VIA FRANCIGENA

And so, my next pilgrimage is soon to begin.  This year I will walk into the Holy city of Rome in October, almost a year to the date I arrived in Santiago de Conpostela!  Although my current plan calls for a shorter trek, it will certainly be a challenging adventure as 1) I am starting this walk alone 2) Although limited, my Spanish vocabulary far  out weighed  my current Italian .....Bring on DuoLingo!..... And 3) Well, the Via Francigena offers a far different infrastructure from the Camino of last year......

My flight to Rome will leave home, Seattle, on the 22nd of September arriving around 9 AM the next day.  I'll collect my trusty  back pack and head for the traíns, north to Lucca.  Once in this famous walked city I'll lay low the rest of the day, and the  next, letting my body adjust and soaking in the remarkable history of this 2000 year old hilltop town!  September 25th I am Off!

As some  of you have asked, here is a short history of the VF as snagged from Wikipedia:

The Via Francigena [ˈviːa franˈtʃiːdʒena] is the common name of an ancient road and pilgrim route running from France to Rome, though it is usually considered to have its starting point much further away, in the English cathedral city of Canterbury. As such, the route passes through England, France, Switzerland and Italy. The route was known in Italy as the "Via Francigena" ("the road that comes from France") or the "Via Romea Francigena" ("the road to Rome that comes from France").^[1] In mediaeval times it was an important road and pilgrimageroute for those wishing to visit the Holy See and the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul.

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History of the pilgrimage to RomeEdit

Sign showing the path near Ivrea, Piedmont, Italy.

In the Middle Ages, Via Francigena was the major pilgrimage route to Rome from the north. The route was first documented as the "Lombard Way", and was first called the Iter Francorum (the "Frankish Route") in the Itinerarium sancti Willibaldi of 725, a record of the travels of Willibald, bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria. It was "Via Francigena-Francisca" in Italy and Burgundy, the "Chemin des Anglois" in the Frankish Kingdom (after the evangelisation of England in 607) and also the "Chemin Romieux", the road to Rome.^{[citation needed]}

The name Via Francigena is first mentioned in the Actum Clusio, a parchment of 876 in the Abbey of San Salvatore al Monte Amiata (Tuscany).^[2]

At the end of the 10th century Sigeric the Serious, the Archbishop of Canterbury, used the Via Francigena to and from Rome in order to receive his pallium;^[3] he recorded his route and his stops on the return journey,^[4] but nothing in the document suggests that the route was then new.