. Especially when they have a Neapolitan background. YMCA on a loop is beyond human endurance unless you are at the party, a bit drunk and feel the need to dance in order to remember part of the alphabet.
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P and E — Your letters from the Via Francigena redefine the epistolary genre. Of course they follow your trail, but also precede your path, in that you two, being you too, are destined to reshape the via from a geographic thing into a biographical, historic, cultural, and, at times, lyrical (“you can do all the things that the boys like to do at the …(bump, bump, bump) … YMCA!”) thing. The Trajan Arch is a small and obsolete monument next to the scale of your enterprise, the freshness of your insights, and the real-time catalyst of injecting yourselves into this ancient place. For all this, thank you. Travis PS: Greater Flint Hill life clings to a sort of half-life in your absence. Today’s highlight so far was that neighbor’s cows got out. I donned my best YMCA cow-punching outfit, and used my powers of repulsion to get them to return to their native pasture next door. Very fun, at least for me. Cows seemed unmoved by the adventure, but moved in the sense of relocated.
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I was wondering about the arch. It almost looks out of place in the village setting. Elena
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