⚜ Avvisi

Day 19 - What’s the story?

La Storta → Roma (20 km)

If you missed the other days, you can access them here.

Dear Avvisi readers,

There were mountains between me and that Send button in the last two days. Mountains of pasta, Italian rail strikes and flight panic. I could not conquer them. Yet, here we are with the last dispatch. Thank you for bearing with me.

I once heard at a party in London that a good narrative may answer three questions: What’s the story? What’s the story behind the story? What’s your story in the story? I’ve been mulling that over on the last day of the walk.

The story of getting to Rome was ending. The last stretch of the Via Francigena was different to the past few weeks. The highway, the cars, the trucks, the honking, the noise, all made me wish the end point was not at the Vatican, but in some quiet place with no tourists. And then there was the mud and the scorching sun.

If you don’t wrap your feet in plastic bags (like me), you would surely stain the marble floors of the Vatican. But in that moment, I had to remind myself: Così é (se vi pare), as the road always has surprises and counters expectations.

Angello was acting very British. He caught up with us in his tractor and was signalling “after you”. “No, please, after you,” we insisted. He turned the engine off. There we were in the middle of the muddy road, in a polite stand-off. He commented on the plastic bags. So much courtesy was enacted on that swampy path.

“Your tractor is better than our plastic bags,” I said.

Angello laughed. He was disappointed. Nobody maintains the Via Francigena paths. “Where is all that money going?” Angello asked, gesticulating. “You walked hundreds of kilometers and that’s how they welcome you to Rome. Come to my farm to have food.”

We had to refuse Angello’s invitation, as we had 9 more kilometres to walk. He requested a selfie with us and gave me his son’s number to send the photo. His red flip phone was “ancient”, as he put it, waving it in the air. There we were, in the mud and didn’t want to move further. We were trying to fill in the pauses in the conversation, aiming to extend it as much as possible. It was symbolic of the whole trip - I wanted it to be done, but if I could only extend it for a tiny bit more. It made me think: What comes after walking 450km?

I am not a religious person. And yet, the line between a walk and pilgrimage blurred. In the middle ages, the main reasons to walk to Rome were faith, repentance and even to be pardoned for certain crimes. I learned that from Vincenzo, the pilgrim host in Viterbo. He had 4 stamps for us: one for the 2025 jubilee, one for the church, one from “Vincenzo, God’s donkey”, he said, and one for the last 100 km left to Rome. After he checked in a few more people, I could do the spiel for him.

Vincenzo said that today, there are as many reasons as there are pilgrims (or more). Many people were taking career breaks. Others had just finished university. Others walked because their great-grandmother did it 100 years ago. I think we start the walk with a hint of the why, but it takes all the sweat and tears (hopefully no blood) to understand the real reason for walking. Call it pilgrimage, call it what you want. It’s yours. For me, talking to elderly Italian farmers in the middle of a muddy road with feet wrapped in plastic bags was a sufficient reason.

What were you doing on August 31st? I started walking with my amygdala switched on, rushing like the lizards present everywhere on the walk. Rushing the walk, the talk, the writing, everything. Then I learned to slow down, unfurled and now, it feels like six months have passed. At the same time, it feels like yesterday. Time expands and contracts in whimsical ways. Maybe walking is a different “protocol” to expanding your life, by extending the perception of time.

I’m going to miss saying “Let’s blow up this panini stand,” every time I leave the local bar. Sometimes it’s an espresso stand. I’m going to miss walking with underwear and clothes hanging from the backpack because they didn’t dry from the previous night. I will miss sharing the road with others and Italian food, but not Italian drivers (I mean, seriously). I may sound like that guy who did shrooms once and can’t stop talking about it. But hear me out - walking any challenging distance, whatever that is for you, is an amazing experience that anyone should try if they are able to.

Without your accountability, I wouldn’t have done this (almost) daily. Thank you. It was a creative experiment in photography and writing. I would like to turn these rough notes into a more crystallised creative output, to record these moments and inspire others to try it out for themselves.

The last stretch into the Vatican goes on Via degli Angelli for about 30 minutes. We had just talked to Angello. It’s not quite synchronicity, but humans like to find meaning in such coincidences, as loose as they may be. I think if that helps you take the next step, maybe it’s worth paying attention to these bugs (or features?) in the system. Day 19 was the last day of the walk. But, as another pilgrim reflected, maybe it’s the first day of something else.

I will be sending one more email in a week’s time, after I get a chance to reflect on everything. The follow-up to Avvisi may be a physical book, a Kickstarter, maybe a collaborative writing project with others who know how and why to walk much better than me.

If you’d like to hear any of my blabbering again, sign up for email updates here. After the last email, this mailing list will be blown to digital smithereens.

Thank you for your attention and accountability.

Arrivederci,

Florin