Tag: Camino

A view along the Tiber River with an ancient bridge and Saint Peter's dome in the background

Via Francigena Sud: 6 things you will want to know

Our Wanderlust 2 Comments

Introduction

We walked the Via Francigena Sud in May 2023, setting out southwards from Rome after researching options and seeking advice from local experts. We loved the walk and wrote a three-part account of it on this website. Since then, we’ve provided information to others interested in the route and thought we should share this more widely. We hope it piques your interest in walking the Via Francigena Sud and assists your planning.

1. What is the Via Francigena Sud?

The Via Francigena Sud is promoted as the newest, ancient pilgrimage. It’s based on the oldest known record of Christian pilgrimage, written in 333 CE by the Pilgrim of Bordeaux, who documented his return journey from the Holy Lands.

For centuries, the Via Francigena in southern Italy was a general route rather than a defined road, used by northern Europeans to walk south from Rome to the ports from where they sailed to the Holy Land.

The modern Via Francigena Sud opened in 2019 and extends from Rome to Santa Maria Di Leuca, the finis terrae of Italy. It’s a (mostly) well-marked route with guidebooks, apps, and GPS tracks to assist pilgrims. History abounds along the way. You’ll start soaking it up as soon as you step out on the Via Appia, a largely pedestrian path lined with Roman funerary monuments.

We enjoyed walking through history, exploring coastlines, rivers and mountains, and savouring delicious southern Italian food. Despite our lack of Italian, our many friendly interactions with locals were a real highlight.

Like many on this route, we had already walked the Via Francigena but when we returned home, we felt we had unfinished business in Italy. So, less than a year later, we set out southwards from Rome.

You can gain an insight into the experience of walking the Via Francigena Sud by reading our account of walking from Rome to the heel of Italy.

A selfie of Anna and Michael at the start of the Via Francigena Sud
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A pilgrim, red hair glowing in the morning sun, walks on the Via Francigena

Via Francigena: Walking into Tuscany

Our Wanderlust 21 Comments

After we leave the beautiful mountains of the Alps behind, we descend through the foothills of Piedmont and enter the flatlands of the Po Valley.

For hundreds of kilometres, we walk among flooded rice paddies and follow canals, past abandoned and now derelict Cascine, farm complexes where peasant families lived and worked their entire life under the control of the farm owner.

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Michael and Anna riding a single BMX bike along the Dover waterfront

Via Francigena: Crossing from Dover to Calais

Our Wanderlust 7 Comments

An officious French police chief, an unsung Ukrainian hero, a native of Dover shining a light into the gloom. It’s the people we meet that make this journey so fascinating. 

After the lightness and brightness of the Kent countryside, Dover strikes us as dour and down at heel. Even its young people seem world-weary and bereft of joy. But then, over a glass of excellent English white wine, our waiter, a native of Dover, tells us of his boyhood roaming the chalk hills and exploring the tunnels under Dover Castle. The wildness of it, the depth of its history and the rhythm of a port town with people constantly on the move is what makes Dover sing for him.

At border control in Dover, an officious French police chief upends our plan to ride our hastily acquired BMX onto the ferry. He argues that two people on one bicycle, one pedalling and the other standing on the back foot pegs, is not only dangerous but absolutely forbidden. We plead our case but he threatens to arrest us if we don’t desist.

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Michael and Anna starting the Via Francigena on Pilgrims Way

Via Francigena: The Beginning

Our Wanderlust 20 Comments

The Via Francigena is an ancient road and pilgrimage route from the English cathedral city of Canterbury to Rome, Italy’s Eternal City. The 2,000-kilometre way was first documented by Sigeric the Serious, Archbishop of Canterbury. In 990 AD he travelled to Rome and back for his consecration using a network of Roman roads originally constructed to facilitate trade and conquest. 

Just as Sigeric did, we start our journey at Canterbury Cathedral. In the hush of early evening, we stand with Canon Emma Pennington by the eternal candle that marks where Thomas Becket’s body once lay. She prays that on the hard days on the Via Francigena we find the perseverance and strength to continue and on the days that the sun shines and the birds sing we open our hearts to the world and know its beauty.

The towers of Canterbury Cathedral glow in the late afternoon sun against a deep blue sky
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Camino Mozarabe

In our Hearts

Our Wanderlust 2 Comments

In our Hearts is Anna’s successful entry in the 2021 competition, 100 Caminos 100 Stories.

In 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, the Chilean Friends of the Camino established a 100-word story competition to keep the spirit of the Camino alive and to lift the spirits of walkers around the globe. Anna’s entry Josef and the Silver Way was highly commended.

The competition was so successful that the Friends decided to run it again. Anna’s In our Hearts was selected for publication from the more than 600 entries received. 

In our hearts tells the story of an enduring friendship made on the Camino Mozarabe.

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Michael posing as a Climate Guardian against a backdrop of painted angel wings

Our Isolation Camino

Our Wanderlust 14 Comments

In Australia, in this time of isolation, all travel is banned. Marooned at home, we find ourselves yearning for the long-distance paths of Spain. Alluring, elusive, unattainable. Until a challenge goes out, to walk the Camino Inglés wherever you are in the world. A spark is ignited. We decide to walk it and transition, step by step, out of our state of restless confinement. 

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Close up of lighted candles in church

The Way of St James, Chemin de St Jacques, Part 3

Our Wanderlust 7 Comments

The final in a three-part series on walking the Way of St James. Starting in Le Puy-en-Velay, this ancient Way travels 750 km to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port where it merges with other pilgrimage routes, crosses the Pyrenees and continues a further 780 km through Spain to the holy city of Santiago de Compostela.

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Anna walking past a street-art forest scene in Decazeville

The Way of St James, Chemin de St Jacques, Part 2

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The Way of St James begins in Le Puy-en-Velay in the Haute-Loire and continues for 750 kilometres, through southern and south-western rural France to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in the foothills of the Pyrenees. From here it crosses the border into Spain and continues a further 780 km (or more depending on the route chosen) to the holy city of Santiago de Compostela.

This is the second in a three-part series on walking the Way of St James. Read More

Looking over a misty Lot River on the Way of St James

The Way of St James, Chemin de St Jacques, Part 1

Our Wanderlust 10 Comments

A wooden pilgrim shell, Way of St James

Early each morning, as they have for centuries, pilgrims gather in the romanesque Cathédral Notre-Dame-du-Puy to be blessed before starting their journey on the Way of St James, the oldest Camino de Santiago route outside of Spain. Down a flight of 60 steps, pausing to take a last look back at the imposing white and black striped facade of the cathedral, reminiscent of the great mosque of Cordoba, and onto an ancient trail first walked by Bishop Godescacl in the winter of 951 AD. Read More

A pilgrim approaching the hill town of Magacela on the Camino Mozarabe

Camino Mozarábe, Spain. Part 3: Córdoba to Mérida

Our Wanderlust 6 Comments

Three hundred and seventy plus kilometres from Almería to Córdoba on the fabled Camino Mozarábe. An injury. A rest day in Córdoba. Uncertainty in the air as we set out on the final stage of the journey to Mérida, the old Roman capital.

Córdoba to Mérida (246 km)

A singular woman in a bright red flamenco dress walks home from a late-night gig through the quiet, early morning streets of Córdoba. We catch a suburban bus bustling with Sunday hikers a few kilometres up through the forested hills to Cerro Muriano to lessen the impact of today’s long-distance on Michael’s injured tendon.  Read More