Camino from Bologna, Italy to Toulouse France

[Pelegrino]

Hello!

Does anyone know of a Camino from Bologna, Italy to Tolouse, France?

Would like to do a Camino next year. Thinking about starting in Lourdes and walking to Tolouse. From there I would either like to walk to St. Jeann to do the Camino Frances (did this in 2019), or walk to Bologna, Italy. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[DLJ]

Hello!

Does anyone know of a Camino from Bologna, Italy to Tolouse, France?

Would like to do a Camino next year. Thinking about starting in Lourdes and walking to Tolouse. From there I would either like to walk to St. Jeann to do the Camino Frances (did this in 2019), or walk to Bologna, Italy. Any help would be appreciated!

From Toulouse the Camino goes over the Pyrennes and joins the Camino Frances. You don't have to go to St. Jean Pied de Port.

 

[andycohn]

Hello!

Does anyone know of a Camino from Bologna, Italy to Tolouse, France?

Would like to do a Camino next year. Thinking about starting in Lourdes and walking to Tolouse. From there I would either like to walk to St. Jeann to do the Camino Frances (did this in 2019), or walk to Bologna, Italy. Any help would be appreciated!

Should be a piece of cake! Only about 1300 k from Toulouse to Bologna. Take the Arles camino east until it ends. Then you'll pick up the Via Aurelia, which eventually turns into the Via della Costa near the Italian border. Follow that down past Genova and through the Cinque Terre (I recommend the higher route to avoid the tourist throngs), eventually skirting La Spezia and hooking up with the Via Francigena at Sarzana. After a brief stint on the Via Francigena, you'll head east across the Apennines on various CAI trails, eventually hitting the Fiume di Reno, which you'll follow into Sasso Marconi, where you'll pick up the Via degli Dei for delivery to the Piazza Maggiore in the heart of Bologna.

Easy-peezy! Let us know how it goes.

Here's a gpx track to follow, courtesy of mapy.cz: https://mapy.cz/s/majapujula

 

[Pelegrino]

Oh wow! This is awesome! Thank you so much - this is very helpful!

 

[andycohn]

Oh wow! This is awesome! Thank you so much - this is very helpful!

When I saw your proposed (wild and crazy) journey, I put together that itinerary mostly for fun, not thinking anyone would really follow it.

BUT -- if you're really serious about it, I think it's readily doable, along the caminos I outlined, at least up to Sarzana on the Via Francigena. After that, however, I'm not sure I'd follow the hodgepodge of trails across the Apennines suggested by mapy.cz because there doesn't seem to be much in the way of services and places to stay.

Instead, if I were doing this wild journey myself, I'd probably elect to stay on the Via Francigena from Sarzana down to Lucca (awesome, wonderful small city by itself). At that point, I'd veer off onto the Cammino di San Jacopo over to Pistoia -- plainly shown on mapy.cz -- and from Pistoia I'd take the newly-marked Via Francesca della Sambuca. Here's a website, in English, devoted to it:
https://www.discoveraltorenoterme.it/the-via-francesca-della-sambuca/ Mapy.cz does not specifically label the route as the Via Sambuca, but it can easily be traced on it (or the tracking app. of your choice). Looks like you could also stay on the Cammino di San Jacopo past Pistoia and, a little north of Prato, you'd run into the Via della Lana e della Seta, which would take you directly into Bologna as well.

A further alternative for traversing the Apennines -- if you're not wedded to every f'ing inch -- would be to take the train from Lucca to Florence -- then picking up the Via degli Dei from Florence to Bologna, which is a wonderful and well-supported trail.

If you really undertake this journey, you MUST let us know how it went.

 

[andycohn]

My head's been spinning with the possibilities since I wrote the last post.

As it turns out, the Cammino di San Jacopo, which you'll pick up in Lucca, actually runs all the way to Florence, so no need to take a train from Lucca to Florence if you want to pick up the Via degli Dei up to Bologna.

So that makes 3 well-established trails -- the Sambuca, the Lana e Seta, and the Via degli Dei -- heading off from the San Jacopo across the Apennines into Bologna. Here's a great web site I found on the San Jacopo: https://www.ilcamminodisanjacopo.it/. (If you don't speak Italian, open it in google chrome for English translation).

But why stop in Bologna (even though it's my favorite city in the universe)? You could -- for example -- take the Sambuca trail to reach Bologna, then turn around and head back across the Apennines to Florence along the Via degli Dei. And then in Florence you pick up the Way of St. Frances, which would take you to La Verna, Assisi and ultimately to Rome. Once you get to Rome, of course, you re-join the Via Francigena, whose southern extension takes you all the way down to the heel of the boot.

Or --- follow the newly-created Sentiero Italia (7200 kilometers in all) either north from Bologna to the Dolomites and Alps, or south to the toe of the boot and thence across Sicily, with help from a ferry ride across the Straits of Messina.

The possibilities are endless!