yesterday saw only a short hike up the hill from Chatillion. Even though taking 2 1/2 days of rest in Aosta felt like forever, I was really feeling my first day back on the trail when I woke up, so it was very slowly I picked my way southeast out of Chatillion.
I headed towards the river and found the cyclo vía signs, and following the wide pavement trail through the woods and along the river.
When the trail started reaching up, up, up, I checked my map for some mistake. When the path emptied out into a beautiful a little city with a thermal pools boldly advertised everywhere, though, I knew this was no mistake.
I stopped to pray in the church, then for a gelato, then for hours of swimming in thermal water to cool my legs.
I just had my running shorts and sports top, but the other women told me it was fine for swimming.
“sei in italia tutti bene”
The pools overlooked a magnificent valley, and I couldn’t imagine anything better at the moment than the weightless feeling of swimming with this view.
When I left, I looked around the lobby for a television for the World Cup final.
I asked at the bar of the spa if there was a television to watch the World Cup final. My Italian is still incomprehensible, but the message was international.
The young Italian working there shook his head towards the phone he was hunched over when I came to ask.
Obviously, there was no television to watch the game there and that was the problem of the moment.
I walked outside and stuck my nose in the first place I heard noise. A television was blaring music videos, but there was only one group inside, cyclists with their back turned to the screen, so I asked. The Italian girl working there was super nice but ambivalent to the game, so it took a minute to understand each other, but a second before the game started, it was sorted.
I was going for France, the cyclists, Croatia. One more french fan joined, so then there were two.