Day 78 – Punta Bianca to Agrigento, Italy – 19km
The sun rose behind me, and the full moon sank ahead, as I set forth from my coastal campsite. Within a kilometer or two, the seaside trail had joined the sun in my wake. Another kilometer wrapped up the unpaved part of the day. The Agrigento sprawl kicked in soon after, first as a trickle, […]
Days 76 & 77 – Gela to Punta Bianca, Italy – 75km
I could walk through this whole section, so many kilometers on the beach or overlooking the coast, and not consider them at all. Find no trace of them, really. And I guess that’s kind of the point, by all involved. But they have been here and will be here again. The desperate and the hungry, […]
Day 75 – Caltagirone to Gela, Italy – 44km
A walking trip immerses you in a place in a unique way, leading you through all kinds of neighborhoods, industries, rural areas, and towns. Even the most scenic routes can’t adhere exclusively to established tourist hot spots. It would be easy to sum this up as the most authentic way of experiencing a country or […]
Day 74 – Militello to Caltagirone, Italy – 47km
The first time I walked the Camino Inglés, I confess that I didn’t particularly care for it. Truth be told, I was bored by it. These are not the kinds of thoughts you want to admit when you are the author of a guidebook on a particular route! But context, as always, is everything. And […]
Day 73 – Catania to Militello, Italy – 53km
The last six kilometers of walking today were fantastic. Well, ok, the last three of those kilometers were fantastic, leading into a river gorge and then climbing past the remains of the old Norman basilica of Santa Maria La Vetere. The three kilometers leading into that were fine. The seventeen kilometers preceding those final six, […]
Days 70-72 – Montalbano Elicona to Catania, Italy – 121km
There are two kinds of volcanic explosions at Mount Etna. Summit explosions grab the headlines. These are just as the name suggests–spectacular events when Etna quite literally blows its top. They happen staggeringly often, with the most recent eruption taking place in February 2021. And yet, for all the shock and awe, they rarely prove […]