The Path to Rome
The Path to Rome is a 1902 travelogue by the French-English author and historian Hilaire Belloc. In it, Belloc recounts his pilgrimage on foot from the town of Toul in northeastern France to Rome after encountering a unique statue of Saint Mary in the town he was born in. The book contains his account of events through short vignettes, his thoughts on his travels, and asides about the history and geography of places he visits. The book's genre has been described as a carnivalesque with elements of both modernist and postmodernist literary styles, and has been compared with the works of François Rabelais and Laurence Sterne.
The book is mostly written in a stream-of-consciousness style and contains several conversations between Belloc and an imagined reader interspersed throughout. Belloc also illustrates landmarks, noteworthy geographical features, and explanatory maps to frame his journey and explain his decisions to the audience. Although the book is written primarily in English, several passages and pieces of dialogue are written in various languages, with language mix-ups and comments about the contemporary linguistic landscape featuring prominently. The book also contains songs for which Belloc provides sheet music and lyrics.
The Path to Rome was Belloc's most financially successful work and established him as a serious literary author. It is considered to be among the best in his literary canon and the quintessential example of his travel literature. Contemporary reviews were positive, focusing on Belloc's authenticity, shrewd observations, and sense of humour. Retrospectives have similarly praised the book, with much of the praise centred on Belloc's complex narrative structure and the focus on the minutiae of everyday life in the towns he visited. The book employs complex literary structures, including metaleptic narrative styles, embedded narratives, and defamiliarisation. Belloc himself had a warm affection for the book; he later recounted that it was "the only book ever wrote for love".
Background
was a French-English author and historian well-known for his ardent defences of the Catholic faith. Born in France to a French father and an English mother, Belloc's family moved to England shortly after his birth, eventually settling in Sussex. As a young man, he served in the French Army and then attended Balliol College at the University of Oxford, finally attaining British citizenship in 1902. He was an accomplished foot-traveller, once marching from Philadelphia to California to court Elodie Hogan, whom he later married.Shortly before the book was written, Belloc was working to complete his biography of Maximilien Robespierre and expressed an anxiousness to finish it to begin working on The Path to Rome. On New Year's Eve 1900, Belloc wrote to the American journalist Maria Lansdale that he was planning a pilgrimage from his old garrison in Toul to Rome the following Easter. He told her he planned to write "whatever occurs to me to write décousu and written anyhow of its essence".
Belloc's mother tried desperately to convince him against going. At the time, Belloc and his wife had three young children and were struggling financially, but his journalistic work at The Daily News had earned him as much as £14 a week. His mother felt that an extended absence from his job as a journalist would hurt him professionally. However, Belloc rejoined that the work was impermanent and a strong publishing record outside journalism would be more lucrative in the long run, as a successful book would increase the value of his journalistic work. Still, Belloc did not have the money to complete the pilgrimage on his own and he reportedly had to beg his sister for some of the funds. Finances became a regular worry for Belloc during his travels, as evidenced by letters home to his wife, though he was able to calm her worry by reminding her that he was owed £65 for his Robespierre manuscript, seven guineas from The Daily News, and another £12 10s from his lectures at the University of London.
At the beginning of June 1901, Belloc departed for Paris, bought clothes for his journey, and finished all but six pages of his biography of Robespierre on the evening of 5 June. The following day, he departed for Toul and sent his wife a postcard.
Summary
While visiting the town he was born in, Belloc goes. He says his prayers and notices a statue of Saint Mary behind the altar "so extraordinary and so different from from all I had seen before, so much the spirit of my valley" that he vows to take a pilgrimage to Rome. He makes five vows to sanctify his journey: to travel entirely on foot, to sleep in the wild, to cover per day, to attend a Mass every morning, and to reach Rome in time for the High Mass at Saint Peter's Basilica for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul on 29 June. Belloc recounts that he broke each of his vows one by one except for the last.France
Belloc begins his pilgrimage in Toul, which he chose as the starting point because he had "served in arms for sins" in the French Army there as an artilleryman. Upon reaching the first town after Toul, Flavigny, he realises he has broken his first vow by missing Mass. His time in France is rife with admiration for the locals and overconfidence in his ability to cross a great distance. Between Thayon and Épinal, he overexerts himself, injuring his foot and both knees, and realises he will not be able to maintain his vow of thirty miles a day. When he arrives in Épinal, he is given a balm by the local apothecary which makes the pain almost magically dissipate, though it becomes less effective throughout the journey. Belloc arrives in Belfort and discovers for the first time open-fermented wine, which he lauds. After buying some for the road, he travels some distance only to have his bottle come loose from his sack and shatter on the ground. He becomes so frustrated he has to sit down. Shortly thereafter, Belloc enters Switzerland.Switzerland
Belloc does not realise he has entered Switzerland until he asks a group of travelling merchants where he is; each affirm his arrival in different accents. He buys another bottle of wine he describes as "wonderful stuff" in Porrentruy and continues on. After passing through mountainous terrain, Belloc is fatigued. A wagon stops to ask if he needs assistance to the next town over. Belloc is tempted to ride in the cart, but he holds to his vow and clings onto the wagon – rather than riding it – which helps him stay moving. They arrive in Undervelier and Belloc enjoys a cigar and admires a stream flowing nearby before being interrupted by the local church bell. The entire town floods into the church and Belloc follows the crowd inside, where he is moved to tears by the devotion of the town. He has a meal he describes as the worst, or second-worst, meal of his life then departs to Moutier.As Belloc pushes deeper into Switzerland, his linguistic capacity increasingly diminishes; French slowly becomes German and his foot and knee pain remain bothersome. Along the Aar, he encounters rain and bitter cold, his boots fall apart, and the pain in his extremities causes him to limp. He gets a guide to help him over the Nufenen Pass, a dangerous part of the Swiss Alps, and into Italy. As they ascend, the rain that has been falling begins to turn into heavy snow, the temperature drops rapidly, and low-lying clouds are beginning to obscure their view. The guide attempts to persuade Belloc out of going, but Belloc insists on pushing forward; the guide agrees but they head towards the Gries Pass instead. Snow continues to fall heavily, and the cold and wind become increasingly unbearable. The guide, estimating they have about to the summit, refuses to continue. Belloc offers all the money he has left on hand to continue, but the guide refuses; suddenly Belloc feels the bleak coldness around him and realises the guide had determined that the return to the village was safer than continuing the summit. On the descent, he laments that he has been conquered by the Alps.
