Has your backpack ever become your pillow? In the Tuscan countryside, while walking the Way of St. Francis, a tough hill and warm sun put me on my back for a restorative nap. My 260-mile trek to the Vatican will be one of four European distance walks featured in my second book, coming soon.
Patience. Sue and I had learned during our pilgrimage across Spain that our perseverance would be rewarded, eventually. I chronicled our trials in Camino Sunrise: Walking With My Shadows.
Mont Blanc had stood tall, 15,771 feet, for the first several days of our 110-mile adventure around the Alps’ highest member. But it had hid from our view.
On the morning after the toughest climbing day of our lives, our patience was tested again as we inched up 3,100 feet toward Col de Seigne. The aches from day three worsened, making us wonder how much more we could take. We didn’t say it, but the Tour du Mont Blanc had made us question why we had attempted such a trek.
Then, at the mountain pass, Mont Blanc’s grand pose was the best pain killer I have ever felt. It graciously posed for photographs with us before we stepped from France into Italy, where we picnicked at nearly 8,300 feet in the crisp, blue air and gawked at one of Earth’s wonders.
Patience. Indeed.
One of the most spectacular treks in the world is the Tour du Mont Blanc in the French, Italian, and Swiss Alps. Sue captured our toughest (but we loved it!) backpacking trip, a walk around western Europe’s highest mountain in this slide show.
See a short slide show about our spring 2018 trek from Tuscany to Vatican City on the Way of St. Francis. Click here.
