amaWalkers Camino Foray into Italy

12 months of planning, thousands of hours pouring over blogs to choose the best possible routes and daily mileages; Google searching for accommodation for 42 people for 24 nights = over 1010 beds bookings. (Plus the usual Camino Frances groups' bookings in Spain in May and September) 
amaWalkers Camino will stay true to its original mandate of friendly, well organised, no-frills but great accommodation, group walks. 

In July 2015 Jenny and I  planned on taking a group of pilgrims to Rome in 2016.  Within a week of putting it out on Facebook and on our website, 56 people asked to go on the walk. So we made it 2 groups (we would each take one) then 3 (Marion would take a group) and finally a 4th group (was to be Kathy's group) to cater for 8 South African women who wanted to all walk in the same group. After the initial excitement of trying the new route, people change their minds due to financial constraints, not enough leave, unexpected family reunions.  Some cancelled, some postponed, others changed groups.  [The group of 8 women decided to go it alone, using our planned stages over the Alps and in Tuscany.  We wish them a happy Via Francigena.]

Hundreds of emails sent to hotels, pensions, agriturismos, apartments and osterias for single, double and twin rooms.  Many places don't have twin rooms and can't guarantee two beds so we have to change our search for alternative places.  Some don't reply - could be that they only open in the summer, like the Hotel Italia at the Gr San Bernard, which is closed for most of the year.  Relief when we finally get an acknowledgement of our reservations for 4 Gruppi on consecutive days.  We realise that it must be a headache for a small hotel to have to change linen and towels in 7 or 8 rooms day after day. 

Many Italian hotels are B and B, but what time is breakfast?  8:30 is too late for eager pellegrini hoping to avoid the worst of the mid-day sun by making an early start.  Will they prepare breakfast earlier for our groups, or provide a take-away picnic breakfast?  We have vegans and vegetarians, some don't eat red meat, others don't eat pork; some have allergies, to honey, nuts or seafood.  All has to be planned for and hotels alerted.

Some hotels want full payment upfront, sent via bank transfers.  We tell them that we need an invoice, SWIFT code, IBAN number, name and address of hotel.  (South Africa is paranoid about money laundering or sending money to overseas accounts).  Information received is often incomplete - wrong SWIFT code and insufficient numbers in the IBAN number.  It takes hours, sometimes days to send the money.

Booking.com is our best friend!  Safe, secure bookings which (for the most part) can be changed or cancelled within days of arrival.  Beware the non-refundable bookings.  They are not only non-fundable but in many instances cant be changed so you could be stuck with rooms you don't need.

We are walking in the Swiss and Italian Alps for four days.  How to get the 4 groups from Aosta to San Gimignano in northern Tuscany - 500km away - without involving them in multiple bus and train changes?  Hiring a private bus and driver for  €1295 for each group (€130 pp) might seem excessive but of you add up the bus and train ticket costs for 12 people there isn't much difference.  And, the journey is about 5 and a half hours instead of 8 - 9 hours on public transport.

What about arriving in Rome and visiting the Vatican?  Groups can be pre-registered here - www.im.va  - so that they don't have to join the long queues at the Vatican waiting to walk through the Holy Doors. Our Four Groups have all been registered to walk through the doors at specific time slots. 

Group one starts at La Douay on 23rd June:  Group Two on 24th June:  Group Three on 25th June. Group Four on 26 June.  We will arrive in Rome one day after each other and will each have two days in Rome. 

For the past three days I've been fighting a rotten cold - Mrs Potato head type cold and cough.  I leave on Tuesday afternoon and am hoping all the fluids, hot med-lemon, cough syrup and Corenza-C will clear it before then. 

2016 VIA FRANCIGENA

Yeehaa!  6 more sleeps and Jenny and I fly to Geneva.  Our other two group leaders follow a couple of days later. Four groups walking to Rome, starting in the Swiss Alps on consecutive days.  We will hike from La Douay to Bourg St Pierre, then to the Gr San Bernard Pass, Etroubles and Aosta.
From Aosta a hired bus will take us on a 6 hour bus ride to San Gimignano in Tuscany.  We will walk to Rome from there.

