Day 1 of Trek: Verres to Pont St. Martin - 10 miles, 15 kilometers

Excited and wondering how it would go, we headed out from our hotel to the train station where the trail begins. The Via Francigena was well marked but we missed a few of the clues at the first fork in the road. We headed left instead of right and stood debating when a truck with two young Italian men pulled up to the stop sign we had left a few minutes before. They yelled at us and though I couldn't quite hear them, I SHOUTED "LA VIA FRNCIGENA!" with my arms up? One was out of the truck and pointed dramatically in the opposite direction than we were going. GRAZIE! Saved from the get go, Praise God!

They then pointed the next turn out to us before turning right as we were coming up behind them. As the day wore on we became more and more adept at seeing the signs and yellow arrows. 

The Beginning...............we will see what we look like for The End picture!

Can you tell we are excited and brand new to this? The beginning of our trek at the train station in Verres, Italy.

We walked next to a gorgeous river most of the day. Each home we passed had their own vinyard loaded with grapes and a garden full of vegetables.

The quaint and ancient part of the village of Donnas: it was enchanting as was Bard which we passed through earlier.