Around the world in 24 pairs of shoes and 26 diaries

The figures in this story are nothing short of madness: Nicolò Guarrera, known to everyone as Pieroad, walked round the world in 1,862 days, covering 36,146 km, wearing out 24 pairs of shoes and filling 26 diaries. And he has seen hundreds of doors open, shared countless meals and sent a thousand postcards. Pieroad, from Malo, Vicenza, loves numbers, but the book about his experience With Feet on the Ground. A journey round the world one step at a time is an emotional account of infinite horizons, from the singing desert to visas to chase, from beloved women to faces etched in his memory.

Pieroad resigned in February 2020, just before the Covid outbreak, whilst deeply inspired by Siddhartha: ‘Those who seek have a purpose, and I have a purpose’, which is to walk in order to have a story to tell. Right from the start, he faced the challenge of how to tackle hundreds of kilometres without water or any places to stop, so he chose a travelling companion – Ezio, a trekking pushchair – along with a rucksack containing everything he needed and a companion to talk to every day.

After Europe, across the Atlantic by catamaran, to start afresh in Ecuador. Amidst risks, uncertainties, rain and the unexpected, the route is simple: from Quito, head for the Ecuadorian coast and follow it as far as Santiago de Chile, travelling through the Peruvian and Chilean coastal desert, the infamous Atacama Desert: ‘Entering the desert means shedding light on one’s own shadows: descending into the depths of who we are with a torch in hand and illuminating a place that would otherwise be forgotten’. These are not pages of travel but of a journey, of psychoanalysis, of self-discovery all the way to Patagonia – almost an Ithaca – with its ice giants. Then, by air to Sydney and yet more immeasurable expanses: ‘The Outback is a region of contrasts. Solitude intensified the nostalgia and the sense of alienation. My spirits swung like a pendulum, and at times it seemed as though the distance remaining was too great. Despair settled on my chest and weighed me down, knowing I had nothing to set against it.” Stage by stage, after hundreds of ‘laundry sessions’ and river showers, and freeze-dried meals, Pieroad tackles the micro-macrocosm that is India. To make his way back, via Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq, all the way to his much-loved Iran. Here, hospitality is an ancient tradition, bordering on the sacred, yet there are prohibitions, restrictions and superhuman fears when one encounters the sepah, the guardians of the revolution; but ‘opening oneself up to the world is the beginning of the journey: accepting cultural exchange, learning to debate, and letting go of the positions we cling to in order to feel safe’.

Then, finally, Turkey, my first purchase in euros, and the return home with the question that had started it all: ‘If this life were a work of art, what should I do with it? I would look after it and treat it with respect, of course. But I’d also like to enjoy it, and in the specific case of a work of art, you do that by looking at it. So the question then became: when do I go and look at a work of art? Answer: when it’s beautiful or has a story to tell.’ The story of Pieroad is one of a summer of sharing and discovery.

Pieroad, With Both Feet on the Ground: Around the World One Step at a Time, Sonzogno, 432 pages, 19 euros