Good Morning Lunano. We awoke to a beautiful day, drove our stake and started the car in anticipation of our day and finding a coffee place. What we weren't in anticipation of was the little nagging sound the muffler was making. It was grumbling so we started to ask around if there was anyone who could take a look and maybe fix it. We were given directions to one place so we went. I have learned to take some directions literally and turned up a road that was a little off and Joyce said "this is the kind of road that will knock off the muffler" and right then, pop off it came dangling, so I proceed to take it the rest of the way off.
We sounded like a 60's muscle car. After getting more directions we found a mechanic. Turns out the first directions were to a ceramic shop, as marmista as Guido asked for is a marble cutter and we needed a marmittista (muffler guy). Funny what a few letters can get you here in Italy, lol. Anyhow the mechanic we did find assured us that it would be OK to drive to where we needed to go, you'll just be noisy and if stopped by the police, just show them the muffler and assure them your getting it fixed when you get home.
So we, with muffler in the back seat, went to a spot on the Line called Bronzo, a small nothing little place but we staked our claim by the local crossroads and were then off to Auditore.
Auditore is a cute place with a walled castle and church which dates back to the 1400's which was most likely all there was but the view was a 360 of all the valleys. We walked around the town (literally) broke bread, made our proclamations and off we went to Tavoletta.
Again we find ourselves in the same kind of situation, walled city with a castle. While we were breaking bread and staking I felt like there was a sense of looking over the shoulders. Not me, but the feeling that the people were always making sure they were not being watched or being sought after knowing they did something wrong and are waiting for the day they would be caught. Joyce added that she saw the priest from up in the castle area looking down almost like he was watching to see if the people were doing what they should be doing. We prayed for repentance for the things that were committed there by the Germans and other forces and moved on to Montefiore Conca.
Montefiore Conca was adorable as it had all the fairytale trappings. Cute little houses, quaint shops and a castle which was under the kingship of the Malatesta Family at one time. The thing to notice about all these Castles were that they had the Castle and it's walls and then another wall surround the homes. There is always an inner court for the powers that be
which served as a fortress and the outer courts. Kind of like the fortress in Lord of the Rings.
This
castle was built and was fortified for defending the King and the
City. Again the view was outstanding. You could certainly see why the
Nazi's picked this as a strategic point as you could see the sea and the
coastal town of Pesaro from this vantage point.
Mondaino was our next destination but we ran into another one of
those roads that because of non use, you could not even walk on it so we
needed to drive around to get to it. Mondaino without sounding
redundant was a walled city with a castle on the top of a mountain with
views that were breath taking. After a walk around the city and through
it we came upon a shop that made and sold a particular kind of cheese
which is only produced there. The owner, a young man told us some
history and showed us how they make the cheese and of course we got to try
some. He also mentioned about some stories he had heard about the war
through his grandfather and father
which was nice and somewhat
disturbing. Apparently when the American Allied Forces arrived, they were
looking for information as to exactly where the
German forces were
hunkered down. The Police chief of Mondaino went and talked to them and
they told him that they had intelligence regarding the Germans
in his city to which he replied "No they are not here, they
are over in Saludecio", which they were, they actually were all over the
area, but Mondaino was a headquarters. With the information from the
Chief of Police, the
Americans totally razed Saludecio. Can you
imagine, were only talking like 10 km away, fellow Italians, wow.
Another thing we found really interesting was how small the doorways
were here. Guido is 6ft and Germans are tall like Guido and taller,
so imagine how many hit their heads going into doorways here. Anyhow we
prayed, broke bread and staked our claim and moved on to our next point
(which was just down the street) Monte Gridolfo.
Monte Gridolfo was smaller than the others but the same walled city with a castle. This place actually had a Gothic Line war museum (which was closed) and had some history and weaponry on display. Also the views from the place were incredible. Yes we are seeing a pattern of taking the high places. We made our proclamation and moved on.
