Back in April, I joined
@samwkemp on a three-day hike that took us from the medieval alleyways of Viterbo right into the heart of Rome via the verdant borghi of Capranica, Vetralla and Sutri. We finished face to face with Saint Peter’s Basilica, having walked nothing but a small stretch of the 2,000-kilometres-long, ancient religious pilgrimage that is Via Francigena. We arrived at the peak of Holy Week, on Good Friday, to be precise, many rain showers, 113,242 steps, a few panini and a — luckily, peaceful — encounter with a wild boar later. Blame it on the aria di festa one could begin to smell as Easter approached, the surrounding landscape’s porous, mysterious caves, or on a subconscious inkling of what would happen that very Monday (we promise you, it wasn’t us), but I never felt quite as one with, hooked by and attached to my own country before.
A handful of the photos I shot along the way have made it into Sam’s contribution to the cover story of
@natgeotraveluk ’s September Issue, “Italian Journeys”. I am sharing them here alongside some of my favourite outtakes.
Infinite thanks to
@aishanazar for trusting me with this, especially in such temperamental weather, and to Sam for putting up with me (even more than usual, that is). He wrote about the experience far more eloquently than I did here, so grab your copy at your nearest newsstand. Out now in print!
