Step by Step on The Way of Saint James

Returning from The Way of Saint James with my heart full of emotions and my mind overflowing with memories, I felt the need to record every fragment of my experience before time could fade it away.

My narrative thus joins the countless stories already written, both by renowned authors and by ordinary pilgrims.

- A story like many others, then! -

But it is also a unique story, different from all the others, because it speaks of my experience, written with my way of seeing, perceiving, and telling.

This account is not a guide. However, it provides some information about the stages and plenty of practical advice. It briefly describes landscapes, places, and monuments, also offering some historical and cultural insights.

It is not an introspective narrative (fortunately, I had no anxieties or discomforts that drove me to undertake The Way as a form of therapy). Instead, it tells how I faced challenges, hardships, and physical pain, overcoming them with the determination not to give up—a strength generated more by the mind than by muscles.

Nor is it a spiritual account in the sense of seeking and encountering the divine. Yet walking for more than a month, sometimes alone, inevitably led me to moments of meditation and inner listening: as I observed the scenes unfolding before my eyes, I had the chance to focus my thoughts on people and situations that were, at that moment, distant in space or even in time.

Integral to this story are the many people I met along the route. Diverse characters, motivated by the most varied reasons for walking; of all ages, nationalities, and social backgrounds; practicing different religions or none at all. Yet all were united by a spirit of solidarity and friendship—an alchemy that creates special bonds among pilgrims on the way to Santiago de Compostela.

The account is simply the chronicle of my journey, narrated “step by step” just as the title suggests: a diary that records places, events, people, and reflections, exactly as they unfolded. Events that I relived while transforming memories into written words.

I let this story circulate freely. May it inspire those who, sooner or later in life, will wish to undertake The Way of Saint James and assist those preparing for their departure. But may it also serve as a stimulus to revive memories for those who have already lived the experience.

© Aldo Lardizzone 2020

CREATIVE COMMONS