Next was Belvedere Fogliense to stake the Gothic Line. From them we made our way to Montecchio which is an industrial town which I had the sense that there was a
fear of this place. I recalled what someone had said, that people would
hide when the Todt would come through because they would be taken away
to work in the factories as forced labor. This
may have well been one of those places. We prayed against the spirit of
fear and proclaimed freedom, broke bread and moved on to Tavullia.
Tavullia was yes another walled mountain top city with a castle. Since I was running low on stakes I was
able to replenish our wood stake supply and take in an another incredible valley scene where a battle was fought. The Lord showed me that the people had a hero (Mario Rossi - Moto GP Champion comes from these parts) and that The Lord wants to be their hero. We walked around and prayed, made claim and proclaimed Him hero in Tavullia and moved on to Pozzo Alto.
After having learned that poggios meant plateaus and mounts were mountains, I wasn't sure what to expect about Pozzo Alto. Since pozzo means well and alto means high, was this a high mountain well, or a well on a high mountain? I also wasn't even sure if we would be
able to find it. Well much to my surprise it was a name of a town which again was walled but minus a castle. Who knows, maybe it was destroyed at some point in history. Anyhow this place seemed a little bit more neglected in comparison to the other walled cities which had some love and care put into them. Pozzo Alto was a back woods kind of place, still beautiful and again a view that would be worthy of postcards. We walked around this tiny place and broke bread, staked claim proclaimed His kingdom and moved onto the last city of Pesaro. We stopped one more time to stake claim at Borgo S. Maria on the Gothic Line and continued on to our final destination.
We have arrived at Pesaro. We have now gone coast to coast. We
walked out onto the beach and drove our stake, took communion and
enjoyed the sunshine for a few minutes before heading back home. It had
been a long day, a long 2 weeks and looking forward to getting home,
eating and hanging out with Gracie & Oliviah, the 2 students from
Florence who came to stay with us. Now the only thing we have to do is
go back to one mountain that we missed (we didn't walk far enough), but
that is close to our house and rent a jeep and drive up into a mountain
range about 2 hours from our home and then the 1st part of the Gothic
Line will be finished. We will do this before September as we really
feel this needs to be done before battlefields are walked in September
and the 2nd & 3rd part of the Gothic line is walked & staked as
well. Amazing how fresh and alive this still is and surprisingly there
has been a huge increase in tourism to the Gothic Line. We actually
were coming on the tail end of a Bike the Gothic Line event, although I
think we might officially be the first to have done this spiritual walk
coast to coast, but we won't be the last as there is still much to be
done.
Thank you for following our journey and stay tuned, more to follow.
We returned to Mt Bucciana because if you can recall we just fell short of where we needed to be. We set out from Poggio Ciciablo after calling our source, who we still don't know his name, only his cell number. And just like he said, follow the marker to a certain point and then start looking for blue marks on trees. Sure enough we had seen these blue marks when we were in this area last time but had no clue what they meant. What he failed to to tell us was that after meandering along the ridge and then in the mountains at a very light and easy pace that this deviation from the normal trail markers would be a long steep journey (Joyce had some problems keeping upright). We found many markers along the way that made this place very easy to find.
You can get where your going if you have the right directions right.
Finally after a pretty grueling climb we arrived at 1223 mt. It was so cold up there that we had to put on our scarves Pretty amazing since it is now May 31st and should be well into the 80's by now.
Joyce says she still hates to hike in the mountains, specially when she keeps sliding down them, but apparently there is no place she would rather be than with me and wherever the Lord tells her to go.
Off we drive and when we arrive at this place WOW!! What a perfect stronghold it is, literally where four places meet. It is a border town not much to look at but an awesome strategic place. Stake, pray & communion
and then we move on. Did I mention it was freezing up here. Not like last May when it was hitting temps of 90-95, no it has to be hitting all of 50-55 if were lucky with winds howling and rain on and off.
