CHAPTER 22
Without risk, nothing is achieved.
(Saga of Njal, Anonymous, XII century)
The return trip to Italy appeared to Andrea and his men much shorter and easier than the one they had faced about three years before to reach the Netherlands. Of course, the conditions were very different! The men were in a much smaller number in comparison to the gone one, they had abandoned the combat clothes and they had dressed like normal wayfarers that crossed the Via Francigena, even if under the clothes everyone had his sword or his dagger. Also the climatic conditions were very different. It was late spring, almost summer, and the clear sunny days followed one after the other. Of blizzards and sudden and icy downpours only the memory of the outward journey was preserved. Also the different poli
