The last few weeks I traveled a bit in Italy with two of my best friends. We went to Bologna, Florence, Pisa, and Rome. Overall, I was glad to see my friends and happy to see more of Italy, but after a few days of playing super-tourist, I was ready to relax!
The next week I spent in Cinque Terre, Italy, which was completely wonderful. We found a great, fully-furnished cabin at a campsite called La Sphinge. Each day we explored the nearby towns, relaxed on the beaches, and tried to stay away from evil jellyfish.
Then I went back to Bergamo to prepare my backpack for the next month. This month is a journey I've been planning for a while. I plan on walking from Logroño, Spain to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. This is a path that people have been walking for thousands of years. In Santiago de Compostela, the remains of the apostle St. James are said to be and each year pilgrims walk hundreds of miles to reach this destination. In the interest of time and a few other factors, I decided to start from Logroño, but probably the most popular starting point is earlier, in St. Jean Pied de Port, France. However, some people start much further away, I've heard of people walking from Poland and other countries.
I hope to be able to make it all the way to Santiago, but I know it will be very challenging. As for why, there are several reasons, I hope to address them as I walk and maybe share them here soon!
Here is a relevant quote from a recent article interviewing Fiona Apple:
She started to climb that hill for eight hours a day, day after day, until she could barely walk, until she was limping, and then until she could not walk at all. Her knees required months of therapy. “Something about that was a rite of passage,” she said. “I think it’s really healthy to lose things or to give things up for a while, to deprive yourself of certain things. It’s always a good learning experience, because I felt like it really was like, ‘I must learn to walk again.’ I had to walk out all that stuff, and I knew it was stupid, and I kept on walking.”
Wearing the scallop shell necklace, a symbol of the camino.
The next week I spent in Cinque Terre, Italy, which was completely wonderful. We found a great, fully-furnished cabin at a campsite called La Sphinge. Each day we explored the nearby towns, relaxed on the beaches, and tried to stay away from evil jellyfish.
Then I went back to Bergamo to prepare my backpack for the next month. This month is a journey I've been planning for a while. I plan on walking from Logroño, Spain to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. This is a path that people have been walking for thousands of years. In Santiago de Compostela, the remains of the apostle St. James are said to be and each year pilgrims walk hundreds of miles to reach this destination. In the interest of time and a few other factors, I decided to start from Logroño, but probably the most popular starting point is earlier, in St. Jean Pied de Port, France. However, some people start much further away, I've heard of people walking from Poland and other countries.
I hope to be able to make it all the way to Santiago, but I know it will be very challenging. As for why, there are several reasons, I hope to address them as I walk and maybe share them here soon!
Here is a relevant quote from a recent article interviewing Fiona Apple:
She started to climb that hill for eight hours a day, day after day, until she could barely walk, until she was limping, and then until she could not walk at all. Her knees required months of therapy. “Something about that was a rite of passage,” she said. “I think it’s really healthy to lose things or to give things up for a while, to deprive yourself of certain things. It’s always a good learning experience, because I felt like it really was like, ‘I must learn to walk again.’ I had to walk out all that stuff, and I knew it was stupid, and I kept on walking.”
Wearing the scallop shell necklace, a symbol of the camino.
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