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A 1,700-KM TREK FROM THE ALPS TO SOUTHEASTERN ITALY ALONG THE VIA FRANCIGENA

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The Camino or the Francigena?

15 December 2009, Milan - “What should I do, the Camino de Santiago or the Via Francigena?”
    I have gotten that question literally dozens of times from would be pilgrims when they find out that I have walked both the Camino from Saint Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela and the Italian portion of the Via Francigena. Having also walked this year from Rome to Otranto, what some call the Southern Via Francigena, I now must also weigh that experience in any advice I dole out. (***what follows is the text of an article I wrote for the magazine Via Francigena that came out this month***)
    It’s always going to be hard to counsel somebody on which pilgrimage to do because it is such a personal experience that there is really no way of knowing which will be “best” for a particular person. What you got from walking 800 kilometers in solitude is likely to be completely different than what your best friend gets when he has the same experience. This wasn’t always so obvious to me.
    After completing my first day of walking on the Via Francigena I arrived at the hospice at the Great Saint Bernard pass and even before I had taken off my backpack I was accosted by a peppery young woman who was oozing enthusiasm, I didn’t know yet for what.
    “I saw the sea shell tied to your backpack, are you walking the Via Francigena?” she asked.
    “I’m going to try,” I said. “This is my first day.”
    “Lucky you, you are going to love it. I wish I could join you.”
    Small, compact and very attractive, Karin didn’t immediately strike you as a dedicated pilgrim, but it turned out she was and that explained the special attention I got. A few years before she had shut the door to her house in Brussels one morning and walked to Santiago while another time she’d done just what I was setting out to do, the Italian portion of the Via Francigena from the Great Saint Bernard Pass to Rome.
    We quickly formed a friendship as Karin, who was at the hospice to celebrate a friend’s impending wedding, and I exchanged past pilgrim experiences. I had done the Camino and had read about the Francigena, but I still had many questions and doubts, as one always does at the beginning of a pilgrimage. But one question, one doubt stood out above all others.
    “You know I’ve been thinking ever since I started planning this trip that it might not live up to my expectations,” I said to Karin as I consumed a watery liquid the monks at the hospice were passing off as soup.
    “Eric,” Karin said with that distinct raspy French “r.” “Every pilgrimage is unique and wonderful, but only you can know what it means for you and you’ll only find that out along the way and by yourself.”

    ***the second half of the article is on the way***
    For information about the magazine Via Francigena.