ND students in Rome join l'Arche Italy in tandem bike ride
On October 15th, 2022, ND Rome students had the opportunity to participate in the last leg of a Bologna-Rome bicycle pilgrimage organized by the communities of L’Arche in Italy, with the participation of various Italian civil society organizations active in the disability world and biking groups. The pedal pilgrimage follows the ancient Via Francigena route and includes a 16-person team with 10 tandem bikes on which pairs of adults with and without disabilities pedaled together on each stage of the journey.
ND Rome students rode the last leg of the route with the team and other participants, from Castel Giubileo, outside Rome, to Saint Peter’s square. There everyone joined a final 5km bicycle ride to the Colosseum, along the historic Via Conciliazione and Corso Vittorio Emanuele way through to the Fori Imperiali, followed by a celebration and refreshment at the University of Notre Dame Villa.
The last leg of the route is itself a symbol of the encounter of Rome-as-religious-capital with Rome-as-civitas. This special event gave the opportunity to ND students to engage on these themes and experiences, and provoke reflection on the public presence of disability for common political life. This event also represented a public expression of the key topics of research, namely Knowledge, Disability and the City, proposed for a nascent working group hosted by the Rome Global Gateway, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies and the Cambridge University Von Hügel Institute, with the participation of L’Arche communities of Europe and the United States.