BARI – They walk at a good pace and despite having almost 250 kilometers in their legs, they don’t seem to feel tired. Indeed, now that the destination is approaching, the hot midday sun is heartening rather than weakening. On the coast road that connects Giovinazzo to Santo Spirito, the northernmost neighborhood that serves as the gateway to Bari, a small group parades along the edges of the cycle path.
They are young and old from Abruzzo, men and women in aprons who renew the tradition of a devotion that for centuries has brought pilgrims to the city of San Nicola every 7 May. Eight of them, having left early on May 1st from a hill in the hinterland of Vasto, are smiling and already imagining the celebration that accompanies their prayers. They walk a short distance from each other looking at the blue sea. They met with other pilgrims in San Marco in Lamis, where they had arranged to meet for a gathering and then each with their own pace and pace traveled their own journey of faith and sacrifice. Some with backpacks on their shoulders, some pushing a trolley, carrying umbrellas for the unstable weather of this spring to which they have tied a pine branch like an ancient and peasant sign that makes them visible from afar, bouquets of flowers and a crucifix.
They come from Monteodorisio, a small town of 2,300 inhabitants in the province of Chieti where they eat the typical sagne a pezzate, homemade pasta prepared with durum wheat semolina, and the celli ripieni, desserts prepared with flour, olive oil and sugar. Each one left driven by a personal motivation: some to ask for a grace, some to thank for having received it, some because that’s what their parents did, some to respect a tradition that is still strong in Abruzzo (from which various prayer groups also started from Lanciano and San Salvo) and in Molise, who put himself to the test.
But the long route, which involves around sixty hours of walking, was tiring for everyone despite the trainers and jackets for the evening, between makeshift overnight stays, packed lunches and the not always kind weather. «But this also means having faith and being devoted to Saint Nicholas» they say happily.
