Blog

The Via di Francesco, to the extent that it can be thought of as one, singular thread, is essentially composed of two halves. Over these days, I finished the first part, linking Rome and Assisi. Perhaps 90% of the pilgrims I encountered along the way were walking Assisi-to-Rome, in what has been suggested to me is a one-year uptick because of the Jubilee. I expect the number to be closer to 100% for pilgrims walking La Verna-to-Assisi in the second half. After all, you can earn the Rome Testimonium or the Assisi Testimonium, but there’s “nothing” waiting for you in… Read more: Days 49 & 50 – Campello Alto to Assisi – 46km

I’m sitting on a stone bench. An empty mug sits next to me; I just finished an espresso, which I prepared in the hostel kitchen, and then sipped down while staring into the valley far below. The parish church is to my left. To my right are my clothes, flapping in the wind on a drying rack, nearly crisp from the still-blazing sun. They’ve only been out for an hour and I’ll be able to remove them soon. Such a thing is unheard of on this trip, when I typically begin each day by donning whichever clothes are still a… Read more: Days 47 & 48 – Stroncone to Campello Alto – 74km

One of the advantages that the Via di Francesco has over the Cammino di San Benedetto is the available source material related to its titular saint. There’s just a ton more to work with in the traditions surrounding Francis than Benedict. The dude also, it has to be said, got around. While Benedict didn’t move in a purely straight line, his story centers on three main places–Norcia, Subiaco, and Montecassino. To describe the other towns along the route as “filler” would be uncharitable and misleading, but from a narrative perspective they don’t add a ton to the story of Benedict.… Read more: Day 46 – Rieti to Stroncone – 36km

I’m a competitive person. Probably more competitive than you. On the whole, I’m content with that. It has served me well enough professionally. Perhaps a little less so personally. I recalibrated over the years, and that made a difference. Early in my career, I wanted to be perceived as the best teacher at my school; the competitive drive was something geared towards differentiating myself from others. Eventually, I matured, and realized that my sense of self-worth didn’t require being perceived above my colleagues. Instead, the competitive drive was redirected towards my own internal standards, like a cross country runner striving… Read more: Day 45 – Toffia to Rieti – 52km

There’s not a ton to say about the past two days of walking. Those who have walked the Via Francigena Nord into Roma, especially prior to the route change through a natural area after La Storta, will recall it as one of the worst stages of the entire pilgrimage, to the point that some opted to take a bus into Roma instead of slogging along the highway. By comparison, the Via di Francesco into/out of Roma isn’t quite so bad. Plenty of traffic, for sure. It takes 20km to finally escape the city’s clutches, and the moments are rare when… Read more: Days 43-44 – Roma to Toffia – 75km

When the earth gives out beneath you, when the certainty you once took for granted–solidity, predictability, consistency–crumbles into ruin, what can you do? Where can you turn? More to the point, maybe: who will you be? Benedict’s birth place, Norcia, held out longer than his burial ground, Montecassino. The latter’s destruction came from above in 1944; the former saw death come from below in 2016. The earthquake that ravaged this corner of Italy, one of many such tremors over who knows how many centuries, made international news. A tragedy, for sure. But nine years have passed. Surely the earthquake’s impact… Read more: Days 41-42 – Poggio Bustone to Norcia – 65km

There’s a saying that circulates on pilgrim forums with some regularity: “The way is made by walking.” It comes, originally, from a poem by the Spanish writer Antonio Machado, but you’ll rarely see it in that full context. It’s the kind of expression that has immediate currency with many walkers, evoking a sage nod and unshakeable acknowledgement of its profundity. I tend to stare at it, though, with some combination of skepticism and confusion, as–to my eyes–it smacks of dime-store psychology more than some deep well of insight. I try, in those moments, to give it the benefit of my… Read more: Days 38-40 – Vicovaro to Poggio Bustone – 84km

It would be lazy and a bit out of place for a non-Christian to characterize ours as a “fallen world.” If it’s possible, though, to shift that from a spiritual term to an intellectual concept, speaking of a context in which traditional values and virtues have been diminished, distorted, or disregarded completely, then it feels unfortunately relevant. The ongoing discourse related to virtue signaling is illustrative of the phenomenon. On one hand, it’s easy to see the nub of a valid point at the core of early criticism; the performative, often Internet-based pronouncements of purity tended to be scolding, smarmy,… Read more: Days 36 & 37 – Collepardo to Vicovaro – 73km

Saint Benedict is, obviously, central to the story behind the Cammino di San Benedetto. And I’ll get to him soon enough. But these first few days spent walking the route have been an opportunity to get a feel for the character of this Cammino, its distinct flavor. Given the centrality of Benedict, and the paucity of crucial sites associated with his life across these two stages, one might fear that these would be filler days, essential for bridging the gap between Subiaco and Montecassino, but otherwise unremarkable. Such fears would be entirely misplaced. Instead, what emerges from these 60 kilometers… Read more: Days 34 & 35 – Roccasecca to Collepardo – 60km

If you didn’t know the history, didn’t know anything at all, you could be forgiven for thinking that Montecassino is today as it has been for more than a millennium, a single unbroken continuity extending back to Saint Benedict in 529. It took me two hours to arrive at this point, standing atop the staircase leading to the basilica, staring back across the piazza that opens up dramatically to the valley far below. A light rain harried my ascent, just persistent enough to require attention, but never sufficient to merit concern. After a few early switchbacks along the main road,… Read more: Day 33 – Cassino to Roccasecca – 30km

