Heartfelt experience of the hike: Autoethnography in pandemic

Abstract

Through two brief autoethnographies that use writing as a central method, we present what has been the guiding thread of our lives for the last two years: our bodies in a walking situation. These walks took place in different and distant geographical settings, over two years -2020-2022- in two profoundly different moments, such as the pandemic and the containment measures adopted to face it, and the Post-Pandemic with its restrictions to the free circulation. Experiencing an embodied connection with our bodies gave us a sense of continuity and belonging in times that felt dark and uncertain. The way we think, live and deal with these daily obstacles has profoundly altered our embodied sense and the way we experience of the world. Likewise, we would say that the pandemic gave us the opportunity to verify that the body can also become a focus from which to think about these changes. In this scenario, autoethnography was our tool par excellence to think with the body about the new local and world panorama.