Tag: Italy

The golden glow of west wall of the Civetta at sunset from Rifugio Tissi

The Dream Way, Part 2

Our Wanderlust 2 Comments

Munich to Venice on the Dream Way: Part 2 (Italy)

Prologue

We’re halfway through the Dream Way (Traumpfad), a 600-kilometre walk from Munich to Venice across the eastern Alps. The German and Austrian Alps tested us with wild storms, unseasonal snow, and slopes so steep that wires and ladders are fixed to assist safe passage. They also provided us with magnificent walking and breathtaking views of some of Europe’s most majestic landscapes. Thirteen days and 265 kilometres later, we crossed the border to Italy.

The Dolomites await. They’re a Natural World Heritage Site famed for their unparalleled beauty and challenging topography. Our first stop will be Pfunders, and from there we’ll start winding our way across the Dolomites. Our final mountain range will be the Belluno Pre-alps, after which we’ll descend to the Piave River and walk across the plains to Venice. We’re pleased that we’ve made it this far, but cognisant of the arduous terrain and high mountain passes ahead. 

Anna and Michael enjoy a wine with the the Marmolada massif behind them
Read More
A Dream Way walker hauling himself up a vegetated mountain slope with the aid of a fixed cable

The Dream Way, Part 1

Our Wanderlust 7 Comments

Munich to Venice on the Dream Way: Part 1 (Germany & Austria)

Prologue

It’s the allure of walking into dreamlike Venice that entices us to set out from Munich on the Dream Way (the Traumpfad). For the German walkers we meet, it’s the desire to make a pilgrimage across the Alps, their spiritual homeland.

The 600-kilometre walk passes through three countries: Germany, Austria and Italy. It traverses the Bavarian Pre-alps, the Karwendel Alps, and the Tux Alps. Crossing the Italian border, it enters the Pfunderer Valley before winding across the Dolomites. Finally, it climbs the Belluno Pre-alps before descending to the Piave River plains and on to Venice. 

The alpine walking season is brief. Start too early, and the high passes are still covered with snow. Start too late, and the alpine huts will be closing for the winter. The conditions were perfect when we set out in early July, but even so, wild, erratic weather forced us to deviate from our planned route on several occasions.  

This isn’t a walk for the faint-hearted, with 27,000 metres of ascent. Often steep, it sometimes requires the use of fixed wires and ladders to ensure a safe passage. Most of the walk follows existing routes; there is no designated ‘Munich to Venice’ footpath as such. In the words of the poet, Antonio Machado: Wanderer, your footprints are the path, and nothing else; wanderer, there is no path, the path is made by walking. 

What follows is an account of our 34 days on the Dream Way: many of them challenging, and staggeringly beautiful. 

A map of the Dream Way / der Traumpfad route from Munich to Venice
Read More
Anna walking a winding dirt road towards Sutera nestled at the foot of Mount San Paolino

Magna Via Francigena, Sicily

Our Wanderlust 44 Comments

A last wander along the shoreline before we turn inland to walk across the mountains and plains of Sicily on the Magna Via Francigena. Fishermen mending their nets. A large-scale mural; a memorial to the magistrates Falcone and Borsellino, both assassinated by the Mafia. It is bold in its presence and tender in its rendering.

Read More
Michel walks past a wall covered with graffiti including the text BUON CAMMINO

Finis Terrae: to the end of the earth on the Via Francigena Sud

Our Wanderlust 15 Comments

Waves breaking on the rocky shore. Pebbles sighing. Ferries plying the waters of the Adriatic. Fishing boats out at sea. We’re walking the Via Francigena Sud, a 950-kilometre route following the ancient Appian Way southwards from Rome. After walking through Lazio and across the mountains of Campania, we arrive in the port city of Bari. From here, we’ll hug the coastline until we reach Santa Maria di Leuca on the southernmost tip of the Salento peninsula, where the Adriatic and the Ionian Sea meet.

Read More
Four French pilgrims pose with Anna and Michael for a selfie on the Via Francigena Sud

Apennines to the Adriatic, Via Francigena Sud

Our Wanderlust 8 Comments

We wake to the deep silence of the contemplative Monastery of Santa Catarina. There’s heavy rain forecast and it comes early. The beautiful Trebulani Mountains are lost to us. We’re walking the Via Francigena Sud, a 950 km route following the Appian Way southwards from Rome. After 10 days in Lazio, we turn inland towards the mountainous Campania.

Read More
A lone walker strides out along a tree-lined rural road

Ten Days in Lazio, Via Francigena Sud

Our Wanderlust 22 Comments

One fine spring morning, we stepped out to walk the Via Francigena Sud. It’s a 950-kilometre route following the ancient Appian Way from Rome to Santa Maria di Leuca. Emperors, poets and popes have gone before us, as have pilgrims and crusaders bound for the Holy Land.

Read More
On the Via Francigena, pilgrim walks along a ridgetop track towards a lone tree on the horizon

Six things you need to know about the Via Francigena

Our Wanderlust 22 Comments

1. Why would anyone want to walk 2,000 km?

It’s a very good question and one that we asked ourselves when we met Helaine on the Via de la Plata in 2008. She had started and intended to finish the Via Francigena. To be honest, we thought it a crazy notion.

Then, towards the end of 2021, after two years of COVID lockdowns and restrictions, we started wondering how we should respond to the constraints; sometimes we hadn’t been able to walk further than 5 km from our home (Melbourne, Australia). As we talked, it became clear that to put COVID-19 behind us we needed to walk, and the further the better. Helaine and the Via Francigena re-entered our consciousness. To walk 2,000 km over three months through five countries felt like the appropriate way to embrace a newly re-opened world.

Read More
Looking back on the Via degli Dei, a Medici villa sits high on a ridge, highlighted by the sun

Via degli Dei (Path of Gods), Italy

Our Wanderlust 17 Comments

Late one summer, we set out to walk the Via degli Dei, an ancient pathway travelled since the time of the Etruscans. The 130-kilometre-long path crosses the beautiful Apennines, linking Bologna with Florence. It threads through forests, across mountain ridges and in and out of old Italian villages.

Pagan divinities give names to the mountains that the route crosses; Adonis, Jupiter, Venus and Lua, the goddess of atonement. They also give the route its name; the Path of Gods. 

Read More
A pilgrim on the Via Francigena walks past a mural depicting pilgrims walking to Rome

Via Francigena: All Roads Lead to Rome

Our Wanderlust 18 Comments

In Tuscany, all the roads to Rome converge. After walking by ourselves for 1,600 kilometres, we become part of a loose band of pilgrims that coalesces, embracing solitude by day and sociability in the evenings. 

Read More
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.

Read More