LIVE from the Camino Practical observations from my October 2023 Via Francigena,

[J.Patrick]

Some well-meant observations, as I sit in the airport heading homeward, very open to your differing perspectives, from my southernmost Liguria to Tuscany to Lazio to Rome stages of the VF pilgrimage:

Contrary to warnings received from travel books, while credit cards were not universally accepted, I anecdotally suggest that 90% of places happily accepted them. This means you don’t have to carry huge amounts of Euros.

While my travel partner and I were more cautious in big or heavy tourist cities (Pisa, Lucca, San Gimignano Siena and Rome) we never felt threatened or insecure ever. We did encounter assertive Romani (I hope that’s the right, inoffensive term) in Rome.

Waymarking on the Via was sporadic: sometimes very good, often unhelpfully placed where you might not see it till you committed to a road/path. The Sloways app, however, worked beautifully for the Italian portion. Just be sure to download the maps for all the stages you intend to walk:
— Go to the hamburger button (the triple bar ≡ or trigram symbol ☰) when you first open the app. It’s in the upper left hand corner.
— Choose “Offline content”
— Choose Via Francigena Walking in Italy
— Choose the first stage you intend to walk.
— in the upper right hand corner of the screen is a logo that will allow you to download the map. Do so.
— Continue selecting each stage you intend to walk, one at a time, downloading each map.

The Via Francigena is referred to everywhere on placard’s explaining what it was and is, over and over, because of its effect on commerce. It’s not built into the architecture like it is on the various Caminos. There’s virtually no iconography, like the scallop shells or images of St. James on the buildings or in the churches. The relatively new icon of a pilgrim on red and white ribbons, often very faded, appears on signs, and wrapped around posts, but often not when you need them, or at “Y” junctions, between the two possibilities, leaving you wondering which branch is intended. Use the app, and it’s very helpful and accurate geo-locating function that identifies your location and the correct trail to help you stay on track.

There is no substitute for caution, but I found Italian drivers, very respectful at crosswalks, slowing down if you look like you’re going to Cross. Rome is a separate beast.

Cheaper eats are found at sandwich shops and pizzerias. If going to a restaurant, you don’t need to order antipasti, primi and secundi. You can order one of these with contorni, that is vegetables which aren’t always listed on the menu. Just ask.

Italians, even those who don’t speak English, are inclined to help. If you have questions, ask. If you speak Spanish, try Spanish — it doesn’t always work but it did enough to smooth my way. Italians do not all speak English nor should they have to. It’s their country. If one English word doesn’t work, try an alternative. It’s worth learning how to count up to 20 in Italian.

Do be polite on Italian terms: Start every conversation with every service person politely with “good day” or “good evening” / “buongiorno” or “buonasera.” I’m an American, and I know that our tendency is to go straight to business. It’s not received well in many other places. As the saying goes, “when in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

The word for sello, or stamp, in Italian, is timbro. The pilgrim passport is a credenziale. The Compostela is a Testimonium. And yes, you need to walk 100 km to receive it. My experience in St. Peter’s was that they didn’t check my credenziale at all and had me fill out the testimonium myself.

Walking in October may have decreased tourists/pilgrims, but there were still many of us in Pisa, Luca, San Gimignano and Siena at the beginning of the month. The Vatican, at the end of the month, was still completely mobbed. By 11:00 am the line to get into St. Pater’s wrapped complete around the huge plaza, snaking as it went. Incredible. As a pilgrim, do not wait in the line. They let you through at the security gate if you show your credenciale and ask where to obtain your testimonium. You earned it.

I stayed at 2 star hotels and agriturismos so I have little to say about pilgrim accommodations. I have a CPAP machine and always found a plug close to my bed to keep it working throughout the night.

 

[High Endeavours]

Good summary of your walk J.Patrick! Sounds like you had a great time.

