The Via degli Dei takes its name from the mountains it crosses: Monte Adone, Monte Venere, Monte Luario — pagan deities that the Romans turned into place names, and which time has never quite managed to erase.
There is a way of travelling that you cannot book on any app. It has no hotels with breakfast included, no optimised itineraries. It has only a pair of shoes (let’s hope comfortable ones, for your sake), a rucksack that weighs more than you planned, and a handful of clothes you’ll rinse in the bathroom sink each evening, hoping they’ll be dry by morning.
Walking is the oldest way of getting to know a place. Slow, tiring, sometimes uncomfortable. In Italy, where every hillside hides a village and every village hides a story, going on foot slows everything down. And when you slow down, you start to see things you would miss at any other speed.
Distance: around 130 km — Stages: 5–7 days — Difficulty: moderate
The Via degli Dei links Bologna to Florence across the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. You set off from Bologna — which is worth the trip all by itself, with its porticoes and its extraordinary food. From there you head south, up and over the Apennine ridges, through forests, rough tracks and endless meadows.
You arrive in Florence from the right side: not from the motorway, not from the station, but from above, with Brunelleschi’s dome rising slowly on the horizon as you descend towards the city. It is a magical entrance — an arrival that feels like it will never quite end.
The Emilian-Tuscan Apennines are not spectacular in the conventional sense. They are simple, green and quiet. You will find few places to stop for refreshments, few comforts, and climbs that make your legs ache. And it is in precisely those moments — when the view seems flat and your feet have had enough — that something strange happens: out there the world is frantic, but here your only goal is the next stage.
There are conversations that begin while you walk that you simply cannot have anywhere else. Faces you will never see again, but that will remind you of something important: that life is a long journey, and you are the one who decides the pace.
I did this walk with a friend. And I can tell you that walking alongside someone for days on end, without distractions, is one of the most powerful ways to truly get to know a person. We were nearly in Florence: last stage, feet on fire, hours of silence. Then — I can’t quite explain it — we looked at each other and burst out laughing. And for a few seconds we ran, not feeling a thing. Just an inexplicable joy, as if our bodies had decided to give us that moment right there, right at the end.