“Host strangers in my home? Never!”
To the question “would you like to host travellers on foot?”, many would answer this way.
Yet, those who go ahead and try find out that it is much more than renting out a part of their house. A kind of exchange occurs. An act of confidence is respected.
For those who walk, it means staying with locals and get to know a part of their lives. It means feeling welcome in a cozy place at the end of a tiring day.
For those who host, it means getting to know the world without traveling and realising that a stranger is not always such a bad person.
Eventually, everyone feels a little bit more connected and part of the same family.
Thanks to homestays along the Magna Via Francigena, we met a baker and a hotel employee who hosted us for three nights in their country house.
We became friends and they told us how, in the past years, they have welcomed many walkers from all over the world because they realised that those who travel on foot don’t need much to find beauty in a simple gesture, thought or encounter.
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