I’m quite fond of this second picture in the series. Back in 2017, I had finally decided — I had first thought of it in 2010!! — to walk for eight days along the Via Francigena, the ancient pilgrimage route towards Rome. A reasonable organised route nowadays, but certainly without the volumes of pilgrims that flock to the Camino de Santiago. It suited me well, as I intended to walk this pilgrimage alone, as a way of living eight days of retreat.

The modern Via Francigena avoids — understandably — the places where the ancient route coincides with the modern local major arteries, and opts for more countryside options. In some places, as it this case, on the way from Montefiascone to Viterbo in northern Lazio, the route follows the old Roman Via Cassia. Here the ancient Roman surface — the basolato — still survives … bringing in some way closer the many pilgrims who will have walked this ancient route, over the centuries. Saints, sinners, adventures, pilgrims have walked on these very same stones.

I walked the route alone, to find time and space to pray and take it all it. At the same time, I was never alone — as I knew that several pilgrims only a few minutes ahead of me, or behind me. I captured in this picture one of the groups, after letting them pass me by. By the eighth day, we had become all — in some way — companions on the same pilgrimage, even if all we doing our own inner journeys, for our own reasons, like pilgrims of old.

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Related posts:
– “We are all backpackers.” Wisdom of a wayfarer
– “We are all backpackers.” photo series – intro
– “Take like one step at a time.” – photo series