For the past few years, I have spent part of my summers walking various pilgrimages. This year, I chose to walk the Italian portion of the Via Francigena, beginning at the Swiss border and continuing to Rome. It was roughly a 600-mile trek. The complete Via Francigena (also known as the road that comes from the land of the Franks) is an exhausting, and I do mean exhausting, 1,900 miles from Canterbury, England, to Rome, Italy.
Particularly devout pilgrims can continue on to Apulia, where they can board a ship to complete their pilgrimage in the Holy Land. Although it is unknown when pilgrims first started walking this route, Willibald, Bishop of Eichstätt, documented it in 725 AD. Since then, the routes that make up the Via Francigena have changed many times. Unfortunately, many are not well paved.
