My last day on the Via Francigena began at 5:30 a.m. meeting Ignatio in the square that includes the restaurant and bar from the previous evening. As I think about my last day of walking, I feel both sad and relieved. Relieved that I will no longer have to endure the heat or miles each day or the washing out of my clothes each afternoon and hoping they’ll dry overnight or finding a place to sleep tomorrow (hopefully, with A/C that is operational). Sad that I will no longer enjoy the discovery and beauty that each day brings. Sad that I’m going to miss the rhythm and pace of walking and the way a walking pace unwraps each new discovery in a way it can be fully seen, felt and embodied. Sad that I won’t engage new friends from around the world on a common platform/cause of pilgrimage and get to know their stories over the course of a walk, a coffee, a meal or shared living space (or, as is often the case, over several days of the same). Sad that I will miss having the trail introduce me to a new, charming town or village I likely never would have met or enjoyed without it. What I hope you receive from reading this paragraph is that the journey of a pilgrim is uncomfortable and challenging and those tangible inconveniences are well worth the intangible adventure and discovery and beauty and reflection that is experienced in the pilgrimage journey. I’m not making this up … As I sit in a cafe’ writing this paragraph, a woman saunters by with her golden retriever wearing a t-shirt that says, “Good things take time … so don’t give up.” A good word for a pilgrim. We are all pilgrims.

We depart Sarzana as we depart many of the cities of the Via Francigena – with a steep climb into the hills around town. As we leave town, we encounter the Fortezza di Sarzanello, an 11th century fortress a seat of power for the bishops of Luni who controlled the region in the Middle Ages (www.fortezzadisarzanello.com).

The morning walk is uneventful as we walk along asphalt and gravel roads avoiding the busy highways that connect Sarzana with Avenza. This walk is probably the most consistently urban I’ve experienced on the Via Francigena as it winds through villages and towns that are more or less a series of connected communities. We walk the trails and back streets through most of them but the services available in them are almost always at our disposal if we’re willing to venture off the trail.

We stop for coffee and a cigarette in Colombiera before walking into the archeological site outside of Luni. I’m disappointed we don’t have (or take the time, really) time to stop and visit the site and museum to learn the story of this forgotten city. It sounds interesting to me (www.luni.beniculturali.it). Walking through this area and reading historical markers and placards, it very clear their power and influence were significant.

From the author of our guidebook, Sandy Brown:

For over a thousand years, Luni was the major city in this region. Settled first by the Ligurians and Etruscans, Luna, as it was called at first, served as seaport for the area. The Romans established a colony here and in the 2nd c. AD built the Via Aurelia to connect Luna to Rome. It flourished for centuries, in part due to its access to the marble quarries in the nearby mountains, and ‘Luna marble’ was considered the best in the Empire. After the fall of Rome, Luna was attacked by the Goths, recaptured by the Byzantines, and then taken by the Lombards. Vikings, who mistook it for Rome, sacked it and martyred the bishop, canonized as Saint Ceccardo. By the time of Archbishop Sigeric’s visit as his Stage XXVIII, it was no more than a village with dim memories of its past glories. A brief return to prominence came in the 10th c. with investment by Emperor Otto I, but in 1015 the Andalusian leader Mujahid waged battle with Pisan and Genoese forces, destroying the city for one final time. As the harbor silted up, even the location was forgotten within a few hundred years. It was in 1442 that the location of Luni was reidentified, and Pope Pius II, at the urging of the local cardinal, forbade any further pillaging of its ruins. Nevertheless, the Palazzo del Commune of Sarzana was constructed in 1471 using dressed stone from the site. Excavations began in the 1970s revealing a large theater, amphitheater and forum, attesting to the prominence of this once-proud city.

We enter the City of Avenza and walk to the far end of town to grab our last provisions before tackling an uphill climb into Carrara and the hills that will deliver us down into our destination for the evening and my final stop on the trail, Massa.

As we exit Avenza and head up the hill out of town and into Carrara, we get our first head-on view of the enormity of the quarry from which the world has been excavating prized Carrara marble for centuries. It adorns many buildings and historical structures like the Pantheon in Rome, the Cathedral of Pisa and our very own Capitol in Washington , D.C. It was also the preferred stone for use in prominent sculptures, including Michelangelo’s David in Florence. It was a very impressive site and provokes thoughts of the thousands of years of history in commerce here related to this natural resource.

After another couple of hours of walking, we descend down into the coastal town of Massa, my final walking stop on the Via Francigena. We celebrate the end of my walk and the end of our time together with a fitting dinner.