To Corleone we go

Aware that our hike would have no shade, we left early in the morning to head to Corleone.This stage of our pilgrimage is rated very difficult and in fact it was. The hike begins with an amazing view of a lake and distant mountains. We covered several steep rocky climbs, passed several farms and even learned a new word in english: TRANSHUMANCE. At first I thought it was just a bad translation (we are city folk and it never came up), however, it is a real word meaning the practice of moving livestock from one grazing ground to another in a seasonal cycle. We watched countless cows and sheep, bells clanging, move from fields guided by dogs.We saw beautiful rock formations, millions of snails and loads of fields filled with squash to be harvested.At our halfway point, Ficuzza, we stopped at the church, Sanctuary of St Maria del Rosario di Tagliavia. There was a little market for a much needed rest, a delicious panini of cheese and tomato and more water.After lunch, we climbed past more stone mountains and more farms.Our long day was made a lot longer by a missed sign and the last three giant hills were extra difficult to climb but we eventually made it to Corleone. Our hosts and the B and B were lovely. Bernardo is an olive farmer and is getting prepared to harvest his crop and turn it into olive oil. He told us that he has picked up several pilgrims both with his car and tractor when they couldn’t find their way to the B and B. Our room had a wonderful view of both the sunset and the moon set. We did not get a chance to explore the town of Corleone, but we had a very nice evening of relaxing.

Here is the link to another partial look of our route via David’s relive app. https://www.relive.cc/view/rt10001685006