Two wheels and a prayer. Primary school teacher Michael McCarthy in his Cork in Ireland jumped one day on a ferry, he went down to France, in Roscoff. With him, only his bike. In two days of pedaling he arrived in Saint-Malo, the first French stage of the Columbanian pilgrimage in 47 stages. In his head, the desire to kneel in front of the tomb of that saint of whom he had heard for the first time by chance, only a few weeks before.

He really made it, after crossing continental Europe by bicycle: he arrived in Bobbio, and with one more certainty, “San Colombano does not belong to Ireland but to Europe”. And second consideration, not to be underestimated for the 34-year-old: “I have found more balance and spirituality, today the world forgets its importance”.

“Bobbio is reminiscent of a fairy tale. No day has ever been the same on the two-thousand-mile journey,” Michael said.