Vado a Roma

via WP for Windows app.

This week, I’m walking to Rome.  I’m with my friends Jon Press of England and Alessio Porto of Verona Italy and so far we’ve covered almost 150 kilometers, although I freely confess we took a. train for 12 kilometers and we got a ride for almost 30.  Laugh if you like; we did 38 kilometers the first day, in Medieval clothes and more importantly, Medieval shoes.  If you don’/t know, medieval shoes have no support and no heel; they are very comfortable for walking on medieval surfaces, like a nice hard packed dirt road, but they are not quite so much fun for walking on asphalt.  In tract, today’s last 5 kilometers walking through a suburb of Rome with no sidewalks and it happening to be garbage collection day was… less than a perfect medieval experience.  Hmm.  Or perhaps in some ways, a very pure medieval experience for a pilgrim.

Regardless, I have learned more about the Italian countryside walking from Bolsena to here (about 12 kilometers from Roma proper) than I ever would have believed.  Yesterday I walked through a forest with signs warning me of the danger of wild boars; I crosses a stream and saw deer tracks. This is more the experience I would have expected in the Adirondacks than 45 kilometers from Rome.  The views are constantly spectacular, and the churches and medieval towns are beyond stunning; each is better than the last, so amazing that none of us are jaded yet. 

Ah, a word of explanation is required.  First, there are no photos in this blog because, although I have many and they are beautiful, word press (the app I’m using on my Surface) will not allow me to upload them, and today’s kilometers make me too tired to want to fight Google for more info.  Second, you may wonder why I didn’t blog the last two days; apologies, but the WiFi has been terrible to non-existent, and several items of equipment that worked in Toronto do not work in Italy; this experience reminds me very much of military operations in my youth.

However, let me assure you that over the next few weeks I will flood you with pictures of Montefiascone, Viterbo, Sutra and Rome, not to mention Bolsena.  I now know what post house Tom Swan should stay at in Sutra in 1457; I now know what it would be like to draw a long sword in a Medieval Italian street.  In fact, I’ve been learning so fast I haven’t processed it all yet!  So bearer with me and hopefully, in time, I’ll give you a report on being a pilgrim in 1380.  With pictures.