Days 54 & 55 – Pietralunga to Montecasale – 69km
I have been cold for two months now. Not so much during the walks; my body heat usually takes care of that for me, after just a half-hour of exertion in the early morning. No, it’s in the accommodation each night, where heating is non-existent or applied judiciously. The stone walls have spent the past […]
Days 52 & 53 – Valfabbrica to Pietralunga – 67km
It was in Gubbio, my stopping point at the middle of these two stages, that Francis had another famous interaction. This one involved no human, though, but rather a wolf. The town had been harried, terrorized by this wolf for weeks, as it even fed on some of the residents. Francis, we’re told, intervened, scolding […]
Day 51 – Assisi to Valfabbrica – 13km
Here it is, the shortest walk of the trip, at least to this point. Yesterday wasn’t much longer on paper, but Assisi is on hills not paper, and who knows how many extra kilometers I banked with my pack on, wandering all over the city. As a consequence, what I had initially imagined as a […]
Days 49 & 50 – Campello Alto to Assisi – 46km
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 […]
Days 47 & 48 – Stroncone to Campello Alto – 74km
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 […]
Day 46 – Rieti to Stroncone – 36km
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 […]
Day 45 – Toffia to Rieti – 52km
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; […]
Days 43-44 – Roma to Toffia – 75km
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 […]
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 […]