I walked the Francigena last year August through October and I saw only about 6 other people walking prior to Italy. While there were a few more in Northern Italy it really wasn't until after reaching Lucca that I began to see a small increase in walkers. This is pretty standard on the VF because Lucca (about 400km from Rome) is where many people begin their walk. So, if you like a quiet solo walk, and I do, then this route is made for you! The local people are wonderful and they happily let you practice their language. On the Italian portion there isn't very much English spoken in most small places north of Lucca. Once you reach Lucca you will encounter more English, particularly in the main cities like Seville which of course receive large numbers of tourists. It's a brilliant journey made even better if you are able to develop some basic French and Italian language skills before you start. There are pilgrim accommodations, but these are more difficult to locate in France, ie., not like on the Le Puy and Arles routes. Switzerland is very expensive, but there are IYH's and small hotels, but in Italy there are a wide range of accommodations available including albergue type places. There is an excellent official app available for the entire route developed by the European Association of Vie Francigene complete with the GPS tracks, accommodations and many other details. Their website has a tremendous amount of information and I believe that it's the best place to begin your research and planning.

Introduction - Via Francigena

THE VIA FRANCIGENA The history During Early Middle Ages, around the 7th century, the Lombards competed with Byzantines for the Italian territory. The strategic necessity to connect the Reign of […]

www.viefrancigene.org

Another good resource is Sandy Brown's 3 part guide series published by Cicerone Press which are current and very helpful. There is also a very good Facebook group page. It's a brilliant walk in whole or in part!

 

[Rex]

I used Gronze.com and All Trails apps this past September to walk from Martigny, SW to Lucca, IT. Note well -- Gronze.com doesn't start until the top of the GSB Pass and continues on the route to Rome. Using these offline resources makes navigating the route much safer/easier than it was in the past.
The official trail has had some changes to it (made for safety reasons by locals, according to one hotel owner), particularly in the Val d'Aosta, both on the descent from GSP Pass and at a few places between Aosta and Ivrea. So, there are a number of "old" VF markings or signs at intersections where the "new" route deviates from the path my guidebook suggested. I generally stayed with the route that All Trails and Sloways suggested, as the two of them seemed to mostly agree.

NOTE: It's very tough on the VF organization(s) to keep up with what the locals are doing (like a farmer who put up "NO ENTRY" signage and planted a huge rice field across the VF route), but in this case, the locals have done yeoman's work in designing a "new" passage that only adds one KM to that stage. Unfortunately, several hundred yards of the detour are on a busy highway with almost no verge. My host that evening told me they are working on an alternative route that keeps pilgrims off the highway, but that takes time to work out... the effective motto for these local organizations seems to be "make haste, but slowly".
Buon Cammino

 

[Bob from L.A. !]

Great write up and you were "Spot-on" throughout.
The VF is certainly a different Camino than any other I have ever walked, but well worth the efforts.
Going back to walk Rome to Santa Maria di Leuca.

 

[J.Patrick]

Great write up and you were "Spot-on" throughout.
The VF is certainly a different Camino than any other I have ever walked, but well worth the efforts.
Going back to walk Rome to Santa Maria di Leuca.

Thanks Bob. Your posts were very helpful and encouraging to me before I left.

 

[duncanwhyte]

I think it's the difference between the host nations and the various regions you traverse on a walk. The Camino infrastructures are similar, but handled individually by the people running them. Tuning into the way Italians do things.

Whilst I was walking the VF, out in the farmland, it seemed to me to be like English Downland. Open tops with fields and grazing. Descending into small coppices and streams. Not unlike The Ridgeway or South Downs Way.

I went from Lucca to Rome and it was generally easy to see the signage. I used the VF app and it was accurate enough for GPS.

Traffic in Rome? Try Naples.

I also used the cicerone guidebook and it was sufficient. But I found that the Germans have quite comprehensive guidebooks. A lot more detail and accommodation lists. Wherever I found a presence of Germans the situation offered good value for money. Slightly more cost but you got a lot more in return. Zer gut.

 

[Bob from L.A. !]

On the topic of signage; It was amazingly good in Switzerland and Italy.
One could navigate in both countries with their eyes closed.

 

[Septarian]

Some well-meant observations, as I sit in the airport heading homeward, very open to your differing perspectives, from my southernmost Liguria to Tuscany to Lazio to Rome stages of the VF pilgrimage:

Contrary to warnings received from travel books, while credit cards were not universally accepted, I anecdotally suggest that 90% of places happily accepted them. This means you don’t have to carry huge amounts of Euros.

