Former Swiss Guards show humor, tenacity in 439-mile march to Rome

Published: 2006-05-01

ACQUAPENDENTE, Italy (CNS) -- If it hadn't been for the clippety-clop of two mounted horses trotting over the asphalt, passers-by never would have heard the three divisions of former Swiss Guards heading their way. Their soft-soled "Wanderschuhe" or walking shoes and quiet chitchat made the arrival of some 70 veteran Swiss soldiers barely perceptible even in the silent countryside. To commemorate the 500th anniversary of the establishment of the Swiss Guard, the men were marching from Bellinzona, Switzerland, to Rome, following more or less the same route their compatriots took half a millennium ago, along the ancient pilgrim's path of the Francigena Way. The jubilee march began April 7. Twenty days and 368 miles later, the men reached Acquapendente -- a historically important commercial town that once marked one of the borders of the Papal States south of the independent Tuscany region.

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