Days 31-32 – Faicchio to Cassino – 114km
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 […]
Days 29-30 – Buonalbergo to Faicchio – 70km
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 […]
Days 26-28 – San Giovanni Rotondo to Buonalbergo – 138km
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 […]
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 […]
Days 23-24 – Trani-Monte Sant’Angelo – 95km
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 […]
Days 21-22 – Bari-Trani – 55km
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 […]
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: […]
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 […]