How A Via Francigena Pilgrimage Can Change Your Life

My Via Francigena Pilgrimage: The (Unexpected) Experience of a Lifetime

As many of you guys know, I’m a huge fan of walking. I regularly complete 10 to 15 km a day on foot, just getting around Berlin or whichever city I happen to be in. So when the opportunity arose to join (what I believed was) a traditional press trip following one of Europe’s oldest pilgrim routes, I thought, “why not!”

I was invited to participate in a modern-day version of the Via Francigena pilgrimage, walking through some of the most stunning parts of Tuscany and Lazio, Italy. Over 6 days, I was to see fortified villages, miles of vineyards, deep blue lakes and even roads laid by the Romans 2000 years ago.

This was a travel blogger’s dream. I could already see my Instagram feed filling up with gorgeous summer Italian shots. And walking 20+ km a day from village to village? Definitely not a problem!

But truthfully, I had NO idea what I was getting myself into.

In Context: What is the Via Francigena Pilgrimage?

The Via Francigena (pronounced franCHEEgena) is an ancient pilgrim route leading from Canterbury, England, to the Port of Apulia in Italy, where ships would leave for the Holy Land (modern-day Jerusalem). The name simply means “the French Route”, as it connects England to Italy through France.

Spanning 1,700 kilometres, this route passes through Rome. As such, it was often used by men of the cloth to walk to the Eternal City in the Middle Ages. Northern merchants wishing to reach Italy while avoiding pirate-fraught waters also took the Via Francigena to access distant parts of Italy.

An Archbishop of Canterbury, Sigeric, was the first to document his journey in the 990s, walking some 20 km a day for 80 days. But he was by no means the first person to undertake the trek – the name Francigena already appeared in abbey records over a century earlier.

Unlike typical Roman roads which bind cities, the Via Francigena pilgrimage connects abbeys, and thus meanders through some of Europe’s most beautiful rural scenery.

The Via Francigena Pilgrimage’s Modern-Day Appeal

Today, people undertake the Via Francigena pilgrimage for many different motivations, be it for religious reasons, for the adventure, for the physical challenge, to attempt a vow of silence, or simply, as it originally was in my case, to take beautiful pictures.

The route is managed by the European Association of the Via Francigena (EAVF). This is the organization that put together the #RoadtoRome2021 event I attended, a call for bloggers and journalists to walk sections of the Via Francigena in relay. Some members of the organization are actually walking the entire 1,700 km!