Today’s stage takes you from Arzúa to Arca. On your route is the small town of Calle, a picturesque village that gracefully combines traditional Galician architecture with newer homes. Farther down the road you will enter the hamlet of Santa Irene, sheltered amongst green trees and winding paths.
The town is named after Saint Irene of Tancor who was a Portuguese woman who lived in the early medieval ages. At an early age she decided to become a nun, though this did not sit well with her tutor, the evil monk Remigius. Remigius gave her a potion that made her belly swell and appear pregnant, though this enraged her suitor Britald, who hired an assassin who promptly killed her and threw her body into the Tagus. Her uncle, who had received a revelation about what had really happened, found her uncorrupted body in the river and took it to the local town of Santarem, where it would be venerated. The town houses a small 18th century chapel and a fountain with supposedly curative waters for crying babies and monthly female pains to honor Saint Irene. It may cure your thirst too!
Your journey continues along green winding roads to your last stop before arriving in Santiago, the small town of Arca. Your Fresco Tours maps will come in handy in finding your hotel and our recommendations for anything else in town that you need! Countless pilgrims have stayed in this town and its surrounding neighbors before the final kilometers to Santiago de Compostela, and you get to do the same.
Make sure to try some of the local aguardiente tonight after dinner, the locals believe its a wonderful disgestif. You can find it at any café or restaurant in different flavours.
