Stumbling to Rome on the Via Francigena

Stumbling to Rome on the Via Francigena

By: Sunshine Jen

Copyright 2015 Sunshine Jen

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Table of Contents

Introduction

All About You

Walking the Via Francigena

Resource List

Grazie, Grazie, Grazie

Introduction

The Via Francigena is a thousand year old pilgrim trail from Canterbury to Rome. Translated as the road that comes from France or the France road, the Via Francigena is over a thousand miles long and travels through England, France, Switzerland, and Italy. In 990 AD, Archbishop Sigeric, the Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote down the stages of his journey from Rome to Canterbury; however, there is also a record of the route as early as the 700s.

In modern times, pilgrims can walk or bike the route the Via Francigena. Like the walks in Spain to Santiago de Compostela, pilgrims stay in ostellos (pilgrim hostels) or monasteries along the route and stop in towns which are walking distance apart. Even though the infrastructure is not as built up as the Camino Frances in northern Spain, the Via Francigena is a less crowded alternative with a rich history and beautiful landscape. In 2004, the Council of Europe declared the Via Francigena a Major Cultural Route.

In October and November of 2014, I walked the Via Francigena in Italy from Fidenza to Rome on a month long walk. The walk went across the Cisa Pass, down through Tuscany with stops in Lucca and Siena, then into Lazio with stops in Bolsena and Viterbo, and ending in St. Peter’s Square.

In 2012, I walked to Santiago de Compostela on the Camino Frances and wrote a book about it called The Slacker Pilgrim Guide to the Camino de Santiago. After that walk, I wanted to do other walks in Europe especially with my walking partner, D.

In early 2014, I started planning another big walk. Where did I want to go? Did I want to go back to Spain? Portugal? Scotland? Wales? Ireland? With too many options I felt trapped in the land of indecision. Fortunately, D talked me through the muddle, and we decided to walk the Italian section of the Via Francigena.

This book in front of you is the result of the sweat, and tears (yes, there were tears) of a one month walk on the Via Francigena during the off-season (October to November 2014). The first section of this book will be practical tips I learned the hard way for folks planning or dreaming of walking in Italy. I should know better, but I still had to find out these obvious tips for myself. The second section of this book will be my day by day account of the walk itself. I am one voice of many, and I only did a section of the Via Francigena. Still, I hope my stumbles will be helpful or at least amusing. At the end of the book, I have a resource section with a list of blogs from folks who have done the walk along with a list of the places I liked.

This book is completely my experience. D and I did the walk as two people just doing a walk. We got up in the morning, put on our clothes, put on our shoes, put on our packs, drank some cappuccino, and walked six hundred kilometers (or four hundred miles) by putting one foot in front of the other day after day for a month. Not a bad way to travel.

All About You

Ciao Gentle Reader!

You probably have this book on your electronic reader because you are interested in walking the Via Francigena or thinking about traveling to Italy in a unique way. This section is for you. It is all about prep and practicalities.

Most folks fly or drive or take a train into Rome, but we wanted to walk into Rome. Yes, we had to go to Rome in one of the most difficult ways possible. It's fine if you want to fly, drive, or take a train into Rome. Rome is a great city, and I loved spending time there. Historical ruins sit next to modern buildings to remind us that the past can not be forgotten. The past is still standing in giant arches, coliseums, and churches. And the gelato is good.

So why is walking in Italy a good idea? Well, I made a list:

Reasons to walk in Italy for a month

It's Italy.

Great food, great wine, great cappuccino.

Beautiful scenery and great people or maybe great scenery and beautiful people.

You can walk into Rome. Yes, Rome. You can walk right up to the Vatican.

The Via Francigena is well-marked.

There is pilgrim accommodation along the way.

There are fewer pilgrims than on the Camino Frances in Spain.

Siena. Ah, Siena.

Did I mention the cappuccino?

Italy is Not Spain

I did a lot of things wrong in my preparation for the walk, and I did a lot right. The first thing I have to tell you is that Italy is not Spain. This might seem obvious, and yes, I knew Italy wasn't Spain when I started the walk. I had taken geography in school. I knew it would be different although Italy is on the euro like Spain. Italy has more people spread out over less space than Spain and a totally different vibe.

Italy is a more caffeinated country than Spain. Coming from America (also highly caffeinated), I was hoping for a more mellow Spanish vibe. I didn't get it. I had to find my own inner mellow. Still, I was able to slow down while drinking two cappuccinos daily.

After I walked to Santiago de Compostela in 2012, I felt like a rock star. Yes! I can walk! Hooray for me! I can do it all! I might have walked into Italy feeling like a rock star, but I stumbled out bumbling and mumbling (it was rather humbling). Italy was a harder walk for me, but I actually liked that Italy was different. I liked that good food was so important to people. I liked that the people expressed themselves. I liked the style and the opera and the laughter. If all the countries in Europe were the same, where would the fun be?

I recommend learning a bit of Italian. D and I got by with diplomacy, patience, gestures, and the good fortune that cappuccino is an Italian word. On the Via Francigena, you will be off the tourist track most of the time, and the language of Italy is Italian. Even though we sometimes lapsed into Spanish, the Italians we dealt with were kind and patient. As the walk went on, I got pretty good at ordering coffee and bar food. The Italian word for please is per favore, and the Italian word for thank you is grazie.

