November 24, 2015.

When I finished walking nearly 500 miles of the Camino de Santiago last summer I felt satiated. It was one of the most difficult and fulfilling things I've done. And honestly I thought that while perhaps I would do some 50 or 75 mile walks in the future, as I had done previously, I was probably done with really long walks.

I was wrong. Though I've been very much enjoying settling in to my home routine, wanderlust has been pulling at me again.

So after researching a ton of walking options in Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, Italy, Greece and elsewhere, we've decided that next spring we'd like to do the tail end of a truly grand pilgrimage route called the Via Francigena, which goes from Canterbury in England to St. Peter's in Rome.

I plan to walk the final 250 miles or so of the 1100 mile route (and Terry somewhat less), tentatively from around Lucca to Rome, with stops in San Gimignano, Siena, Viterbo, and many other towns and villages in Tuscany and Lazio. Terry and I got our air tickets this past weekend. We'll be leaving in May, and we'll be in Italy together for about 17 days, starting with a couple of days in Florence before setting out on our trek. After 10-12 days of walking Terry will return via Rome while I continue on. I'm giving myself a total of 5 weeks, so once again I can proceed at a relatively leisurely pace.

As with the Camino the Via Francigena has been walked for centuries. It was made famous by Sigeric the Serious, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who walked the round trip from Canterbury to Rome at the end of the 10th century, but evidence shows that it was an established pilgrimage route long before that.

So, assuming we stay healthy and motivated and that the whole world doesn't fall apart before then, we're off on another adventure. Carpe Diem!

Photo: Rome 2013