What I most appreciate about very long days of walking is that the distance simplifies matters, tears the whole edifice down to its studs. Don’t think too much. Just wake up and go. And keep going. Obviously, too many days of that is a problem, for all kinds of different reasons. But two days? That’s like a juice cleanse for your feet. So leaving Faicchio was like being back in the US, rising at 4:30am, shoveling some carbs into my gullet, and setting forth under the cover of darkness. I sprinted ahead of dawn for as long as I could… Read more: Days 31-32 – Faicchio to Cassino – 114km

Would the anti-walking case like to present its rebuttal? With pleasure… I slipped out of Buonalbergo under the cover of darkness. I had screwed up some part of the conversation the night before. In my initial conversation with my host, she had asked what time I left that morning. It was a long stage, so I mentioned waking up at 5:30 and being on the road soon after. She was surprised, but I talked about how nice it is to see the sun rise and enjoy the cool of early morning. At some point, the conversation shifted to when I… Read more: Days 29-30 – Buonalbergo to Faicchio – 70km

The hardest part of long-distance walking isn’t the blisters, the foot pain, or the creaky knees. (Easy for me to say, as the lucky dude who has largely avoided all three.) It’s also not exposure to harsh elements, like torrential rain and wind, scorching heat, and soul-sucking humidity. It’s certainly not insect swarms, packs of mangy dogs, or cows filling the trail (in multiple ways). It’s not even steep, rocky descents, nor calf-straining climbs, or prolonged stretches along busy highways. No, the hardest part is trying to explain why this brings you joy to someone who finds the whole concept… Read more: Days 26-28 – San Giovanni Rotondo to Buonalbergo – 138km

Note: For complete coverage of my ongoing walk across Italy, consider subscribing to my Patreon. It’s cheap, beginning at just $3/month, and includes much prompter access to these daily write-ups, short videos that capture some of the scenery of the way, the complete archives of my US walk, and preview chapters from half of my upcoming Camino book. At every point of my life on pilgrimage, it has been ineluctably associated with legend. Whether the sites of visitation were attributed to Jesus, Peter and Paul, or James–all ostensibly “real” men, actual historical figures–the stories associated with them have to varying degrees… Read more: Day 25 – Monte Sant’Angelo-San Giovanni Rotondo – 28km

Note: For complete coverage of my ongoing walk across Italy, consider subscribing to my Patreon. It’s cheap, beginning at just $3/month, and includes much prompter access to these daily write-ups, short videos that capture some of the scenery of the way, the complete archives of my US walk, and preview chapters from half of my upcoming Camino book. There’s an easy, all-too-tempting way to frame these two days on the Via Francigena Sud’s coastal variant. It was the worst of pilgrimage. Leaving Trani early in the morning, after a most disappointing “included” breakfast, I found myself back on paved roads… Read more: Days 23-24 – Trani-Monte Sant’Angelo – 95km

Originally, my plan called for this to be a single stage, following a day off in Bari. Once I adjusted the days leading into Bari, though, allowing me to reach the city by midday on Sunday, it made more sense to split this over two stages, since accommodation seemed viable and I’ll have plenty of longer days coming up soon enough. In hindsight, maybe it should have been a single stage. The walk, it has to be said, was probably my least favorite of the walk thus far. That was particularly true of the first section, running from Bari to… Read more: Days 21-22 – Bari-Trani – 55km

For a couple weeks now, I’ve been fascinated with these little flowers that have been popping up–very short, maybe just clearing the ground by a couple inches, and with a crisp combination of white, purple, and yellow. They’re very pretty; that’s part of the allure, of course. I’m also struck, though, by where they grow: smack dab in the middle of footpaths, where all other competition has been eliminated. The downside of that, obviously enough, is that those footpaths have been cleared for a reason; feet, and the jackasses like me swinging them around, have trampled other plants into submission.… Read more: Days 19-20 – Alberobello-Bari – 79km

The whole reason that I decided to divert onto the Cammino Materano’s Via Ellenica variant in this section, instead of remaining on the Via Francigena Sud, was to see Alberobello. It’s rightly famous, but more on that in a bit. What I didn’t realize, though, was how remarkable all of the towns are in this section. As nice as it was, Carovigno was the least of the bunch, and it only got better from there. Here are some of the stories of the cities of this variant: Ostuni, even emerging from winter, is blazingly white, a beacon shining from a… Read more: Days 17-18 – Carovigno-Alberobello – 54km

There are days, I admit, when I approach the stage’s end and despair the lack of a hook, something to write about in regards to the day’s journey. In the US, I had an easier time of it, in large part because it was easier to line up audiobooks that suited a relevant topic or theme. That might seem surprising, given the abundance of history on hand in Italy, operating on an entirely different scale than what we have in North America, particularly given the available physical evidence, and certainly the peninsula has not been neglected by authors over the… Read more: Day 16 – Brindisi-Carovigno – 36km

I often think of beauty as something fragile, delicate, perpetually vulnerable to a destruction that would not only shatter the object itself, but the aesthetic quality along with it. And yet, nearly everything that is beautiful in and around Brindisi today has been trashed at some point. The bedraggled olive groves of past stages largely yield the ground to artichokes today, and they’re in fine form. As with broccoli earlier on this walk, I had never before seen a field flush with artichokes, nearly ready for harvest, so this was a revelation. In my mind, these are heavy enough to… Read more: Day 15 – Torchiarolo-Brindisi – 27km