The Path to Rome

Hilaire Belloc had made a vow to walk to Rome from Toul in Lorraine, the French garrison town where he once soldiered, and this 1902 book records that pilgrimage on foot across the Alps to Saint Peter’s. He set himself strict rules, to hear Mass each morning and never take wheels, then cheerfully broke them, filling the pages with pen sketches, snatches of song, arguments with himself, and long digressions on wine, faith, history, and the peoples of Europe. The result made his name and remains his liveliest book, less a guide than the portrait of a mind delighting in the open road. The full illustrated text is available as a free PDF and EPUB edition.