Another year, another country and a few hundred more miles of walking. This is something we truly enjoy, but recognize that it might not be for everyone. That’s okay.

This year, we are walking the Via Francigena, an ancient walking path from England to Rome (and beyond). Our plan is to do a short section of it, from Lucca, Italy to Rome. About 250 miles.

This walk is a bit less supported than our prior walks in Spain and France. The impact to us is that we won’t be able to send a suitcase ahead to the finish line. There is no local service that will do provide the shipping and storage for us.  Everything that we need for the WHOLE trip must fit on our backs!

That suitcase has always been our “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow”; our chance to get out of the trail clothes that we’d worn for weeks on end. (While we wash these clothes every day, they DO need a break!).

Okay, so what do we bring for 6 plus weeks,  that fits entirely into a backpack and can be carried all that time?  Through the years, we’ve gotten pretty good at light-weighting our wares and keeping good track of what we need and don’t need.

We each have lists, and for instruction, I took a photo of Diane’s two-paged, single-spaced,  list. Now, it seems like a LOT of stuff (and it is), but you may want to check out the yellow highlighted number at the bottom, right (you’ll need to zoom in). Two pages worth of clothing, etc., including the weight of the pack, comes in at just over 12 pounds!

Not too bad! And that’s for 6 plus weeks in Italy!

More to come as Wirewalker ventures into the Tuscan hills of Italy!