As you can see from the photos in the "Previdè" post, this last place I stayed, nestled in the southern Appenines, is magical, and deserves more than a passing reference.
The original owners, Marco and Marzia, took seven years to rebuild a ruined 1,000 year old building, to a very high spec, and have turned it into a wonderful halt for pilgrims. The Via goes directly past the front door. They've brought it right up to date, keeping lots of the cool stone and wooden beam character, excellent plumbing, and providing great meals using local produce.
Now they want to move on, and, over the coming year, Lara and Riccardo are taking over.
It's the best place I've stayed as a pilgrim (although Angela Bianchi's Residenza dei Mille in Pavia is a close second).
All four of them embraced me immediately as part of the family, and it was a wrench to leave. I have promised myself and them that I will be back; there's fantastic gorge swimming to be had there, but I truly felt in my three days of walking while based there, and while in the hamlet itself, that I'd found that liminal space, between this world and some other realm of consciousness that my aforementioned chum The Pilgrim describes, but I've rarely experienced.
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