As Belloc continues through the rest of southern Switzerland, he begins to recognise the features as more and more Italian. He realises near Faido that he only has eight francs and ten centimes to get him to Milan, about away. He metes out an ambitious plan to make sure he has enough money to make it to Milan. In Bellinzona, he meets a woman whom he cannot understand, but he buys some wine from her, absentmindedly buying a glass for her husband and another townsman, not realising his mistake until after he has paid. He departs following a one-franc meal and notices that a fold in his map is obfuscating the path from Bellinzona to Lugano. He asks a local mapmaker if he can look at one of his maps for a moment, which the mapmaker allows, and Belloc takes off, grateful but confused. Eventually, he arrives at the border town of Chiasso and is questioned by border guards, who allow him into Italy where he marches on to Como.
Italy
In Como, Belloc estimates he is about from Milan with only one franc and eighty centimes left. Although the heat is becoming oppressive, he estimates that he could probably reach the city in eight or nine hours. By then, however, it would be too late to retrieve his money and the lodging would be too expensive for what he has left, even if he does not eat. He enters the local cathedral to weigh his options and notices two votive candles fading out at nearly identical speeds. He resolves to allow the candles decide his fate: if the one of the left fades first, he will travel by foot, but if the one on the right fades first, by rail. Ultimately, the right candle fades out in spectacular fashion and, believing it a sign of divine mercy, Belloc resolves to break another vow and travel by train. At the station, the ticket costs him exactly one franc and eighty centimes, and he reflects on his journey and falls asleep, waking up in Milan.Belloc continues through Italy, walking onward towards Piacenza as it begins to rain for a long time. Passing through several small villages, he ends up just outside the town of Medesano where he stops to eat and rest. In the inn, around twenty Italians are drinking and enjoying a raucous evening out. Belloc orders a glass of wine and the inn falls silent. One of the men asks him something in Italian, but Belloc cannot fully comprehend what he is asking; suddenly, several of the other men begin asking the same question. He intuits that either the Venetian people or a Venetian person, possibly a strikebreaker, had crossed the townspeople and they believe Belloc is associated in some way.
Eventually, one of the men gets very close to Belloc, hollering threateningly, and Belloc's fear turns to anger. Belloc begins shouting down the hostile man with what little Italian he can muster mixed in with Spanish and his native French. Immediately, the room becomes divided and the two groups begin arguing with one another. The innkeeper grabs Belloc and indicates that he is on his side before jumping on the bar and giving a speech to the patrons. Belloc has no idea what the innkeeper reports to the townsmen, but it brings the hostilities to an end, and Belloc and the men commune peacefully; a man holding a large knife threateningly earlier allows Belloc to sharpen his pencil on it. Belloc departs the following morning and crosses the Taro with the help of a few locals who put him in contact with someone whom Belloc relates to Saint Christopher, much to the man's approval.
Belloc makes his way to the town of Calestano. There, he is questioned by two policemen and two gendarmes, and fails to produce a passport. One of the policemen accuses Belloc of faking his difficulty with Italian causing Belloc to become irate; he threatens them with legal action and tells them that he can speak French and Latin, so if there is a priest in the town, they should bring him to translate. The policemen agree to bring the elderly sindaco – akin to a mayor – who speaks French, but confine Belloc in the barracks in the meantime. When the sindaco arrives, it becomes apparent that he does not actually speak French, but Belloc refuses to out him. The sindaco, however, recognises the word touriste and he instructs the officers to release Belloc. He is released to a celebrating crowd and carries on his way.
As he continues on through Italy, Belloc meets a Latin-speaking priest whom he asks to teach him Tuscan words so he can get around better. He races through the rest of Tuscany to Rome. As he passes through the Gate of the Poplar of the Old Wall of the Vatican, he realises Mass is ending. He asks a local priest when the following Mass will be held; the priest tells him that he has but twenty minutes to wait, which pleases Belloc. Belloc tells the audience that he has no inclination to tell them anything about Rome itself, but ends with a poem about his journey.