DAY ZERO!
Preparing for the off! Karen says ‘Every group has that last minute friend and that is me, just packed my bag ready for the adventure. Thank you for all the support.’
DAY 0 has come!
- From the video you can see we’ve arrived at Lucca.
- New airport regulations let 2 through and 2 required further scrutiny- guess who?
- Our Italian driver took us on a scenic route!
- We’re now at hotel unpacking ready to get some beauty sleep.
- Episode 2 tomorrow as the hard work begins!
- Thank you all for your continued support
Day 1 Lucca to Altopascio 20km 25C!
- Very hot!
- Tired feet and legs, off to recover and recuperate!
- Refreshments pending
- Enjoy the sites we saw today. These are the Via Francigena stamps we collected.
- Can we thank you again for your words of encouragement and kind donations
Day 2
- Altopascio to San Miniato
- 31.5km walked!!!
- Many highs and lows today. Big distance covered. More scenic route.
- Gelato helped on our arrival at San Miniato
- Thanks for your motivational words and messages, they really help on days like today.
- Thank you for continued donations we are very grateful.
- https://www.justgiving.com/team/journeyforjosh2026
Day 3 and we’re off!
- San Miniato to Gambassi Terme
Day 3
- San Miniato to Gambassi Terme
- Walked 27.2km
- Bank holiday in Italy today means services closed and many more walkers on the route.
- Beautiful panoramic scenery with a lot of hills and no towns to walk through.
- Thank you for all the donations we are now at £3,515!
Day 4
- Gambassi Terme to San Gimignano
- Sorry we were wishing it away and posted tomorrow earlier!
Day 4
- Gambassi Terme to San Gimignano
- Walked 16.3km
- Another very warm day. Beautiful scenery through vineyards ending in walled city of San Gimignano.
- Glad to finish a little earlier today so we can truly enjoy our Gelato.
- Thank you for donations we have now raised £3,718!
- It’s true! Delicious Gelato
- Reward for our hard work
- Not only Gelato, but entertainment while we ate!
Day 5
- Good Morning!
- Early start San Gimignano to Colle di Val D’Elsa
- (Volume up to enjoy dawn chorus!)
Day 5
- Thank you soo much!
Day 5
- San Gimignano to Colle Di Val D’Elsa
- Walked 13.5km
- Shorter walk, Spa hotel, room has a bath! Hooray!
- Late luggage transfer meant Karen and Tracy became porters.
- Resorted to room service, (which Karen and Tracy didn’t offer to do!)
- But now for the serious stuff..
- 111.5km (69.2 miles) walked to date.
- Roughly 160k Steps (mostly by Karen
) - £4128 received in donations
- 1163 supporters on ‘Just Giving’
- Over 1k followers of ‘journeying for Josh’
- Some lovely personal messages from families who have benefitted from the Trust.
- Thank you all for your continued support
Day 6
- Colle di Val D’Elsa to Monteriggioni
- This morning you won’t have a hello from us, instead we will be posting an important message.
- Please look out for it.
- And we’re off, enjoying beautiful scenery
- Video coming when we have signal. All well!
The video you’ve been waiting for is from Giorgio, a little bit of Italy to raise your awareness of diabetes.
This is at the heart of why we are walking. We ask that you share this message widely.
Thank you
Day 6
- Colle di Val D’Elsa to Monteriggioni
- Walked 20.4km
- Our penultimate day
- Tired legs, tired brains, sore feet!
- Too many hills, a few splashes along the way!
- Tonight as we post this video we are actively looking at weather apps (due to an Amber warning for rain and lightening tomorrow) but we are still hoping to complete the walk safely.
- We thank you for your continued support. It means the world and ‘the world is mine’
Day 7
- We’re off!
Day 7
- Monteriggioni to Siena
- Walked 22.5km
- Teamwork
- Tears
- Laughter
- Courage
- Adversity
- Challenge
- That is what ‘Journeying for Josh’ has been all about. Telling you our story while walking the Via Francigena.
- A dream has become reality, reality gives you a sense of achievement
- Tonight we are still in shock that we have achieved this with all 4 of us in one piece!
- Your daily messages of support spurred us on.
- We walked a total of 151.4km (94 miles) over 7 days
- Thank you for your generous donations.
- Total tonight £4,578
- Priceless
- We thought we’d just check in as we checked out of Italy yesterday.
- We are now home with our families taking in what we have achieved ‘journeying for Josh’.
- It was a dream which became a reality we are now digesting our achievements!
- Thank you for your continued messages and donations.