For those born in Pescasseroli, the climb to Monte Tranquillo is a piece of the town's history and an annual religious observance. For hikers and mountain-bike enthusiasts, it's a pleasant, moderately challenging walk through the heart of the Abruzzo National Park: more than 400 meters of elevation gain on a dirt road, from Pescasseroli's 1,167 meters to roughly 1,600 meters at the Sanctuary of the Madonna. The guidebooks estimate a hike of two and a half to three hours.
For those who took part in Faith and Light's 1982 pilgrimage, the climb to Monte Tranquillo remains a cherished memory.
It was indeed an extraordinary experience. Just over a year after the 1981 international pilgrimage to Lourdes, several communities from Rome set out on the road again.
I remember the preparation well. Long evenings around the big dining room table, making masks for Saturday night's village vigil. My parents' hands covered in glue, paint, and crepe paper, creating—between laughter and criticism—multicolored feathered wings for Saint Francis preaching to the birds, and the fierce head of the wolf of Gubbio, complete with a red tongue dangling between its fangs.
I remember Nicolina and Claudio Di Pirro's professionalism in finding the best solutions in Pescasseroli for lodging, meals, and transportation. I remember the local pastor's doubts. He warned against the adventure because it was scheduled for the rainy season, and we would be too many to shelter in the sanctuary.
It did seem like an undertaking with slim chances of success. Think of how many details the organizers had to manage. For the festival and stay in town, things were manageable enough. But bringing two hundred people into the mountains is not simple, especially when they come from the colorful and delicate world of Faith and Light. And yet—from drinking water to sandwiches to special meals; from the jeeps shuttling back and forth to help those who could no longer walk, to the tent with a chemical toilet for those who couldn't slip away into the forest—everything was there in its place. Or nearly so. Like the chalice that we realized, as we began Mass, had been left in town and that an SUV rushed down in a reckless dash to retrieve from Pescasseroli.
Meanwhile, the elderly pastor, wearing his tricorn hat, sat on a rock shaking his head. The Madonna of Monte Tranquillo was giving us a splendid day, proving his dire weather predictions wrong.
It was extraordinary from this perspective too. Perhaps it was the Madonna's way of thanking the Faith and Light communities for their effort. For many, it was genuinely difficult to walk or wheel themselves, often lifted by multiple hands, even just the first short stretch of the road. But there was the enthusiasm of friends, the trusting willingness of the young people, the solidarity of Pescasseroli's townspeople who joined the Rome communities in large numbers and with generous hearts.
To contemplate God in nature, to contemplate God in our brothers and sisters, to contemplate God. These were the themes offered at the three rest stops for reflection, rest, and prayer. But behind it all, in memory, I see above all the strength and love of the parents. Beyond my own, I think of Brunella and Massimo D'Amico, of Olga and Francesco Gammarelli, of Nicolina and Claudio Di Pirro who, with others' help, conceived, planned, and organized the pilgrimage. Eight parents with completely different stories. Four families walking the same road, opened by the birth of children all gravely handicapped. Some were further along that difficult, long, exhausting ever-climbing road. But they wanted to lend each other a hand, as you do in the mountains, convinced that despite everything, the sun would come.
I felt privileged. I climbed with them. Nicolina and Claudio entrusted Daniele to me for the final stretch. We carried him in our arms in turns, Anne Da, a friend from Pescasseroli, and I.
It was beautiful to walk in silence, through the ancient beech forest, away from the group, nearly alone now. And walking together like that, heart to heart, on that stretch of mountain road, I asked Daniele if I could become his friend.
N.B., 2009
