The Desire to Walk The Via Francigena

      The Via Francigena is a long pilgrimage route through 4 countries. I decided to walk this path 4 years ago after our friends Primo and Clare did the Italian section. I decided to write this blog today since I need help and I hope my readers will provide that help! Major help is needed to accomplish this 1200 mile journey. So many questions, so many experiences await. 

     My goal is to walk this path with my wife Patty either next year 2022 or 2023. I will write more about the time in a later blog post. I am a retiring podiatrist from San Francisco, California, and want to walk this road without the constraints of coming back to work. The symbolism of this gesture is huge for me. 

     Why walk this trail in the first place? From my research, it is one of the longest such pilgrimage trails in all Christendom. It may be one of the oldest. The course goes from Canterbury, England, to Rome, Italy. The history of this area is incredible. 

     My wife and I just finished listening to the audiobook called "A Pilgrimage to Eternity" by Timothy Egan. This is a very personal, and quite wonderful , book about his VF (Via Francigena). I highly recommend it. I hope this blog will reach fellow pilgrims with stories or comments of their own, or those just interested in this Path. All of my research will be enclosed in this blog. And, once I start walking, I will post daily my observations. 

     But I must answer "Why am I walking?". My wife and I just walked the Camino de Santiago (prior to our terrible Pandemic). I hope to reflect some on that incredible journey within these pages. We could do other routes leading to Santiago like the Portuguese Way, the English Way, the Northern Way, or the Camino Primitivo that our friend Dinah is on right now. 

     I want to walk to Rome since that is where the Pope is. A great man this Pope Francis. A gentle and humble man. Can he save my church? Can he right the wrongs? I am sure the answer is a little, he will help a little, he will lean the Church a little. I will have lots to say in these pages about what I feel needs to change. But, I continue to not answer the basic question. 

     As I have aged, I find that my hard decisions are based on everything that is good. It, of course, has to be good for my wife and I. But, it has to be good for the family, and can not produce harm in any way. I am not walking until the only one that needs our immediate help now doesn't need it. That is my 95 year old father in law. He needs my wife, his daughter, to stay in his home. When he doesn't need her, we will walk.

     I have lived a complex Catholic life which I will gladly share in upcoming posts. I wanted to say hello tonight. I hope you will join my journey which will end some months after completing this pilgrimage. Buon Camino!!