I had no intention of writing a diary for this year’s journey: the route had been planned solely for technical reasons. I needed to test two alternative stages from Serracapriola to Montecilfone to avoid fording the Biferno, and once I reached the sea, to try returning toward Serracapriola along the Tratturo Magno. In short, I was expecting lots of asphalt and only small rural villages: nothing special to write about.

And yet, as so often happens, the magic of the journey overturned my expectations. If the trip didn’t offer much from a landscape point of view, it turned out instead to be a continuous source of encounters and surprises. In the end, I found myself almost “forced” to put into writing what had happened.

The route had been planned as follows : first day along the Tratturello Ururi–Serracapriola, second day on the Tratturo Sant’Andrea–Biferno to reach Montecilfone. This made it possible to avoid fording the Biferno River on the stretch between Serracapriola and Montecilfone. On the third day, a transfer stage toward Marina di San Salvo, which largely retraces the 2024 route and which I therefore will not describe again.

The return from Marina di San Salvo to Serracapriola was planned over four days, conceived as a “taste” of the Tratturo Magno. I expected nothing but asphalt and instead, in several sections, the walk proved surprisingly pleasant. At this point, I truly believe that in the future, despite what I have stated several times on the website, I will have to tackle the missing stages of the Tratturo Magno.

I thought I would be facing a monotonous route and instead, step by step, I found myself in situations I would never have foreseen. But I don’t want to give away too much: I’ll let the pages that follow tell you about the magic of the unexpected.