Instead of the ultra-luxury holidays as a … footballer, there are those who choose fatigue and walk inside themselves. On Santiago’s walk, as pilgrims know, every step is a question, every meter traveled outside is an ascent into one’s own conscience. Rocco Costantinoa 32-year-old striker born in Switzerland, last season at Monterosi in Serie C and a past between Modena, Bari, Triestina and Sudtirol, is obviously not an ordinary man, for sure he is a footballer to whom the stereotype shirt is tight .
Other than exotic beaches, other than VIP resorts: Constantine has decided to spend his holidays walking for 300 km, from Roncesvalles to Burgos, in Spain. He has not completed the Camino to Santiago de Compostela, but it is only a matter of time.
How the idea was bornhe tells it himself, after having confided his choice in a post on Instagram: “I was out for 21 days without booking anything, I thought, I reflected, I prayed, I cried a lot (maybe that’s the thing I did the most ), I felt disappointed, happy, angry, content, alone, strong and weak, I trusted myself and met people from all over the world “.
A decision born in a hurry, the daughter of a hard moment on a personal level: “The idea of the pilgrimage was born in half an hour when a friend, Andrea Sassarini, called me, who had already done it five years ago. He heard me down moral, I was not happy, and told me to leave immediately. I took the car, went to Fiumicino and while I was traveling I bought a ticket to Madrid “, says Rocco.
The rest is a journey, from the starting point, Roncesvalles, until the physicist has held up, that is to say a Burgos. 300 km on foot from 10 to 17 June: “As an experience it is very hard, I had to stop it after seven days because I pushed too much, my left ankle was affected and to avoid major problems I stopped. However, I was not prepared, I started improvising a bit and it can’t be done. But the difficulty of the Way is not so much physical as it is spiritual, because it puts you in front of questions that you have to answer, otherwise they will reappear “.
So let’s try to understand how Rocco has changed, after: “My patience has been deeply touched, hear the sound of every steplistening to the silence changed me so much. I usually don’t have patience, I want too much. “Who knows how my colleagues took it:” In reality only very few close friends knew about it, my colleagues discovered it when I wrote a post on Instagram “.
And now? “I definitely want to finish the Way, but getting to Santiago is a formality, you have to find your Compostela inside yourself, getting there is only a physical matter. But I will definitely leave Burgos to finish it, let’s see when”. Because something has changed inside: “I used to stop and have a drink of water or a beer, and every time I left I was moved because I regained contact with myself. I still get excited now.”
