Birds Eye View

My walk in southern  Italy will be from Rome to Santa Maria di Leuca...the southern "heel" on a map of Italy. It follows a Medieval route to cross the Mediterranean and reach Jerusalem and the Holy Land. It was used by saints, warriors, merchants, and pilgrims. It offers a varied landscape, with rich cultural, religious, architectural, gastronomic, and archiologic heritage, and warm hospitality. 

Distance: 929 km, about 577 miles, of which I already walked about 100 miles. The guidebook breaks it up to about 45 stages of   +-20 km each. Each of the towns is filled with history to explore. I will often stay in rural b&b's or monasteries. 

The terrain is about half dirt /half paved roads through countryside, hilltop villages, and a few larger touristy cities, like Brindisi. 

The elevation is relatively flat sea level along the west  Tyrrhenian Sea and east Adriatic Sea coasts. 

These are Bari and Otranto,  typical Adriatic Sea villages

I will be crossing  the Mid Appenine Mountain at about 1000 meter, and Monte Gargano.  

This is Celle di San Vito in the Appenines, the smallest and highest village I will pass and stay at

Each of these low points on this elevation chart corresponds to  river crossings on ancient bridges.

This is the 1832 Ponte Real Ferdinando over the Garigli

ano River in Mintura, one of the first European suspension bridges. 

Of the 49 World Heritage Sites in Italy, seven are in these southern regions.  

An example of one of the sites near Bari  is the trulli of Alberobello, quaint white structures typical of the Puglia region

I am so looking forward to being there in person in October. I will make sure to take pictures in each of these places and tell you what it really feels like to be there and to actually arrive after a long day's walk.

Here is a link to a video of the walk through this Puglia region. 

https://fb.watch/f4D310yo1M/

Please let me know if you have any questions or interest in a particular aspect of the journey. Do you have ancestors from this region that you are curious about their history? 

Buon camino

Via Francigena Sud

Today I received my renewed US passport and am ready to travel. 

In preparation for my upcoming pilgrimage walk, I will be sharing details of my plans through periodic blog posts. This will let me share with you more interesting details than does my current Rosa's Journey Facebook page. 

In October 2022 I plan to walk about 6 weeks along  930 km of the Via Francigena Sud in Italy. The itinerary will take me from Formia, in the coastal Mediterranean western Lazio region, inland through Campania, Basilicata, and  to Santa Maria di Leuca in the Puglia region,  along its eastern Adriatic coast. 

The entire Via Francigena  is more than 3000 kilometers, from Canterbury, England through France, Switzerland, and Italy to Rome and Santa Maria di Leuca.   

Step by step on mountain paths, mule tracks, rural and secondary roads, ancient Roman roads, cypress-lined dirt roads or among majestic pines. Under my feet will be the oldest streets and villages of these beautiful countries. Streets paved with river stones worn by the passage of time. 

Over the past 6 years, since 2016,  I have walked about 1500km through Switzerlsnd and Italy on the Via Francigena from Lausanne to Rome to Formia. (This is in addition to my numerous other extended pilgrimages on the Camino de Santiago in Spain)  This next Journey will take me from Formia, Italy about 100km on the coast south of Rome to unfamiliar interior areas of Italy filled with ancient history, landscapes, cultures, languages, architecture, religions, and gastronomy. I look forward to meeting  the local residents and sharing their culture, as well as encountering other international pilgrims.

In preparation for this trip I am training physically to walk about 20km or 6-8 hours per day, carrying bare necessities in a 12 lb backpack, sleeping in monasteries, b&b's, pilgrim hostels, and welcoming hosts.

I will follow a guidebook and gps tracks that each day lead me through farmlands, hillsides, and ancient stone roads,  to a new small village or town filled with ancient history.

I will share more of these details as I go along. 

Here's a video clip from my walk from Rome to Formia  in January, 2020, just before covid started. I look fowrard to continuing! 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QAtoHm2tEekNX4aB6

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog to complement my Rosa's Journey Facebook page. I'd love for you to follow me as I prepare for this new journey in October and Novemeber 2018.

This upcoming one month journey will incorporate several of my Camino passions: volunteering as an hospitalera, or host, at pilgrims in hostels in Italy and Spain; walking a segment of a pilgrimage route; and volunteering in Spain at the end of the Camino to Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route welcoming arriving pilgrims to the Cathedral in Santiago.

I'll begin by flying to Italy to attend a weekend reunion of fellow Italian hospitalero volunteers at the Valpromaro hostel in northern Tuscany, on the Via Francigena, near Lucca. Over the past 3 years I have volunteered here and at Vercelli, working alongside lovely people who I now call friends.

Welcome to Valpromaro.

Serving soup in Valpromaro

Then, I'm going to Spain to walk along the Camino Sanabres, one of the traditional camino routes from Ourense to Santiago de Compostela. I've already arrived walking into Santiago  from various other routes, but this one is all new to me. I've spent days studying the terrain, distances, elevations, architecture, and religious and cultural aspects of this historic 100km route.

All the Various Camino routes yet to walk

Upcoming walk from Ourwnse to Santiago

Lastly, I will stay 2 weeks in Santiago, volunteering at the Pilgrim's Office welcoming those arriving and issuing their Compostela, or certificate of completion of their journey. I have done this before, and just love living in this city that is so filled with the Camino pilgrimage spirit. A treat this year is the completion of the restoration of the exterior of the Cathedral and the Portico artwork.

At the Pilgrim Office in 2016 issuing Compostela

My first arrival in Santiago June 2014

Buen Camino!