Via Francigena

The Via Francigena is a 1300 year old, 2000 kilometre pilgrimage from Canterbury in the South East of England to Rome in the heart of Italy. Having only 90 days in which to cross (on foot) France, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia, I don’t have the luxury of being able to take the pilgrimage all the way through to Rome.

Staying in the north of Italy I will leave the route somewhere south of Milan, turning East toward Venice for several hundred kilometres and from there follow the coast along the Adriatic Sea toward Trieste.

I’m thinking that I may go east sooner and skip Italy altogether.

From Calais in the far north of France it is 785 kilometres to Sainte-Croux in the south where France borders Switzerland. I hope to cross France in no more than 30 days, with something closer to 20-25 being my goal.

Crossing into Switzerland I will head toward Lausanne, follow the bank of Lac Leman east until reaching its end at Montreux allowing me to head south again. In southern Switzerland I may cross back into France in order to walk nearer to Mont Blanc — Western Europe’s tallest mountain — before crossing into northern Italy.