Walking Commentary

Thoughts and cycling from Manchester to Rome in 2023

Walking to Rome

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2 Mar 2020 – noon GMT – 3°C Showers Nearby – Co. Longford, Ireland

The notion of long distance walking was already in my head in October 2017 when Chris W contacted me out of the blue. University friends meeting again after forty years of divergent life experiences.

I had long hoped to walk from Rome to Madrid, an idea that seemed reasonable when I found myself in Rome in 2010. I had taken a train one Sunday to Naples and walked from the station to the top of Vesuvius and back. Just 50 km but it got me thinking about the communications and logistics in the eras of the Roman Empire, Anglo-Saxon trade, Viking incursions to name a few.

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In Praise of Walking

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1 Mar 2020 – noon GMT – 3°C Partly Cloudy – Co. Longford, Ireland

It’s March 1st. I’m reading ‘In Praise of Walking‘ by Shane O’Mara. A gift from my wife, I put off reading it until about a month before the next big walk.

In the first few pages he reminded me that French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote “I can only meditate when I am walking. When I stop, I cease to think; my mind only works with my legs”.

Rousseau must have given up walking sometime before 1778, long after he’d famously written on inequality and social contracts. He was a big influencer. French Revolution big. The Terror.

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