I'm glad to
say that I completed my walk successfully. It turned
out longer than I'd estimated -- partly because I
took a couple of wrong turns and had to double back
-- and partly because there's always some extra
distance crossing roads, taking photos, looking
round for a place to have coffee, and so on. I also
found that the points I'd measured on the map
weren't always in the main part of town. As this was
a special walk, I wanted to do it properly, so I
generally made for the town square (or somewhere
similar) in each place -- and this added a bit to
the distance. In terms of distance as you'd measure
it on the map, the walk ended up being about 33
miles. Measured on my sat-nat (a great help, which
of course we didn't have when I did the walk as a
student) it came to just over 38 miles -- of which
about two miles were due to missed turnings and
such-like.
During the previous few days there had been steady
rain in the Rome area and the forecast for 23rd had
been for cloudy weather. As it turned out, I had a
bright sunny day, with hardly a cloud in the sky. I
had very few ill effects from the walk -- some
stiffness in my muscles and some aches in my feet,
but really I was quite pleasantly surprised. This
may be because I'd done quite a few long walks on
days-off in recent weeks, so I was well prepared. I
think it's the sunburn that'll take the longest to
wear off!
It's good to have had something like this as a sort
of landmark in the run-up to World Youth Day. I've
been reading the collection of extracts from things
that Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict said on
previous World Youth Days, under the title, 'Don't
be afraid to be Saints'. I think it has helped me to
see this walk, in a way, as the first step in a
pilgrimage. I'm looking forward to completing it
with our young people in July.
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