Days 19-20 – Alberobello-Bari – 79km
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: […]
Days 17-18 – Carovigno-Alberobello – 54km
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 […]
Day 16 – Brindisi-Carovigno – 36km
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 […]
Day 15 – Torchiarolo-Brindisi – 27km
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 […]
Days 13 & 14 – Cannole-Torchiarolo – 69km
What defines us, what stands out as our greatest source of pride, can all too often bring about our fall. It’s a slow, leisurely morning as I set forth from Cannole, complete with two hard boiled eggs and a large bag of dried figs, courtesy of Fabio and Lucia. I pause in Carbieno to grab […]
Days 11 & 12 – Santa Maria di Leuca-Cannole – 81km
When I set out to walk across the USA, I had to rewire my brain and my feet. There’s a rhythm of life on pilgrimage, an utterly delightful one, that a trans-US walk can’t hope to replicate. The country is just too damn big. Admittedly, it wasn’t too dramatic a change on the East Coast, […]
Day 10 – Specchia-Santa Maria di Leuca – 35km
I first reached the end of the world in 2004. I was excited, but also a little sad. After all, Finisterre, Spain marked the conclusion of my first Camino leading students, and so as the waters churned below in an unrelenting fury, my thoughts threatened to do the same, until I took a breath and […]
Day 9 – Gallipoli-Specchia – 42km
Live long enough to become a hypocrite. A blessing or a curse? It depends upon each of us, I suppose, and how earnestly we live. That said, I’ve come to appreciate a certain strain of hypocrite in recent years, one willing to reconsider tough stances and modify their position when the available evidence changes. There’s […]
Day 8 – Porto Cesareo-Gallipoli – 35km
I’ve had two consistent companions as I follow the coast southward through Puglia, both reminders of more violent pasts. The less striking, by design, are the pillboxes, only poking a meter or so above the ground. Built during World War II to fend off an Allied invasion, these pop up every handful of kilometers, generally […]
Days 6 & 7 – Taranto-Porto Cesareo – 85km
The people of Taranto are out in force on this Sunday morning, jogging along the coast in their brightest fitness apparel. By contrast, I’m lumbering along, still processing the croissant served at my breakfast that seemed to have been pumped full of a kilo of nutella. Add that to the list of things that shouldn’t […]