This is not a trip of conventional rewards or comforts. We pass through areas so sparsely populated that, for the locals, just seeing people is a rarity, never mind tourists. During one stretch, for two days, we live on handouts of food and local wine, sleeping in beautiful empty farmhouses, there being no villages to go to, no pensiones to stay in, no meals to buy. It is, for us, la dolce vita in the truest sense. We never go hungry and the rural beauty infuses each step with a deep sense of well-being.
Almond trees bloom with fragrant, creamy flowers all around.
The early spring sun never stops shining. Scarved women tend hillside vineyards below cottony clouds drifting lazily, like us, in the direction of Africa. Trying to get directions outside Paceco for the second time. For six days we travel this way, following dirt lanes and paved roads and footpaths south. We wander through hay fields and across vineyards, choosing our way sometimes by complete whim.