Days 41-42 – Poggio Bustone to Norcia – 65km
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 […]
Days 38-40 – Vicovaro to Poggio Bustone – 84km
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 […]
Days 36 & 37 – Collepardo to Vicovaro – 73km
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 […]
Days 34 & 35 – Roccasecca to Collepardo – 60km
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 […]
Day 33 – Cassino to Roccasecca – 30km
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 […]
The Tour d’Italia – Part One
One week from today, I fly to Italy to set forth on part one of what I’m dubbing the “Tour d’Italia,” which will lead me across the country twice. This spring, I’ll walk (mostly) south to north, looping down around the heel and then up to the Slovenian border. In the fall, I’ll start on […]