When I’m travelling, I always introduce myself as Stephanie from Bolzano, a small town in the North of Italy famous for its mountains. I am 30 years old and have grown up in a small village in the countryside, about 30km from Bolzano.

Since my childhood I have a deep connection to nature and love staying outside, being curious about what’s surrounding me. Exploring different places shows me how variegated and colourful our world is, full of unexplainable wonders. 

During high school I attended an unforeseen presentation about the Camino of Santiago and felt that I would do a pilgrimage once in my life. I had to wait for ten years until I felt that the right moment has come. Seeing life passing by while I was sitting in the office didn’t make me feel fulfilled. I wanted to explore this wonderful planet we are living on and to get more in touch with myself. And what could be a better way to explore than walking? When you walk for many hours in the middle of nature and across historic places you feel detached from your daily life, lose the perception of space and time, follow your own rhythm and get reconnected to what’s our true nature.

Everything what counts is you, your body, your backpack, and your basic needs such as food, shower, a bed. You can focus on yourself and have time for landscape, places, people. You can enjoy everything with slowness, being present in what you are doing. For a whole month I was walking the French route in Spain, from Pamplona to Santiago in 2019. When I finally came back home, I felt how much this journey has been changing me and I promised myself that I would walk another Camino as soon as I can. 

Last year on my summer holidays in Tuscany and in Val d’Orcia I found out about the Via Francigena. That’s how my new Camino project was born, and I started walking from Siena by the mid of March 2023. Siena is a cozy and welcoming town. Signs referring to the Palio of Siena, the traditional horse race, are very present. I opted for the most touristic places to visit such as the Duomo with its impressive marble front and its decorated pavement mosaics, and Piazza del Campo with Torre del Mangia from which you have a beautiful view on the town and its surroundings. I was lucky to be there for the first day of the chocolate festival. As I am a chocolate lover it gave me a good start of my walk.  

Once I left Siena, I walked through the rural area of the “Crete senesi”, gently up and down lush, green hills, extending until the horizon. I knew that my body would need time to get used to the walking and the height of my backpack. That’s why for the first days I chose to walk less kilometres and didn’t follow the stages from the guidebook/website. I passed by Grancia di Cuna, Monteroni d’Arbia, Ponte d’Arbia and stopped in Buonconvento on my second day. At the entrance to Buonconvento the Via Francigena led me through Porta Senese, an ancient city gate inserted into the preserved parts of the city wall. The stage from Buonconvento to San Quirico d’Orcia and then continuing to Bagno Vignoni was definitely one of my favourite parts of the Via Francigena.

The landscape is picturesque: corn fields, vineyards, cypress trees along the road, olive groves, gorgeous farmhouses and homesteads, ancient villages. I visited the Collegiata Church of San Quirico and walked around the well-groomed gardens of Horti Leonini. Once arrived at Vignoni Alto, I stopped at the Church of San Biagio to listen to the Gregorian chants and then admired the view which ranges from Castiglione d’Orcia and Monte Amiata to the right, to Radicofani in the background and Monticchiello and Pienza to the left. The hot springs in the Parco dei Mulini at Bagno Vignoni invited me to take a rest. The thermal water has an incredible, clear turquoise colour and is flowing gently and steadily down the rocks, giving them a soft shape. The little enchanting village of Bagno Vignoni with its few hotels, restaurants, shops and a tiny church is built around the square thermal basin and seems to transport you into another era where time and perception work differently. 

With the next stages I left Tuscany and entered the region of Lazio. Landscape, people and food changed, and the energy of my route as well. While the first week in Tuscany I was walking alone for the whole time, being immersed in nature, places and introspection, the second week was offering me several beautiful encounters with locals and with other pilgrims from different countries. Sharing life stories and Camino experiences, discussing thoughts and philosophizing, going through moments of happiness, joy, gratitude, worries and fears together and giving each other support, bestowed me with a deep feeling of connection and of being part of something bigger. We walked parts of stages together and came along Bolsena, Montefiascone, Viterbo, Vetralla, Sutri, Campagnano di Roma, until we walked the last kilometres from Monte Mario Alto to Vatican, Basilica di San Pietro.

The landscape changed from large corn fields and olive groves to hardwood forests, hazelnut trees, rivers and natural parks. The villages were ancient and some of them built on tuff or excavated out of it, for example the amphitheatre of Sutri. I vividly remember the old town of Bolsena with its medieval castle on top and narrow streets sloping down gently to the main square from which a wide, gorgeous alley leads to the shore of lake Bolsena. The clear blue water extending like a soft, wavy carpet until the opposite coast, visible in the distance, and the calming sound of the waves were a precious gift after an arduous day of walking. 

Arriving to Rome after two weeks of walking completely immersed in nature was a little overwhelming and accompanied by mixed emotions. It was a strong feeling to look back at all the intense moments I have come through and to realize how far my feet and inner strength have brought me. It was also the moment to say goodbye to other pilgrims who became companions, knowing that everybody would continue his own path. Although it could seem to be kind of an end, a Camino is never an end, it’s always the beginning of something new.

Walk on. Buon Cammino.