The defining moment in Harry Bucknall’s 1,411-mile walk to Rome came three weeks in, when he was suddenly confronted with Laon Cathedral. He had seen it growing larger on its hilltop as he snaked his way through the countryside on foot, then he turned a corner and was “assaulted by its sheer size … its beauty stopping me in my tracks”. His pilgrimage, “the sole purpose of my life at the time, suddenly became clear”.Bucknall is no fey mystic. Having served as a major in the Coldstream Guards, he had no illusions about the tough task of covering the miles day after day in the heat of summer. Only 10 miles from Rome do we learn of the nightly cleaning of the kit, down to the Union Jack sewn on the back of his pack. The enemy was at times dehydration, and