Day 119 I have crossed the Rubicon (sort of) !

The Rubicon, it turns out, no longer exists... at least the river that Julius Caesar famously crossed to set the collapse of the Roman Republic in motion.  Wikipedia says is believed to have been somewhere between the low coastal towns of Ravenna and Rimini on the Adriatic, and since I'm now in the marshes in between, I'm close enough.  The impact may not be so important to change the tide of world events, but to me, it means I'm very close to my destination.  I plan to be in Rome by the end of the month, and can't imagine that I'll need to venture into any more places my angels may fear to tread.

After fighting the wind to get out of Croatia, I'm head down below my visor to block the sun and rain showers.  How fitting it was, my first full day in Italy, seeking help to find a place to sleep and receiving it from a kind trio from a parochial school with the names Claudio, Augusta, and Lucius - hard to get more Roman names than those.  From Trieste along the coast, I've been walking along the Via Annia... the many canals of the River Po, and the many Venetian cities - Chioggia in particular was a pleasant surprise... except for some days of relatively warm rain, it's been such easy walking that I've upped my average distance back to a daily marathon.

Ravenna, a city I've never visited before, was the center of the empire for a few centuries up until the time of the final collapse, and interestingly, a center of the Arian Church for the short while it was in vogue.  Mosaics are the main remnant, impressive at that... I could spend several days as a tourist in such an interesting little city, but I'm a pilgrim now, not a tourist, so onward I go, coming up to 4,000 kilometers with an additional 400 or so to go.

   Shout out to Father Jim at the Santuario de Chimayò in New Mexico - thanks for the encouraging comments and thanks for warmly receiving foot pilgrims to Chimayò...walking isn't always as easy as it seems.