Le Ragazze in Gamba

I'm walking on the Via Francigena del Sud not only as a part of the Road to Rome 2021 - Start Again project, but also as a member and representative of  the Ragazze in Gamba. 

Brief Italian lesson needed here, seeing as this is an English-language blog: "in gamba" is an idiomatic expression meaning cool, smart, capable, on the ball... you get the idea. By fortunate coincidence, gamba also means leg, so what better name for a group of smart, cool and capable girls (of all ages) who like to walk? Ragazze in gamba is an open social network published via Facebook through which over 60,000 walking women from all parts of Italy can connect, share their stories and agree to walk together. For walking is about more than just going for a stroll: it's a way of discovering the inner strength we all have, even when we don't realise it. It's a way of establishing a new harmony with yourself, those around you, and your natural and cultural environment. It can be a key to unlocking a whole new world of friendships and mutual support. 

The group focuses on and promotes walking routes in Italy, but its membership includes women from outside of the country, and the group's motto is in English: "Just walk!" 

Oh, and yes, the group is open to men, too!

The Ragazze in Gamba network is run by Rete nazionale donne in cammino, a nation-wide association of women walkers whose mission is to promote female empowerment through walking: walking as a way of bringing about greater awareness of oneself and one's place in the world, of establishing greater inner harmony. 

Women have always walked just as much as men, if not more. At least half of medieval pilgrims were women; well-known female pilgrims of the early centuries of the Christian era included Paula, Melania and Etheria, also known as Egeria, who left us a diary of her travels around the Holy Places between 381 and 386, the Itinerarium Egeriae ("Travels of Egeria"), written in the form of a long letter to her "sisters" back home. 

Not much is known about Etheria herself; it is speculated that she may have come from Galicia or from Gaul, and it is thought that she may have been a nun, due to the reference to "sisters", though this term was also used to refer to fellow Christian women in general. Etheria spent three years in Jerusalem, and visited Mount Sinai, Mount Nebo, and the tomb of Job, travelled to Constantinople, Ephesus and other pilgrimage sites in Turkey. In short, she was a very well-travelled woman, and well-educated, too, leaving us a valuable account of the details of Christian liturgy in Jerusalem, written in fourth-century Latin, on its way to evolving into the "vulgar" Romance languages. 

Schematic map of the trips undertaken by Egeria. Copyright: Creative Commons : https://nicolettadematthaeis.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/viaggio-egeria.jpg.

Following in the long tradition established by Etheria, the Ragazze in Gamba are also keeping a diary of their pilgrimage! The members of the group who are participating in various sections of the Road to Rome expedition along the Via Francigena are recording their experiences in a collective diary, hand-written in a notebook which is passed on from one Ragazza in Gamba to the next as the walkers proceed southwards. When completed, this collective pilgrims' diary will be kept in the collection of the Piccolo Museo del Diario, the Little Museum of Diaries in Pieve Santo Stefano which I had occasion to visit on my Long Walk to Assisi earlier this year. The museum and the diaries it contains are truly fascinating, and I highly recommend a visit to anyone walking the Way of Saint Francis. 

An article published recently in the newspaper La Repubblica presents the Ragazze in Gamba and their collective pilgrims' diary, as well as the diary museum itself. 

On my walk on the Via Francigena del Sud, I will be happy to contribute to this Literary Pilgrim Relay, the Staffetta Letteraria delle Ragazze in Gamba! 

With Jennifer, who wrote the diary entry for the first day south of Rome, and Ilaria, founder of the movement, on the Via Appia Antica

Alessandra writing today's diary entry