Buon Cammino Pellegrino and a shout-out to a Via Francigena friend I never knew I had but do now.
Philosopher Marcos Bulcao is a Brazilian brother pilgrim who has also walked the historic route from England into Rome.
Only while your favourite Bandanaman has traversed 100kms (in truth 120 with all the diversions) Marcos has covered 2,000.
And written about it for his new book The Philosopher Pilgrim which he has now flagged up to me through the community.
Follow the Yellowsign Road
Now Marcos, like most of us, took his first step on the Yellowsign road which is the Camino Frances.
And again did the whole thing from France while this peregrinos did the last 100km.
Before hearing about the 1,000-year-old Via Francigena.
Back in the days when small roads led to Rome.
Marathon man Marcos, of course, was never going to take any short cuts.
And so set out on his odyssey to Rome from the pilgrim city of Canterbury on England’s south coast.
Now, of course, every pilgrim’s journey is their own.
And I could have done with Marcos’s company on my stretch of the Lazio region.
Where for the most part I only had the birds for company, probably because I got myself lost in groves and forests.
No spoilers
Now I’ve regaled you with my own misadventures and how I nearly didn’t get started at all.
After getting stranded in Viterbo.
But if you want to hear about Marcos’s journey then you’re going to have to read his The Philosopher Pilgrim.
You may very well find a Marcos for yourself on your travels.
Because Brazilians are all over European pilgrimages.
And they are the friendliest of peregrinos.
Brazilian l’amore
As I discovered when Maria introduced me to her mother and father in the pews at the Cathedral of St James, my namesake, in Santiago.
After they had surprised her by turning up in Galicia when she ended her Camino.
And got a surprise they hadn’t been expecting when she introduced them to the man she had fallen for on the road.
Now to see if anything similar befell Marcos and for other tales of love, companionship and faith then I’ll be checking out The Philosopher Pilgrim.
