‎Today Michael and I decided to save about 5 kms of walking by following a rural road directly from Santa Cristina to our next destination, Orio Litta. Because we started early on a Sunday morning, we met very little traffic on the way. We had wondered what we would do about dinner, not knowing whether there would be anything open in a small town ( Read more... )

‎The past few walking days have seen me cover a lot of distance. Tomorrow instead of pressing on directly to Piacenza from Santa Cristina (about 40 kms), Michael and I will be stopping halfway at the parish accommodations in Orio Litto.‎ While we have both done 35+ km days, that would mean arriving in Piacenza footsore and exhausted. Instead, we ( Read more... )

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As I mentioned previously, I now have a travelling companion. I'd met Michael on Sunday in Vercelli when I met up with Salvatore for coffee after Liturgy, and caught up with him again Wednesday evening at the hostel in Tromello.  Michael is walking from Assissi to Rome, and after a pleasant evening of conversation with him, I decided to wait a day ( Read more... )

It was with great reluctance that I left my lodgings in Palestro this morning. Not only are Paolo and Ambra the perfect hosts, the hostel they run is absolutely wonderful. Every possible detail has been looked after - there's even a hair dryer in the room! (Not that I have all that much hair to dry.) When I checked out Ambra's website, I was not ( Read more... )

The weather was ideal. My feet are happy after walking 32 km. Every time I glanced behind me, the Alps seemed to grow even larger and more majestic. (I'm really missing my camera ( Read more... )

This morning I was up before my alarm went off - up before dawn actually. (Today that was at 7:28, so it was no great feat.) While Santhià is a lovely town (they won the final competition on the weekend show on national TV - congratulations!)‎, I didn't come to Europe to enjoy life in small town Italy. My goal is still to arrive in Jerusalem for ( Read more... )

Having visited Turin twice last weekend and sat out a week of rain in Santhià, on Friday I decided to take advantage of a break in the weather ‎and head to Milan. At one time, this northern Italian city was the capital of the western Roman Empire, and according to WikiSherpa, is home to the oldest surviving churches in Italy. It has always been a ( Read more... )

Apparently there are only two cathedrals in Europe bigger than Milan's Duomo - St Peter's in Rome and St Paul's in London. http://flic.kr/p/q4Pm2S

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During the Easter vigil in the cathedral of Milan in the year 387, the bishop (known to posterity as St Ambrose of Milan‎) baptised several people. Among them were a 33 year old man and his illegitimate teenage son. The man eventually moved back to his homeland. That man was St Augustine of Hippo. And the above photo is the baptistry in which he ( Read more... )