Camino Footsteps

The Camino de Santiago is an ancient path from St Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, walked by ten of thousands of pilgrims since medieval times. Also known as the Way of St James and the Camino Frances, it covers a distance of almost 800km. To absorb the history, to touch the old stone of the buildings and bridges, to walk the path built over the centuries, to see the variety if architectural styles, from Roman and Moorish to medieval, to Gothic and Renaissance, and to be immersed in some of the most breathtakingly beautiful landscapes - is a journey for heart and soul. For many, the Camino is undertaken with a clear purpose, whether personal, emotional or spiritual. To others it is a challenge in terms of fitness and stamina, to achieve a goal. For experience trekkers Kim and Malcolm Wells, it became a powerfully spiritual journey, and the common bond of peace and friendship formed amount the many pilgrims they met was one of the most rewarding aspects of the experience.

This book is a factual account of the challenges and joys of the Pilgrimage of El Camino de Santiago, The Way of St. James. It offers practical advice for preparing for it and enjoying the experience. If you like first-person accounts full of facts and reflection, you will like One Wanderful Walk.

This guidebook describes the Way of St Francis a 550km month-long pilgrimage trail from Florence through Assisi to Rome. Split into 28 day stages, the walk begins in Florence and finishes in the Vatican City. Stages range from 8km to 30km with plenty to see, including ancient ruins, picturesque towns, national treasures, and stunning churches. This comprehensive guidebook fits in a jacket pocket or rucksack, and contains information on everything from accommodation and transport in Italy, to securing your credential (pilgrim identity card), budgeting, what to take, and where to do laundry. Stories of Francis of Assisi's life are also included. Although the route includes climbs and descents of up to 1200m, no special equipment is required - although your hiking boots and socks definitely need to get along. Following the steps of heroes, conquerors and saints on this pilgrim trail is manageable all year round, but is best done from April to June and mid-August to October. Route maps are given for every stage, and basic Italian phrases are included in the guidebook.

Unlike the religiously-oriented pilgrims who visit Marian shrines such as Lourdes, the modern Road of St. James attracts an ecumenical mix of largely wel.

The legend says that the Milky Way has been the path set by the Santiago Apostle since the Middle Ages, to guide pilgrims on the Camino until they reach his resting place. Indeed, the name of Compostela comes from Campus Stellae (a field of stars). In 2017, I had the opportunity to do the famous "Camino de Santiago" and, after walking over 850Km, I arrived. They were intense and moving 30 days, where I walked, laughed, and cried a lot. I met people from all over the world, but perhaps, the most important thing was that I got to know myself better. Without realising, it became an internal journey more than something external. During those days, I discovered how little I needed to be happy. Whoever had the possibility of doing the Camino and becoming a pilgrim, would surely understand. To all the rest, I hope with all my heart that this book moves you to do it. You will not regret it. "BUEN CAMINO"

Pilgrimage is a spiritual discipline not many consider. In these pages Arthur Paul Boers describes his month-long journey on the Camino de Santiago in Spain, a classic pilgrimage route that ends at the cathedral where St. James is buried, opening to us his incredible story of renewed spirituality springing from an old, old path walked by millions before.

Years ago an overachieving and harried young mother accidentally flushed her gold watch down the toilet. Time passed, but the image of the lost watch continued to haunt her, a symbol of an overcommitted life. Two decades later, propelled by a series of curious coincidences, she leaves behind her busy professional life, her cell phone, and her family to escape the tyranny of time and walk five hundred miles across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela. Steps Out of Time brings the mysterious and wonderful world of the Camino to life with its tales of serendipitous encounters, new friends made (and one tragically lost), stunning natural beauty, and unforgettable food. By the end of her journey, an exhausted and exhilarated Katharine Soper is keenly aware that she has completed much more than a month-long walk.

El Camino (Spanish for &"the way&") is a day-by-day account of a modern American pilgrim's solitary walk from St. Jean Pied de Port in France, across the Pyrenees and northern Spain, to Santiago de Compostela, believed since medieval times to be the burial place of Saint James. During thirty-two days in 1993, Lee Hoinacki trod the 500-mile route followed by Europeans for over a thousand years, stopping each evening at pilgrim hospices, some centuries-old, to write in his diary. His reflections range from the historical examination of religious sensibility to analyses of modern developments in architecture and technology, from the theological understanding of place to the mentality of mountain bike riders. Readers share in the personal religious growth of a traditional Roman Catholic who, toward the end of his life, finds himself in the welcome company of those who walked the same camino during the past centuries. The constant interplay between pertinent anecdotes from well-chosen fellow pilgrims, both ancient and modern, and Hoinacki's experiences of contemporary Spanish customs and behavior gives the book a captivating timelessness and spiritual insight rarely found in other modern chronicles of the pilgrimage to Santiago.