Quando cammino canto

«I like walking alone. Because only in this way can we get to the bottom. All the way to the point of tiredness. To the bottom of your limits, your desires, your possibilities. To clarity. Walking alone gives me a great sense of freedom, almost an exhilaration. I can choose the pace I want, fast or slow; I can laugh, cry, sing, stay silent.»

What is the meaning today of setting out on long distance journeys? What happens to the body, to the mind, to our approach to life? Drawing on her own experiences of walking in Italy and in various countries in Europe and around the world, on the routes of ancient pilgrimages and beyond, the author talks about walking as an experience of profound transformation that concerns the body, the mind, the emotions, the relations. The backpack as a symbol-container of one's fears but also an exercise in essentiality, the getting lost which sometimes allows one to find oneself, the expansion of time and space, the encounter with others and with the territory, the reliance on the road and gifts of long journeys, the rereading of rituals and symbols borrowed from the traditions of ancient pilgrimages... Maria Corno alternates reflections and stories, giving life to a phenomenology of walking, in an all-round reconnaissance that sees the journey emerge as a privileged tool for investigating together the world and themselves.