Under a pale autumn sky, I set out to meet my old friend, Sister Katherine Adams; a Franciscan nun who lives in the village of Vallepietra on the outskirts of Rome. She had invited me on the Cammino della Santissima Trinità, an ecclesiastical pilgrimage through the forested landscapes of Lazio and Abruzzo where Benedictine monasticism first emerged in the 6th Century.
The network of four walking trails spans 18km and winds past pivotal, yet largely untouristed, Catholic sites of worship. Since the pilgrimage launched three years ago, more than 10,000 devotees have plodded these paths, and as I grabbed a coffee-filled thermos, a rose-scented rosary and a map, I, too, embarked on Italy's newest pilgrimage.
