Reality in 23 days with a 12-year-old

[Dc8-63]

Hello from Australia. We have four weeks in September-October 2016, say just over three weeks walking with travel to and from, and need best advice on best start point to finish Via Francigina in Rome for a reasonably fit mid-aged couple with a 12-year-old. Happy to book private accommodation in advance. Would like to avoid main roads and crowds as much as possible. All advice most welcome.
Thank you!

 

[jirit]

Arrive and start in Lucca.

Takes approx 19 days to reach Rome from Lucca and Lucca is both an excellent gateway for the VF and a great city to visit. There are a couple of longish sections through the last section of Tuscany before reaching Lazio, so you might want to break these into a couple of shorter sections - thus 21 days in total should be fine.

Mid Sept to mid October is a great time to walk this section too

You can use the extra week to visit Lucca (spend an extra day or two getting over the jet lag) and see some of Rome.

 

[Dc8-63]

Thanks so much. Great advice. I will do some more research.
Best wishes

 

[Annette london]

Hello from Australia. We have four weeks in September-October 2016, say just over three weeks walking with travel to and from, and need best advice on best start point to finish Via Francigina in Rome for a reasonably fit mid-aged couple with a 12-year-old. Happy to book private accommodation in advance. Would like to avoid main roads and crowds as much as possible. All advice most welcome.
Thank you!

Hello, that sounds like good advice from jirit. We walked part of the VF 2 years ago-- in a heatwave! Started in vercelli where the rice fields are and the mosquitos nearly ate us!! Also there was a lot of road walking, sometimes along busy roads. The scenery over the appenines was lovely though.no crowds however and we only met about 5 other pilgrims. The local people we met were wonderful-- kind and generousLuca is indeed a lovely city but we found it very crowded and only stayed one night at the lovely youth hostel in the centre. One of the pilgrims we met contacted us afterwards and said the section from Luca was very scenic and few pilgrims travelling. We hope to walk the Lucca to Rome section ourselves in the near future. Hope you enjoy your trip. Best wishes Annette

 

[Dc8-63]

Thanks so much, Annette. Really great advice.