Another point about Italy vs Spain is that the infrastructure of the Via Francigena is a little different. The route is well-marked, but sometimes we walked a full day without going through a town or past a coffee bar. We carried more food than we had on the Camino Frances. We carried slices of prosciutto, fruit, crackers, chocolate wafers, and chocolate bars. We were able to find markets to restock.

When to Go

In comedy, timing is everything. In walking, time is just time. Other guidebooks can talk more specifically about the climate of specific months in specific Italian places. We were in Italy in October and November.

There were some advantages to walking Italy in autumn. Tuscany was not crowded. Many accommodations offered off-season rates even though many pilgrim accommodations were closed. There were colorful leaves on the trees as the seasons changed. It was pretty landscape.

There were many rainy days, but the days became warmer as we went farther south. Nights were cold, and we woke up some mornings in a room with cold everywhere. The cold was in the floor, the walls, our things laid out on empty cots. By the end, we were tired of the cold, and we would probably not do another walk so late in the year.

I did learn that the most popular time of year to visit Tuscany is May. Also, in Europe, August is the most popular month for holidays.

We were also in Italy during hunting season. We walked past hunters with guns and dogs and heard a few gunshots usually in the morning. Italian hunters were the best dressed hunters I have ever seen. Their olive green matched their camouflage.

Stuff

There was no bag transport service, so we had to keep our bags light. Even with a packing list, I over-packed. What was I thinking? I was thinking, I could carry one more jacket, I could carry another shirt, I might need that extra notebook. All those little things added up, and we sent a box of stuff back from Lucca.

We didn't need all the stuff we carried. This was not a new idea in my life. Since the Spain walk, I have felt better with less stuff around me and nervous among too much clutter. I have gotten rid of a lot of material things in my life and now only hold onto small things with value to me. Besides, at some point, I'm going to die, and I can't take it all with me.

Another great thing about carrying all your stuff is that you're not gonna buy cheap souvenirs or Tuscan pottery. You'll have to carry it. Is it really worth it? However, I noticed many pottery shops offered a shipping service.

So what did I carry? First of all, clothes. Because I'm female, I have to talk about clothes. I had two outfits. I had the clothes I walked in and the clothes I didn't walk in. My clothes were all fast drying (in theory). I didn't spend a lot of money on high end designer outdoor clothes. I went to outlet stores, cheap stores, and charity/thrift shops. I did spend money on good wool socks (I had five pairs with me) and underwear (quick drying sturdy stuff). Because it was autumn, we had extra layers of fleece and silk that we wouldn't carry in the summer. I also had a knit cap and knit gloves which I doubt you would need in summer.

For my feet, I wore a pair of waterproof hiking shoes. The shoes gave me support, but they weren't heavy. I carried a pair of light weight sneakers to wear in town after a day's walk. I also had a pair of flip flops for when I showered---in the offseason, the floors were cold.

I had the usual toiletries, a quick-drying towel, flashlight, journals. There were plenty of shops where I could restock toothpaste and shampoo. I also carried a computer tablet. Even though it added weight to the bag, it proved handy for booking accommodation with the aid of google translate.

I did not have a sleeping bag with me although D did. I had a silk bed liner which rolled up to something the size (but not weight) of a can of red bull. I would say ninety-five percent of the places we stayed at had wool blankets. Because in the off-season there were no other pilgrims in the accommodations, we could grab extra wool blankets off the empty beds. I also brought ear plugs but never used them. D and I do not use walking poles like many walkers.

D and I carried copies of the same guide book: The Light Foot Guide to the Via Francigena Vercelli to St. Peter's Square, Rome by Paul Chinn and Babette Gallard. I was able to order it from their website: http://pilgrimagepublications.com. I was glad I had a paper version of the book instead of having to pull out the tablet in the rain.

The guide book was helpful for planning our day's walk because it gave us alternate routes. Many times, we could walk fewer kilometers by sticking to the road instead of taking the path even though we had to be careful of cars. In addition to the guide book, I recommend carrying a map, gps, or compass to aid with navigation. I had a compass, and D had gps on his phone.

All these lovely items were in the same forty-six liter Osprey Hornet backpack I had carried on the Camino Frances. That bag got dropped hard onto pavement a few times, but it kept going. In the course of the walk, I got better at packing it. I always had the wafers and chocolate bars on top.

Food, Yum, Food

The food in Italy changed my life. Okay, maybe I exaggerate. The food in Italy is as great as everyone says. I never realized that pizza could be so sublime. I had always taken my pizza for granted. Fresh out of the oven pizza in Italy was on a whole other level. Was it the thin crispy crust? Was it the cheese? The pizzas weren't drenched with cheese. Instead, the pizzas had little clouds of mozzarella floating in a sky of tomato sauce. Was it the sauce? The sauce tasted like fresh tomatoes. How do the Italians grow their tomatoes? We ordered our pizzas with toppings like prosciutto or eggs or vegetables. All on a nice round plate served with harmony and symmetry. Such goodness had to be eaten with a knife and fork.

If you have walked in Spain, you are probably familiar with pilgrim menu dinners. These are three course meals served to pilgrims at local restaurants along the Camino. They usually only cost eight to ten euros. On the Via Francigena, we encountered fewer pilgrim menus. In fact, we only ate one pilgrim menu meal during the walk. Still, the food in the coffee bars is cheap. You will not starve in Italy.

You will eat it all, Gentle Reader, and the great thing about walking is that you will burn it all. Go ahead, eat the cannoli and spaghetti. Drink cappuccino and wine. I gave myself over to Italian food and actually lost weight. Go to Italy, embrace the chaotic and dramatic,