Again on why not long distance walking in Italy

Well, I should have written this post in January but I've been a bit lazy.
For Christmas, my brother Luca offered me, as a gift, a book remarkably apropos the present topic.
Namely it is "Di buon passo" by Andrea Bocconi; a kind of journal, telling the author's adventures backpacking through Tuscany and Umbria, hitting the springs of the two major Central Italy rivers: Arno and Tevere.
I roughly reckoned he might have walked about 400 km during his 12 days journey.

I can hardly compare his mode of walking with mine: he carried a rather heavy backpack and he often camped while I'm aiming lightness and halting only in b&b or inns.

But I'm not going to review the book which - by the way - is rather nice. What interest me there is that Andrea implicitly confirms some of the aspects which I mentioned in an earlier post where I explained why I won't undertake any journey on foot in Italy.
In particular he often was not able to access the path because illegally blocked off by bordering real estate owners or obstructed by thorns uncut long since for lack of maintenance.
In conclusion, it seems that the journey frequently proceeded on the roads, beside motor vehicles.

That's a pity but who can help? I don't think the situation is going to improve considering the unrelenting spreading of illegality (and concrete) in this country.

I'm consoling myself by the perspective that within two week short I'm starting the Pembrokeshire Coast Path walk.

But more about that in the upcoming posts where my gentle readers will be acquainted with sundry matters like gear improvement, athlete's foot and the journey story.

Why England continued

Why not Italy (continued)

Environment

Another essential issue is the state of the environment which sadly is rather blighted in Italy.
Of course this cannot be generalized. There are still some unspoiled areas in this country but they are not situated as to form a system which one can walk a long distance across without interruptions.

The first destroyers of the Italian environment (here I don't take in consideration the pollution) are the real estate developers.
The concrete is unrelentingly spreading everywhere. The most aggressed area is the seaside: hundreds - if not even thousands - kilometers of coasts are no more than long rows of concrete.
But nothing seems to resist the concrete: countryside, Alps, Apennines, archaeological sites, national and regional parks.

An other cause of nature and landscape spoiling is the unrelenting tracing of roads. The Apennines are particularly stricken by this fever: roads everywhere; for hunting, for second homes, for skying, for gas pipes maintenance, etc.

Last but not least the damage done to the environment by the citizens themselves. Sadly, the average Italian - regardless of his assertions, is often disrespectful of the environment.
One cannot walk - even in the woods - without stumbling across illegal buildings or rubbish of any type (even old fridges, gas stoves, toilet bowls, etc.).

Luckily this situation is not absolute: there are still scattered areas of excellence although things get worse as one moves southwards.

Let me give some real life examples.

I live just near a volcanic lake bordered by a primeval wood with some remnants of Roman works. Two footpaths make the circuit of the lake: through the wood and along the shore.
When I moved in this area 16 years ago, I eagerly tried to walk those paths but I gave it up soon: rubbish, stray dogs, mountain bikers at full speed, etc.
Mind you, it is a "Regional Park"!

Later I tried some trails described in a regional (Lazio) footpaths guide hoping that - away from urban areas - things might be better: unfortunately I found the same situation.

Somebody could say this is not true for the whole country. I already said above that it must not be generalized but even in the very refined Tuscany (where I lived for 30 years), although the situation was far better than here in Lazio, I had unpleasant experiences.

For instance, when after a 4 hours mountain trekking, I reached the source of Arno, the first thing watered by the rivulet springing from the rock was a Coca Cola can!
Of course I don't think it was dropped by somebody who, like me, had walked so many hours. Unfortunately, a freshly opened road, allowed people to come by car a few yards from the source.

