Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone.
Once again I am planning a visit to the edge of my comfort zone. The location is Italy, Tuscany to be exact.
The 2000+ km Via Francigena is an ancient route that begins in Canterbury, England and meanders through England, France, Switzerland and finally Italy – ending in the heart of the Vatican in Rome.
This April I will walk stage 3, the last 400+ kms of this great pilgrim path, starting in the medieval city of Lucca and ending at the worlds largest church, St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
I’ll be walking alone.
It’s all Jules fault. Jules is an adventurer I met in Spain, on the Portuguese Camino. We had a glass of wine together on the trail and then once again in Santiago de Compostela. She mentioned the Francigena might be her next hike. Sometimes all it takes is a whisper to start the seed growing.
Why Pilgrimages?
Why indeed. My friend Lorna asked me this question the other day. I thought you all might enjoy my answer.
If the photo of these three women above, one of whom we just met in a foreign country at a random street table doesn’t make the answer obvious you may not be a pilgrim. One of those women is Jules, the culprit responsible for this next adventure. I actually got re-motivated just by digging out this picture.
But I could meet interesting people on a bus tour too, or a cruise but instead I feel the pull to the trail. The blisters, the sore muscles and the paper sheets on the bunk beds are calling me. If you’ve never slept beside a snoring stranger who doesn’t speak your language, have you even really lived? Maybe it’s not for everyone. Two months out I’m wondering if it’s even for me.
What is the draw of a pilgrimage and why do people go, over and over even when they are getting too old for such physical endeavours? I dwelt on this question last year during some long lonely hours walking the Spiritual Variant to Santiago and here’s what I came up with.
It’s mostly science. Isn’t everything? You may have heard of happiness hormones, the four main ones which are dopamine, seratonin, oxytocin and endorphins. Happiness is a drug after all and the pill bottle can be a pilgrimage.
You can naturally increase these feel-good chemicals with regular exercise, spending time outdoors in sunlight, eating well, social connections , and mindfulness. A pilgrimage is all of this – on steroids.
I met a girl on a train once who noticed the Camino shell tattoo on my shoulder. The connection was immediate, but as we discussed our pilgrim experiences she mentioned the amount of crying she did on her walk. Me too! What’s that about?
I didn’t cry when my feet were bleeding with blisters. Instead I cried when I summited a hill in the rain and looked around at the Spanish countryside. I cried when I walked into Santiago de Compostela, arriving at the Cathedral to Ray waiting for me hiding behind a pillar. They were tears of utter joy and I cried them over and over out there. That overwhelming joy is an actual physical response to an almost overdose quantity of happiness hormones. I am addicted.
Other reasons to walk pilgrimages include: the safety of traveling alone in a group of international strangers, cheap beds, great food and the ability to eat and drink whatever you want without getting fat(ter).
So this spring I’ll be leaving my loving husband and aging dog behind and heading off to Italy for a long walk. At 66 years old this could be my last. At this last stage in life I take nothing for granted.
Buon Cammino!
