The young walkers making their way along the Sentiero Italia have only the final stretch left. What has happened so far? Find out in their documentary film.
Do you remember the team behind Va' sentiero? They wanted to walk the length of Italy along its mountain spine. Well: they set off on 1 May 2019 from the Gulf of Trieste and after 3,500 kilometres on foot, having covered the Alps and the northern Apennines, on 30 November 2019 they arrived in Visso, a village at the foot of the Monti Sibillini devastated by earthquake. First part of the expedition completed. In 2020, against all odds, the expedition did not stop and set off again from Visso, discovering the mountains of central and southern Italy before arriving in Santa Maria di Leuca on 6 November. And now? There is still one final stretch left before the entire Sentiero Italia has been walked. But in the meantime, to relive part of this adventure, the première of the documentary film about the 2019 expedition will be "screened" on the YouTube channel on 25 November at 9 pm. Not to be missed.
The first part of the journey is the heart of the documentary film to be screened on Wednesday 25 November: the footage was filmed throughout the entire walk by Andrea Buonopane, a videomaker who joined the team of Va' sentiero's 3 founders (Yuri Basilicò, Sara Furlanetto and Giacomo Riccobono) and, from the very start of the adventure — which now dates back to 1 May 2019, when the expedition departed from Friuli Venezia Giulia and arrived in the Marche seven months later — documented the journey day by day. A blend of emotions, exhaustion, encounters and setbacks set against the most beautiful backdrop in the world: our country and its mountain communities. Often unknown and remote.
On this subject, Yuri Basilicò, the "founder" of Va' sentiero, told us: "The documentary film is a first-hand account of this incredible walk. It's certainly not perfect and could definitely be improved, but it is a genuine and authentic work that conveys well what it meant to walk for 7 months among us and how Italy changes, region by region, along its mountain spine."
One of the aims of this project has always been not only to have the experience of walking the Sentiero Italia, but also to give prominence and a voice to the highland areas, their traditions, the people who live there and the places that make them unique. This visual account is therefore a testament to the route covered and to the long months spent on the Cai trails, but above all it is an awakening to the existence — and often the resilience — of a part of Italy that lives up there.
Places, people and unexpected wonders that Yuri described to us as follows: "It's impossible to condense all the beauty we saw, but certainly one of the most incredible discoveries was the Apennines, a territory that none of us knew very well. When we think of mountains, we grew up with the Alps, which are perhaps more spectacular, more rugged, whereas the Apennines are gentler, yet they hold within them the fruits of centuries of history. Less remote, they were a land of trade and exchange, rich in small villages, now often abandoned but once prosperous. The human element of the Apennines surprised us. In general, everywhere it was an unrepeatable experience: it's incredible to think that in such a small country there is so much beauty. In human terms, the welcome we received was fantastic, and it grew warmer the further south we went. We wondered how the locals would treat us: they could have regarded us as unwelcome guests, but that wasn't the case. They say mountain people are reserved; we, on the contrary, found them generous towards us, warm, welcoming and eager to help. The mountains are not barriers — on the contrary, they preserve and protect these gentle communities too."
Alongside the documentary film there is also a photography book produced by the group's photographer, Sara Furlanetto, which can be received as a "reward" by joining the crowdfunding campaign that, until the end of December, makes it possible to support the Va' sentiero journey so that the team can complete the entire project and next year – in the summer of 2021 – the group arrives in Sardinia, at the final stage of Santa Teresa di Gallura in the Province of Sassari. The entire "mission" has been financed in this way, thanks to supporters who embraced the idea of the journey and decided to make it a concrete reality.
The resumption of the journey was inevitably marked by the arrival of the pandemic, but the project did not stop. "It was strange to be stuck still all that time in lockdown. But then we set off again; when the health situation deteriorated, however, we travelled alone, without the people who would spontaneously join us as usual. We lost something from a certain point of view, but the intimate, solitary dimension gained."
From Visso they set off again at the beginning of September to cover more than 1,100 kilometres divided into 56 stages, crossing 6 different regions in 77 days. Another enormous portion of Italian territory along the country's mountains.
In the meantime, another female voice joined the team – which also includes Giovanni, a young 70-year-old who follows the group with the vehicle that also serves as the expedition's operational base, and Francesco, who looks after the "galley" and much more besides – in the form of Martina, a communications expert. Stories and landscapes change because the route heads into central and southern Italy, so it can happen that you see the first snow in Abruzzo but also take a dip in the sea in the depths of autumn. "The areas we passed through became wilder, especially in the south, with incredible cultural and landscape identities. Then, once we reached Puglia, the Sentiero Italia became a walk, not a trek."
Because Italy is a collection – sometimes discordant – of wonders of every kind, which this group has been fortunate enough to admire thanks to the choice to "walk." A simple act, yet at the same time a revolutionary one, especially in an age when everything moves fast.
The adventures of Va' sentiero can be followed on the project's social media channels, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and on their official website, which has increasingly become a useful resource for anyone intending to take on the Sentiero Italia and therefore planning to walk part of the long route. Here you will find the entire itinerary from the first year of the expedition, broken down by region and then with each stage described in meticulous detail with maps and useful information. Another section of the site is dedicated to an account made up of typical products discovered, local people encountered, and experiences had.
"The best moment and the worst? The best, because the most vivid, was enjoying the first sunset over the sea at Santa Maria di Leuca. After so many mountains, the sea. Alone. Fantastic. The most painful is perhaps linked to the environmental degradation seen along the route: so many illegal dumps in the middle of nowhere. It's incredible to think that someone would travel to such a remote and beautiful place just to dump rubbish," Yuri said.
Now only the last stretch of the Sentiero Italia remains – the one that will take them from Molise through Campania, Basilicata and on to Calabria, then across the two islands to finish in Sardinia. At this moment the entire team is at a standstill to recover their strength, wait for better conditions (meteorological and pandemic-related) and work on the material gathered in the second part of the journey and on the upcoming stages. So far it has been exhilarating, but how will this adventure end?
"What will we do afterwards? We'd like the Va' sentiero format to be 'applied' in other places – not to long routes, but to shorter yet more in-depth experiences. We don't yet know whether it will be in Italy alone or whether we'll expand the project. The high lands are a bet yet to be played, everything is still to be 'explored'," concluded Yuri Basilicò.