I want to conclude this post with an anthropological consideration: I think that Mediterranean peoples have a problematic relationship to Nature!
When the average Mediterranean moves from the sweetish fake imagery into the true real life Nature he feels it as a threatening entity.
How to explain otherwise the customary violence he inflicts to Nature. I mean gratuitously not for gain which is an universal behaviour.
I finish this post with a challenge proposed to my gentle reader:

How to interpret that the average Mediterranean (or at least Italian) scarcely goes out into Nature (countryside, seaside, woods, etc.) without his panoply of gadgets (branded garments, I-Pods, etc.) and, when possible, motor vehicles he hardly parts from (how often I have seen people picnicking beside their car on the very border of a road skirting a wood or meadow).

I could go on a great deal with such sad stories but it would be very gloomy. So, enough with this topic.
I promise to be positive in the next post: I am going to tell, at last, why I chose England for long distance walking.

Why England?

This precious stone set in a silver sea

One could wonder why I went to a foreign and relatively distant country to undertake a long distance walk.
As a matter of fact, it is the very question my wife Chantal was put to, whenever a friend or some other acquaintance knew that I was walking in Norfolk: "Why going so far?! Couldn't he walk here?".

This question must be answered following two implicated approaches:

1. Why not Italy
2. Why England

Why not Italy

Public Rights of Way

Excepted Alps and other mountains, it is actually impossible to walk a long distance in Italy.
I mean that it is not possible to walk long distance trails forbidden to motor vehicles. Obviously, if you want, you can - at your own risk - travel on foot on any road not expressly forbidden (like motorways) to walkers.
Of course, there are footpaths even outside mountains but they are short and not interlinked as to cover hundreds of kilometers.
Italian trekkers would probably protest in reading this. But what I am intending here is that in this country - outside mountains - there are no trails not even in the least comparable to such as e.g. England's Offa's Dyke Path (285 km) or South West Coast Path (1,014 km).
Mind you, length is not the only aspect weighed here; what makes the difference is that England's trails - such as those above mentioned - allow people to travel across the country on ways reserved to walkers!
That is, without being disturbed (and threatened) by motor vehicles (even though some stretches may be shared with horse or bike riders) and, at the same time, never losing contact with the main aspects of the genuine country: towns, villages, monuments, etc. Although, of course, many sections may be retreated and amid woods, heathlands, meadows, farmlands, etc.

Why this lack of long distance trails in Italy?
Well, in my opinion this results from the combination of several causes.

One reason is probably the very lack of demand: citizens do not put enough pressure on the government (local and central) to preserve public rights of way, reinstate illegally obstructed ones and negotiate new passages with owners.

A second reason - partially related to the latter - is the endemic "culture of illegality": frequently public ways are obstructed by bordering real estate owners.

I will never forget the first (and last) time I went to Monte Argentario (a circular headland in south Tuscany) with the rosy expectation to swim in one of its beautiful coves (such appeared to me from photos, films and guides). Well, although - riding a scooter - I had a very distinct perception of the ground, I made the whole tour of the headland (c.a 30 km) without finding any access to the sea. They had been all obstructed by the villa owners.
Consider that this is not an exception in this country!

What difference with the 1,014 km of public footpath of the South West Coast Path (UK) or - known by personal experience - the 75 km of the Norfolk Coast Path where one is never shut off from the sea.
Or, giving an other example directly experienced: Concarneau in Brittany (FR), where the local gevernment has managed to set free access to the whole spectacular coast path.

Beside the above "objective" impediments to long distance walking in Italy I would like to tell about personal motives as well.

I already mentioned that in Italy it is still possible to undertake long journeys on foot in the mountains but it is more like climbing than walking (probably - although there are no standard terms - one might say "trekking"). This is rather hard (especially for over-sixties like me); landscape and environment are very particular; accommodation is mainly on shelters (no sharing everyday life with local people). Of course, this is a question of personal taste. I won't contest the pleasure and the beauty of mountain trekking but, I insist, it is a quite different experience than the long distance walk I had in England (the very object of this blog, whose gentle reader I pray to have some more patience).

But look! This post is becoming too long. So I publish it as it is, promising to continue - in the next one - the story about why I didn't choose Italy for hiking.