While my travel partner and I were more cautious in big or heavy tourist cities (Pisa, Lucca, San Gimignano Siena and Rome) we never felt threatened or insecure ever. We did encounter assertive Romani (I hope that’s the right, inoffensive term) in Rome.

Waymarking on the Via was sporadic: sometimes very good, often unhelpfully placed where you might not see it till you committed to a road/path. The Sloways app, however, worked beautifully for the Italian portion. Just be sure to download the maps for all the stages you intend to walk:
— Go to the hamburger button (the triple bar ≡ or trigram symbol ☰) when you first open the app. It’s in the upper left hand corner.
— Choose “Offline content”
— Choose Via Francigena Walking in Italy
— Choose the first stage you intend to walk.
— in the upper right hand corner of the screen is a logo that will allow you to download the map. Do so.
— Continue selecting each stage you intend to walk, one at a time, downloading each map.

The Via Francigena is referred to everywhere on placard’s explaining what it was and is, over and over, because of its effect on commerce. It’s not built into the architecture like it is on the various Caminos. There’s virtually no iconography, like the scallop shells or images of St. James on the buildings or in the churches. The relatively new icon of a pilgrim on red and white ribbons, often very faded, appears on signs, and wrapped around posts, but often not when you need them, or at “Y” junctions, between the two possibilities, leaving you wondering which branch is intended. Use the app, and it’s very helpful and accurate geo-locating function that identifies your location and the correct trail to help you stay on track.

There is no substitute for caution, but I found Italian drivers, very respectful at crosswalks, slowing down if you look like you’re going to Cross. Rome is a separate beast.

Cheaper eats are found at sandwich shops and pizzerias. If going to a restaurant, you don’t need to order antipasti, primi and secundi. You can order one of these with contorni, that is vegetables which aren’t always listed on the menu. Just ask.

Italians, even those who don’t speak English, are inclined to help. If you have questions, ask. If you speak Spanish, try Spanish — it doesn’t always work but it did enough to smooth my way. Italians do not all speak English nor should they have to. It’s their country. If one English word doesn’t work, try an alternative. It’s worth learning how to count up to 20 in Italian.

Do be polite on Italian terms: Start every conversation with every service person politely with “good day” or “good evening” / “buongiorno” or “buonasera.” I’m an American, and I know that our tendency is to go straight to business. It’s not received well in many other places. As the saying goes, “when in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

The word for sello, or stamp, in Italian, is timbro. The pilgrim passport is a credenziale. The Compostela is a Testimonium. And yes, you need to walk 100 km to receive it. My experience in St. Peter’s was that they didn’t check my credenziale at all and had me fill out the testimonium myself.

Walking in October may have decreased tourists/pilgrims, but there were still many of us in Pisa, Luca, San Gimignano and Siena at the beginning of the month. The Vatican, at the end of the month, was still completely mobbed. By 11:00 am the line to get into St. Pater’s wrapped complete around the huge plaza, snaking as it went. Incredible. As a pilgrim, do not wait in the line. They let you through at the security gate if you show your credenciale and ask where to obtain your testimonium. You earned it.

I stayed at 2 star hotels and agriturismos so I have little to say about pilgrim accommodations. I have a CPAP machine and always found a plug close to my bed to keep it working throughout the night.

Cpap comment appreciated!

 

[Karl Oz]

Agree with most of what the OP said, particularly with respect to signage. I found the need to book accommodation a couple of days ahead disappointing, but it is just a fact of life on this route. Sandy Brown's book was a help but is not exhaustive so use Gronze as a valuable back-up. I would also suggest confirming the location of places to stay suggested in the book. One place I reserved was 5 km out of town, and not on the via!

 

[Rex]

One place I reserved was 5 km out of town, and not on the via!

Oh, my. I did reserve a place that appeared to be only 2 km off the VF in Switzerland (Vevey), only to discover that the elevation was almost 300 meters above town, way up on the hillside above Lac Leman. The views were great, but I was not appreciative of them until after I'd had a restorative libation on the patio. Last time I have booked without checking the "topo" map as well as the distance. :>(