The clock shows almost 5pm (yesterday) when courage father Lucio Cammarota and his son Rosario, they were about to finish the first stage of Camino de Santiago (from Ferrol to Pontedeume). Tiredness made itself felt, especially in the late afternoon, between the climbs, hunger and sleep, but when dad Lucio asked Rosario: “Do you pay at the restaurant this evening then?”, Rosario’s eyes became as lively as when someone looks ahead and sees only new things to discover. The answer? A firm “no” out loud. Like that special voice that Lucio Cammarota from Salerno wants to make heard everywhere to thank for the progress that his Rosary has managed to make over time. Rosario is a “super-skilled” boy che lives with a mild form of the autism spectrum but has a great desire to overcome the obstacles and barriers that life puts before him. Obstacles that he has never put between him and his father Lucio with whom he has a symbiotic relationship of pure and unconditional love without limits that knows how to defeat everything. Even the effort of undertaking a tiring journey to get to know different places and open up to the world. Lucio Cammarota has become the symbol of the steps forward made towards progress and improvement, an emblem of awareness on autism and in the same “symbolic” way the Salerno native has elaborated his son’s path towards improvement and autonomy through the path (the real one) becoming an amateur runner. After his son’s diagnosis, he made a promise to himself: if his son made progress he would commit to taking real steps. In fact, through the journey he wants to shine a light on all children affected by pathologies of the autistic spectrum and on the need for listening, dialogue and rehabilitation that can best “insert” them into a society that often does not know how to see and hear or accept the “super ability”. And meanwhile Rosario’s father received a special recognition for his courage and human beauty within the event of “Leonardo” award which annually rewards those who have distinguished themselves in their life or career for their dissemination, scientific and social commitment skills. In 2022 Lucio had traveled alone and on foot over 270 kilometers, from Salerno to Rome and precisely in St. Peter’s Square. Then the same Camino de Santiago de Compostela which today is instead seeing father-son protagonists as they observe with a curious and different look and face a special relay, despite the fatigue but hungry for love and beauty and above all independence.
The travel diary also this time becomes “social” and the message is clear in its “challenge of a lifetime”: there are limits that can be overcome, just try to do it. Today dad Lucio and Rosario will face their second stage of the journey, but who knows in the end who will have paid for last night’s dinner.
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The morning