A couple of days after arriving in Rome, I will lead another, smaller group, from Viterbo on a Slow Walk to Rome (10km per day with a back-up vehicle).

In June 2006 when I walked the Via Francigena we walked long distances (over 30km per day) because there were no guide books in English and all ...we had were a few blogs and maps that, although very pretty, were mostly misleading! 

The hike from Martigny to La Douay was on a scary ledge, clinging onto chains bolted onto the rock face. The climb from La Douay to the Gr San Bernard was gruelling - 28 km in 11 hours.
This time we will start at La Douay and will take two days to the Col - 2473 m. We will send our small bags ahead, carrying only a day pack. Longest day will be a 24.2 km near Rome (hopefully we'll all be fit by then!) 

For years I said, "I don't think I'll ever do the VF again" but I am really looking forward to this slower, more gentle way of walking to Rome. After all, I'm 10 years older, am osteopenic and losing eyesight and don't have anything to prove anymore! 

 [Three of the five who walked in 2006 are leading groups to Rome]

Can't always rely on long-range forecasts but the weather doesn't look too bad next week when we will start walking from La Douay to Aosta.

Gr San Bernard pass snow report is for light falls above 2756m (200m above the Hospice) and rain below.


 No snow is predicted for lower altitudes. It is a relief to see only light winds predicted.
First picture is for Bourg St Pierre when our four groups are there on 24, 25, 26, 27 June.

300 KM TO SANTIAGO INSTEAD OF 100 KM?

The recently formed Fraternidad International del Camino de Santiago (FICS) has made a proposal to extend the minimum distance required for pilgrims to earn a Compostela from 100 km to 300 km.  (So far the Cathedral is not impressed and has said that they will not be dictated to by anyone or any organisation.)

The document was signed by Anton Pombo [FICS] and translated and circulated on Facebook by Rebekah Scot  "Read, consider, and inwardly digest. And SHARE! The latest from FICS: (my clumsy translation. Sorry)"  

'Debate' and 'discus' was not included and I'm doubtful that it is welcomed.  After reading through the document a few times, I posted a few questions on the FICS Facebook page today and the flame-throwers started taking aim almost immediately! 
I feel that all healthy debate should always consist of opposing opinions and that it is the subject that should be debated, rather than attacking the messenger.   I was taught that the basis of any good science is to prove a concept wrong, not try to prove it right. 

Much of what is written in the proposal makes sense, but there are also glaring inaccuracies, and a lot that many might not agree with.   Although I have written comments on each section of the document, this time I will keep my opinions to myself.  If anyone is interested in reading my opinions you can contact me.

Why do pilgrims have to walk the last 100 km to earn a Compostela anyway? 
There are two reasons.  One, included when the 100 km distance was introduced by the Archdiocese in 1993, is to ensure that pilgrims put in some effort and sacrifice for the expiation of their sins before being awarded the Compostela.   

“El esfuerzo y sacrificio en expiación de los pecados"

Two, is that pilgrims wanting a Compostela must actually walk to the shrine containing the tomb of the saint.  Walking 3 500km from Bulgaria won't earn you any kudos unless you walk the last 100 km to the cathedral.  

FICS' reasons are a little more obscure.  Many pilgrims presumed that it was to relieve the ever growing problem of overcrowding on the last 100 km, but the aim is to make pilgrims walk longer distances so that they can:

"reclaim the long distance Camino and the values that make it unique: effort, transcendence, searching. reflection, encounters with others, solidarity, ecumenism or spirituality, all of them oriented towards a distant, shared goal."

We know that this proposal came out of a meeting of FICS big-guns in Sarria.  Rebekah called them 'Camino heavyweights' and their combined knowledge, care for all things Camino and their integrity is not questioned. But there are unsubstantiated claims made, assumptions, negative terms used to describe particular pilgrims.   Were they unanimously accepted by all the esteemed and learned delegates, or are they just personal perceptions of a few people? 

To read what others think - visit this link:

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/fics-forum-why-change-the-100-km-rule-to-300-km.39220/