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Need Advice Siena to Rome on Via Francigena

David Manzo

Active Member
Time of past OR future Camino
Camino Portugese (2018)
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
 
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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 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.
Accommodation options depend on your walking style but it is tourist season & Tuscany is an extremely popular region. You will also encounter quite a few VF walkers...nothing compared to CF numbers but 'crowded' by long-haul VF standards.
I had no problems with way marking/directions through the region but once again, my perception is influenced by the issues I encountered on the VF as a whole.
Don't expect any fanfare on arriving at the Vatican. After walking over 2100km, my testimonial was handed to me with only one word spoken... 'credenziale?' Any recognition of your achievement must come from within! 😁
Oh...& if you're a hayfever sufferer, your medication will be put to the test; I was on double dose tablets & still couldn't tame the beast! 🤧 😄 If the weather is 'normal' you can expect hot & dry conditions at that time.
Happy planning.
👣 🌏
 
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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:
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!
 
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I have yet to get as far as Siena but in general the via francigena is a different type of pilgrim way compared to the popular camino routes. The way marking is at the lower end of adequate in some sections and either a guide or gps is needed. The number of pilgrims is lower. And knowledge of locals about the route existence is much more limited than the caminnos in Spain. Accommodation options are much less especially compared with Camino Frances and pilgrim oriented hostels in Italy are smaller and range from basic to comfortable. It needs a little more independent and active approach than many of the busier Camino routes.
 
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!
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.
 
We 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.
 
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I walked Siena to Rome a couple of years ago. It was beautiful and interesting and the food is, of course. Wonderful. I used the company, Follow the Camino/one foot abroad to book accommodations and send my suitcase forward as I was travelling around Italy for a few weeks as well. It was about 14 days, I believe. Shenda O'hare at the company was so kind and helpful in my planning. I occasionally met others on the trail but generally only met others in the evenings. Follow the Camino website had some good information and maps for planning.
 
We walked Sienna to Rome from September 17 to October 2 last year. Walked 16 days, no rest days. The weather was great. Stayed mostly in small hotels. Generally easier than the CdS Frances route (no Pyrenees). The route is not terribly well marked but you can get the tracks at the website MikeC suggested above and load them into any of a number of map sites, such as Maps.me or MotionX GPS. We saw very few other pilgrims most of the time. The walking in Tuscany was generally spectacular; Lazio less so. There are a number of guidebooks available; we used Alberto Fiorin's La Via Francigena a Piedi - 3, which was outstanding, but is in Italian and I don't think there is an English version. Food, of course, was fantastic. I second the comment above about there not being a lot of opportunities to buy snacks or lunch; you should look at the map and plan accordingly. We had a wonderful time and walked from further north down to Sienna this year.
 
Hi,

We walked from Montefiascone to Rome in September and organised everything ourselves staying at B&Bs and small hotels all booked through Booking.com

We had a similar experience. Booking.com was the easier solution in most cases, avoiding to call the hosts in Italian. Not the cheapest one in some occasions, such as the religious accommodation in Viterbo, comparable to a hotel, available on booking.com but without their pilgrim special rate. Same for some B&Bs.

Overall a great experience, fantastic food as mentioned...
 
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We 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.
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
 
@MikeC
I searched a little further but on this forum and found posts by @kiwiDavid with files for that section

I’ve tried downloading them. It was quick so I hope I’ve done it right. Each file opens with option to ‘open file in maps.me
So I took that option.

See pic below -I now have this now coming up on my maps me.
So looks okay ?

I was advised to get ‘sloways’ on my phone but I just didn’t want another app.
I’ve always been happy with maps.me

Annie
 

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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
Hello Annie,
I did use maps.me but just dropped pins for key locations such as start and end points of my proposed stages, and interesting places to explore enroute. i also used it to find out where i was in relation to my gps track (see below)

I downloaded gps files from here https://www.viefrancigene.org/en/mappe/
for each stage and loaded them into a separate gps viewing app on my iphone.
This meant that i had to switch between apps but that proved ok.
Several of the stages described in the hard copy guide have alternative routes and detours, and only one of those shows as the gps track for that stage. This makes for some interesting navigation
Mike
 
Very light, comfortable and compressible poncho. Specially designed for protection against water for any activity.

Our Atmospheric H30 poncho offers lightness and waterproofness. Easily compressible and made with our Waterproof fabric, its heat-sealed interior seams guarantee its waterproofness. Includes carrying bag.

€60,-
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
 
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
Not long to go now before you start.
enjoy the pilgrimage
Mike
 

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