He left Carpi on Sunday 2 June for his new journey, this time on foot. Andrea Negrelli under previously overcast skies he crossed the border in Ventimiglia in the sun on Friday 21 June after walking for one hundred hours and covering 432 kilometres. “Crossing the state border and arriving in French territory on foot was an emotion. He reminded me of the bicycle trip to Lourdes that I took in 2017” he says on his Facebook page while he is headed to a campsite in Menton where he will spend the night. There were many messages of encouragement that instilled confidence and courage in Andrea to continue his adventure on foot. After a forced stop in Piacenza to treat an excessive fatigue problem in his calves and feet, Negrelli chose to change the itinerary, taking it from 3,689 kilometers to around 3,092; from Carpi to Ventimigliathen to France from Monk southwards along the entire coast up to Narbonne. From here in a northerly direction to Lourdes, and then continue westwards in the direction Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port where to start the French way to Santiago Of Compost it. His intention then is to arrive, passing through Muxiaup to the most extreme tip of Spain a Finisterre and from there, follow the Portuguese route backwards to Lisbon, passing through Fatima. And during these months, in total he estimated six, he will only have his backpack with him.
Thanks to a Facebook group he found hospitality in the homes of those who were available to welcome him: Simona And Savior in Casella, Brunella And Tiziana in Finale Ligure, Christian in Imperia, Ivana of Albissola, Mary Rose And Piera at Ospedaletti… he has a thought of gratitude for everyone and the opportunity to always meet new people is a source of precious energy in every day’s journey.
After crossing the plain and climbing over the Apennines, the sight of the sea refreshed his spirit and the sound of the waves became “the mantra that accompanies me” during the daily hours of walking, sometimes seven, sometimes eight. “I don’t produce GDP, I don’t earn money, but this poem is healing me inside” Andrea underlines. A sunrise wonderful inspiration inspires him as he crosses the mountains, along roads “that stop being climbs and become roads towards infinity”. Then there are the silences, the landscapes, the relationships that become pleasant discoveries.
There were problems, starting with the tent. “I set off with a particularly bulky tent weighing 2.2 kilos, placed at the bottom of my backpack but it was breaking my shoulders and back so I left it on a bench. However, I realized that I can’t live without a tent and the emergency one made with a sheet mounted like a tunnel doesn’t work: “I got cold and couldn’t sleep due to the wind. I felt like I was in the Maranello wind tunnel!” . I was giving up when a work colleague of mine found a smaller and above all lighter tent on the internet (only 1 kg!) which I had sent to a person who gave me hospitality in Ospedaletti (IM). At that point the bitterness gave way to a big smile and deep gratitude.
