The Penultimate

We were up early and eager on the road today, with a shorter day of 25 km ahead—not a day we would’ve thought was short when we started, but lately we’ve been going well over 35 a day, so a mere 25 seemed like a real treat. The morn­ing was very cold again as has been the norm, though it is still very green.

Our last day before Rome was rep­re­sen­ta­tive of our pre­vi­ous days in Italy: nerve-wracking shoul­der­less high­way trudg­ing, a few ter­ri­fy­ing encoun­ters with fero­ciously bark­ing dogs run­ning free (cheered out by fero­ciously bark­ing dogs stuck behind fences), big piles of trash in oth­er­wise lovely spots, charm­ing wooded hills, pas­tures nib­bled to a short car­pet by horses and sheep, a few streams to walk along­side or hop over, wild gera­ni­ums and dill and oregano and rose hips and peri­win­kle chick­ory flowers.

At some point today I sud­denly real­ized that we’ve nearly done it—we’ve nearly fin­ished our 1000 miles walk­ing for the unity of the church and retrac­ing Luther’s footsteps—this project we’ve been dream­ing about for 6 or 7 years now—and I was just over­come. It has been an amaz­ing gift and priv­i­lege, well worth any frus­tra­tions or pains (or fero­cious dogs) we’ve dealt with along the way.

Such lofty thoughts were dri­ven away, almost lit­er­ally, by leav­ing the wild areas for the last time and enter­ing into the outer ring of Roman sub­urbs, the town of La Storta to be exact, and its fre­netic traf­fic. We had hoped to stay in a pil­grim hos­tel but there was nowhere to park for miles around, so we pushed on a bit far­ther to a park­ing lot where our camper crew could pick us up and trans­ferred to a camp­ground for one last night in the big white whale. We ate up the left­overs and invited our neigh­bors for the night, a pair of young Swedish men, over for a glass of wine and chocolate—they’ve cycled from Swe­den, more than 4000 km. (Sure puts our 1600 km in perspective.)

Tomor­row we cross the Tiber!

Russel Murray, OFM says:
October 29, 2010 at 3:01 am
I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I read of your “ter­ri­fy­ing encoun­ters with fero­ciously bark­ing dogs run­ning free.” It wasn’t that I lacked com­pas­sion. Rather, I felt your pain. I had a like encounter with two St. Bernards in, of all places, Assisi! May the last leg of your trav­els be bless­edly uneventful!
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Steve Godsall-Myers says:
October 29, 2010 at 2:01 pm
God bless you in these last days-hours of pil­grim­age. It has been a bless­ing to “travel” with you these past two months. so appro­pri­ate and typ­i­cla that your penul­ti­mate evening included shar­ing hos­pi­tal­ity! Bless you as you go over the bridge — you have worked to make so many! Steve Godsall-Myers
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mary jane cryan says:
October 30, 2010 at 5:51 pm
I guess you didnt find space at La Gius­tini­ana park­ing lot …did you hap­pen to stay at Seven Hills camp­ing, Via I.Piccagli ? My old house was in the com­pound nearby, next to the church that looks like a hangar for dirigibles.
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