David Manzo
Active Member
- Dec 29, 2017
- 122
- 373
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Camino Portugese (2018)
I walked from London to Rome commencing March this year. I arrived in Siena 8th June & took 12 days from there to Rome. I was pretty exhausted by that stage so a bit hard to view it from a 'fresh legs' aspect but I can't see you would need rest days for a walk of that length...any taken would be for interests sake.Looking to walk from Siena to Rome in June. Would love to hear of your experiences. How many days? If you took rest days where and why? Lodging (looking for private room)? Comparisons to Caminos that end In Santiago? Any and all advice welcome. Thanks
I hiked La Via Francigena in 2015 from Viterbo, but it became quite a misadventure, as can be seen in my video, here:Looking to walk from Siena to Rome in June. Would love to hear of your experiences. How many days? If you took rest days where and why? Lodging (looking for private room)? Comparisons to Caminos that end In Santiago? Any and all advice welcome. Thanks
Possibly the lesson from that is to plan your own days and route using a guidebook or one of the excellent apps, then you're not tied to a timetable or slavishly following instructions. I found the signage in Lazio absolutely adequate. I too walked Canterbury to Rome. Siena to Rome took ten days.I hiked La Via Francigena in 2015 from Viterbo, but it became quite a misadventure, as can be seen in my video, here:Perhaps it was my fault due to my relative inexperience and lack of technological assistance. But I found it far more difficult to navigate, compared to the Camino. Signage was not sufficient in Italy and I found myself routed onto dangerous roads by the company that provided my accommodations and directions. Once I felt dangerously pinned between guardrail and speeding cars, only 18 inches away from me. I don't want to discourage hiking Via Francigena, but it provides far less pilgrim infrastructure, in my humble opinion. Safe travels!
We walked from Montefiascone to Rome in September and organised everything ourselves staying at B&Bs and small hotels all booked through Booking.com
MikeWe walked from Montefiascone to Rome in September and organised everything ourselves staying at B&Bs and small hotels all booked through Booking.com
I used this website https://www.viefrancigene.org/en/mappe/ to download gps tracks of the route so that if and when we went off track, which did happen a couple of times, we could easily see how to correct things. I also had the hard copy guidebook from the same organisation.
There are a number of alternative route options available to you as you go along, some involving quite a bit of extra mileage. Some of the newer options have more prominent markings than the originaal route so you do need to be alert at those points. EG The newer and longer way out of Sutri diverges at the amphitheater and crosses the main road whilst the less well marked old route continues around the back of the amphitheater.
The waymarkings often don't have arrows and are sometimes simply attached to the most convenient post or piece of street furniture at a junction. Take a moment to positively decide which way to go. It's easy to find oneself heading back down the alternative merging route and not realise this because of the lack of arrows.
We found it a quiet route, only seeing 16 other walking pilgrims in 8 days, and there are also few oportunites to buy snacks and replenish water between stage nodes.
The Italians we met were enthusiastic and helpful, especially the Swiss Guards at the Vatican, and the overall pleasure and sense of satisfaction was instrumental in our deciding to walk to to Assisi next year.
In summary, you need to be more self sufficient and to be better able to route plan than for the Caminos in Spain.
Hello Annie,Mike
I’m struggling with tracks for Via Francigena (Siena to Rome )
Can you help ? How do you get the tracks in a kml file to send to my email so that I can download them onto maps.me. Or onto the map on VF site
I have tracks for spain on maps me but need help with VF
Thanks
Annie
Not long to go now before you start.Thanks Mike
I did manage to get the tracks from the post by Kiwidavid. For some reason I found those files easier for me
Thanks for all your work.
Annie