These first 10 days of walk in Italy were, on one hand, very beautiful, and on the other one, very difficult. They were very beautiful thanks to all the friends I met for the first time of after a long time we hadn’t seen each other, for the time we shared and for the love I received and I gave. It was wonderful to see how this “strange” experience I am living is arising so much enthusiasm and the curiosity of many people: their support repayed the loneliness and the fatigue. And I also learned new things: for example, do you know that the hikers in Piemonte should thank all those volunteers who go doing ranze runze? This means that they go cleaning and fixing the markings on the trails… Carlo taught me this very nice word! And Accob too does ranze runze on the Via Francigena, even if his tools are a bicycle and the markings he leaves on the trail… that’s true, because the ways don’t get marked by themselves!
On the other side, these first days of walk, that are about the 10% of the total, put me on the test. This surely is a very different experience from the Camino Francés, where the keyword is compartir. A part from the people I wrote about and from my family, I cannot really say that there are many people with whom I could share. A few km from Susa, we asked for information to a boy and he simply told us: “I didn’t really believe that somebody walked the Francigena”. And indeed, during 6 days on the Via Francigena I’ve never shared the bedroom with anybody else than Alessandro, and I met only 5 other pilgrims while I was walking. But, contrary to the current position, the Francigena (at least for what concerns the part I walked) is not very expensive: on 6 stages I had to sleep in a B&B only once, paying only 20€ for a studio flat. All the other nights, the hospitality was granted to the pilgrims on donativo (the Spanish way of saying free offer). By the way, it is also true that people still look at the pilgrim with curiosity, or maybe better: like a “strange” person who wanders among fields that he doesn’t know… as the word “pilgrim” means. In terms of education, awareness, dissemination and promotion, there still is a long way to go, but the heritage that we have is very rich and the way is walked mostly by foreigners who are better aware of this than we are.
A last thing that is very clear to me, after these first ten days is that, for me, getting older means learning to deal with the stress of the separation, from my relative, for whom I’m worried, of course, and from my husband, who I miss in the same way I would miss a harm… In short, my 30th year gave me realization that I can no longer walk with my backpack emptied of the worries about my home, like I did in 2008…
Tag Archives: Italy
While I’m on break… the pictures and some notes
While I’m at home, waiting for some news of our car, I started working on the pictures I took along the Way and I thought I’d throw down some reflections I made.
First of all, I’m uploading all the photos I’m taking, HD, on my Flickr set, that you can find clicking here.
During these first four days, I walked about 126km, starting from Milan and going a little zig-zad through Lombardia, until I crossed the border with Piemonte and arriving in Vercelli. Before I left, some friends asked me if I trusted going around alone like this, with only my backpack on my shoulders. If they hadn’t asked me, maybe I would never have wondered, but since they had asked me, I can say yes: it’s possible to trust walking around alone in the fields and on paved roads, even if you are a woman and you don’t have a murderous look. In four days I received only solidarity, love and welcome, even from people that really didn’t know me or who knew me only because of the blog. Of some of them, you have already read in the few lines I posted every evening… for me, it was really a special experience to discover the hospitality spirit that is hidden, but well preserved in Lombardia too. Solidarity and hospitality, even Manzoni wrote it, are inherent in the spirit of people from Lombardia and they become clear even when we elect people who are able only to say “Before the North”… Discovering all these things on my skin was so beautiful and I thank for this reason all those who helped, hosted and walked with me in these days during these first days!
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Another thing that really impressed me was walking “out of the track” and also a bit “off the map”. Indeed, for the first 3 days, from Milan to Mortara, I didn’t follow a “tracked” route, but I almost followed my nose. The first day, with Stefano, we followed the bike path that follows the Naviglio Pavese between Milan and Pavia; on the second day, to meet Katia’s family in Ferrera Erbognone, I looked up in GoogleMaps and then I walked in the middle of paddy fields, passing on the banks between them and cursing the brush and the channels I couldn’t cross.
It was nice to respond to the greetings and questions of curious people who saw me go in places where it is difficult to see a pilgrim or, at least, a backpacker. And, most importantly, I discovered that yes, you can do it: close the door and go walking around the world, without being hit by truck (if you alway pay close attention!). For those who will meet you, it will sound a weird thing, but in 90% of cases, rather than hostility, they will show you admiration and, maybe, even a little envy! Experience definitely taught me that my feet can really take me everywhere, not just where there was no mapped path, but also where no one has ever thought that someone could pass!
Finally, precisely those little villages “off the map”, like Ferrera Erbognone or Nicorvo (some friends asked me where the hell I was finished, because they are not in the Michelin Guide!) that unveil the most welcoming heart of people. These small villages, scattered among the fields and rice paddies, remind me so clearly that Italy is not only Milan, or Rome, or Turin, but it is made by an infinite constellation of very small villages with an agricultural vocation and simple-hearted people. Entering Cernago and Palestro, for example, I came up with the entrance to Belorado, Tardajos and other numerous and equally tiny Spanish pueblos crossed by the French Way. Many pilgrims consider, those villages almost like the paradis: a reality out of the time and of the big noisy cities… we have them, here at home, but we almost don’t even apreciate them!
Stages and accomodation from Milan to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port
I finally managed to order alle the documentation I’ve collected in the last weeks and so, I made the first Excel sheet where I recap the itinerary that I mean to follow. I mean, since when you are on the Way, you never know what will happen… luckily! Anyway, this document outlines the stages, the foreseen date, total and partial km, difficulty level and the accomodation where I hope to sleep, with its characteristics.
If you need some more information or wish to contact me, can write to sara.pellegrina@gmail.com.