Towards the Bear Pass (Lazio-Abruzzo border)

Departure: Canneto – 7:57 am
Arrival: Villetta Barrea
Weather: Sunny
Distance of the day: 28,2 Km
Progressive km: 85,9
Moving Time: 5h 53m
Elevation gain: 984 mt

You not only have a glorious story to remember and recount, but a great story to build. Look into the future in which the Spirit is projecting you to still achieve great things with you.
(John Paul II)

Walking towards Villetta Barrea in the municipality of Opi

       I slept peacefully that night, and thanks also to the few kilometers I had covered the previous day, I faced my third day of walking fully regenerated. A state that soon proved to be necessary, and this because from the first hours of walking, the path off the trail and uphill was tiring.
While walking in the direction of Abruzzo, in the area of the reserve of one of the oldest nature parks in Italy, I was struck by the sound of rushing water. Curiosity drove me to deviate from my route, thus giving me the opportunity to make both the first stop of the day and a singular discovery in the woods.
So small and yet so thunderous, I found a stream that through a steep drop broke on the rocks below. I did not know of the existence in that place of a waterfall named after John Paul II, one of the most admirable men of his century. I contemplated the water for a few minutes, which evoked in my mind the dualism between the calmness of that religious leader and his power, the power to perform diplomatic and political works in favor of peace, equality and ecumenism. Exactly like that fundamental element of nature that I observed in admiration, the Holy Man, during his life never seemed to be intent on stopping his race, always committed to watering that soil where the common roots of religions branch out. Yet, to aspire that all people, philosophies and faiths agree on the same language to perceive GOD, is explicitly equivalent to underestimate the size and power of the Eternal in the World, and this man dedicated to tolerance knew it well. That place gave me moments of serenity and thoughts of hope, which I tried to convert into meditation and prayer, leaving with the awareness in my heart that following in the footsteps of my ancestors made new, yet already conceived, perceptions resurface in me [continues in the book]

Gpx Track Day 3

Link of interest

https://www.camosciara.com/

http://www.valfondillo.it/it/index.php?lang=it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parco_Nazionale_d%27Abruzzo,_Lazio_e_Molise

Tratturo Regio: The drovers’ road Pescasseroli-Candela