Meet 'the mad Canadian' who ran the length of Italy — in 85 days

It's dusk in late June on a path blanketed with crumbled volcanic rock near the top of Europe's tallest active volcano, Mount Etna, as Canadian David Orr takes the last crunchy steps of a run that began at 4 o'clock that morning.

His arms and legs are covered with scratches from the overgrown trail he describes as "savage."

The path to self-discovery can take people to unusual places, but few go as far as Orr, who was on Day 1 of an almost three-month, 3,500-kilometre run up the length of Italy. It's a journey he describes as mystical, from the eruptive Etna in the south to the snow-covered Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco in Italian) in the north.

"This morning I took the Canadian flag up there, took an Italian flag," he says of Etna. "Then I basically slid down a thousand metres on a kind of lava slide. I just kind of let myself go."

Orr, a computer engineer from Stratford, Ont., who lives in Florence, had a start-up fail earlier this year. Seeking a challenge to help give his life new meaning, he decided to deepen his understanding of his adopted country while drawing attention to the widely unknown, and in parts neglected, Sentiero Italia (SI) or Great Italian Trail.

Spanning some 8,000 kilometres, the trail is one of the world's longest, traversing 16 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage sites and numerous national parks. Inaugurated in 1995 by the Italian Alpine Club, the trail unites the Italian peninsula starting in the Alps, running down the boot atop the Apennines, then hopping to the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.

It is cared for by thousands of volunteers who do everything from trail maintenance, education and reforestation to running rescue stations and some 21,000 beds at 750 shelters, many of which serve hot meals.

"Along with promoting slow, sustainable tourism, SI allows those walking it to get a sense of indigenous vegetation and encounter local people along the way," said Marco Garcea, a hiking guide in Calabria in southern Italy who co-wrote part of the Sentiero Italia 12-volume guidebook.

In 2019, the alpine club began renovating the trail, which had fallen into disrepair in stretches, especially in the south.

"In the north, they have more famous mountains, but in southern Italy, the trails offer a greater level of discovery, greater contact with local culture," Garcea said.

The paths in the south, he says, once linked remote mountain settlements, with others used by inhabitants searching for firewood, collecting grapes or grazing, including some old transhumance routes for the seasonal droving of livestock.

Orr says with the exception of parks such as the majestic Pollino National Park that spans Calabria and Basilicata, the trail in southern Italy had "mostly gone to hell with Mediterranean vegetation I had to hack my way through."

The red-and-white "SI" signs, though, were in excellent condition.

"It was almost like someone had a sadistic sense of humour," he said of paths veering into farmers' fields and thorny vegetation. "But whose fault is this? Not nature's. So I had to develop a sense of humour and stop fighting it."