BobM
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- V Frances; V Podensis; V Francigena; V Portugues; V Francigena del Sud; Jakobsweg. Jaffa - Jerusalem
I found a useful guidebook to the Via Francigena del Sud from Rome to Brindisi and also some useful maps.
The Guidebook is “La Via Francigena nel Sud - Un percorso di 700 km da Roma a Brindisi” It is available on Amazon. It is in Italian. I read very little Italian, but the book is still useful as a planning tool. The journey is divided into 23 stages to Bari and 28 to Brindisi. Both ports are convenient to catch ferries to Greece if you plan to continue to Jerusalem.
Each stage has a map (1cm = 1km), elevation chart, navigating notes, notes on the difficulty of the stage, where to eat and where to sleep (2 or 3 places only).
The navigating notes are descriptive only; there are no waypoints or intermediate distances mentioned. There is a website that covers each stage (http://www.viefrancigenedelsud.it/it/resource/statictrack/category/francigena-del-sud/ ) where you can download a GPS file for each stage. That would be useful to supplement the navigating notes in the book. The skimpy navigating notes are the weak point of the book. They are fairly general and descriptive of things to see along the way.
The book is not ideal, but is the only one I could find after limited research. There is nothing in English that I could find.
The other maps are the Michelin 1:200,000 (1cm = 2km) series. You need numbers 360 (Lazio), 362 (Campania, Basilicata) and 363 (Puglia). They are very detailed and useful. Maps of 1:50,000 would be better, but there are more of them to carry.
I have not walked the route yet; I am still in the planning phase of my walk. So I can’t say if the navigational notes are useful or not.
What I intend to do is to use my very limited Italian (and Google Translate) to extract whatever I can from the navigation notes to supplement the GPS data. I also will research additional accommodation for the places I intend to stay to supplement the few listed in the guidebook.
Anyway, I hope this is useful for others thinking of walking the VF del Sud.
BobM
The Guidebook is “La Via Francigena nel Sud - Un percorso di 700 km da Roma a Brindisi” It is available on Amazon. It is in Italian. I read very little Italian, but the book is still useful as a planning tool. The journey is divided into 23 stages to Bari and 28 to Brindisi. Both ports are convenient to catch ferries to Greece if you plan to continue to Jerusalem.
Each stage has a map (1cm = 1km), elevation chart, navigating notes, notes on the difficulty of the stage, where to eat and where to sleep (2 or 3 places only).
The navigating notes are descriptive only; there are no waypoints or intermediate distances mentioned. There is a website that covers each stage (http://www.viefrancigenedelsud.it/it/resource/statictrack/category/francigena-del-sud/ ) where you can download a GPS file for each stage. That would be useful to supplement the navigating notes in the book. The skimpy navigating notes are the weak point of the book. They are fairly general and descriptive of things to see along the way.
The book is not ideal, but is the only one I could find after limited research. There is nothing in English that I could find.
The other maps are the Michelin 1:200,000 (1cm = 2km) series. You need numbers 360 (Lazio), 362 (Campania, Basilicata) and 363 (Puglia). They are very detailed and useful. Maps of 1:50,000 would be better, but there are more of them to carry.
I have not walked the route yet; I am still in the planning phase of my walk. So I can’t say if the navigational notes are useful or not.
What I intend to do is to use my very limited Italian (and Google Translate) to extract whatever I can from the navigation notes to supplement the GPS data. I also will research additional accommodation for the places I intend to stay to supplement the few listed in the guidebook.
Anyway, I hope this is useful for others thinking of walking the VF del Sud.
BobM