Tag: Italy

A lone pilgrim walks down a winding path on the Via Francigena in Tuscany

Podcast: Our Via Francigena Journey

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This podcast invites you to dive deeper into our 2,000-kilometre walking journey from Canterbury to Rome on the Via Francigena. We hope it gives you a taste of our adventures en route and encourages you to read our illustrated stories (see links below).

Google NotebookLM distilled three months of walking into a 7-minute podcast after we pasted links to our stories into the program. In a few minutes, it produced a Deep Dive podcast. The podcast including the voices, structure and conversational style were all generated by AI. We’re impressed enough to share the podcast with you.

Podcast: our Via Francigena journey

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Anna walking a winding dirt road towards Sutera nestled at the foot of Mount San Paolino

Magna Via Francigena, Sicily

Our Wanderlust 34 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 15 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. 

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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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