Via Francigena
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- Posts: 2
- Joined: 27 Jul 2015, 11:32am
Via Francigena
Do any members have any experience of cycling the Canterbury to Rome Pilgrim Route by touring bike. Any references to route plans, mountain profiles etc would be appreciated.
- Peter Molog
- Posts: 95
- Joined: 16 Oct 2013, 11:45am
- Location: The Netherlands
Re: Via Francigena
Partly. This spring I followed the route of a Dutch abbot, called Emo from the beginning of the 13th century. He went from the North of The Netherlands to Rome. From Pavia to Rome he followed the Via Francigena.
He wrote a very short travelogue of his trip to Rome and back. A dutch historian reconstructed his route and wrote a book about it.
Using this reconstruction I designed a cycle route.
I'm still working on all the results, but at the moment The following is available:
A GPS-file, containing the route with improvements I made (also with some comments for navigation);
Heightprofiles (based on the original design, but will hardly change).
The website I made can be found here (only in Dutch, but GoogleTranslate is your friend). The maps included in the site, are not up-to-date, but that's only for small parts.
Another source for the Italian part is this. An Italian site, which seems to be complete now. I used it this winter, but it was incomplete then.
He wrote a very short travelogue of his trip to Rome and back. A dutch historian reconstructed his route and wrote a book about it.
Using this reconstruction I designed a cycle route.
I'm still working on all the results, but at the moment The following is available:
A GPS-file, containing the route with improvements I made (also with some comments for navigation);
Heightprofiles (based on the original design, but will hardly change).
The website I made can be found here (only in Dutch, but GoogleTranslate is your friend). The maps included in the site, are not up-to-date, but that's only for small parts.
Another source for the Italian part is this. An Italian site, which seems to be complete now. I used it this winter, but it was incomplete then.
Peter
Please, excuse my English. I'm Dutch.
Please, excuse my English. I'm Dutch.
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- Posts: 162
- Joined: 12 Feb 2015, 6:30pm
- Location: Port talbot.
Re: Via Francigena
Have you tried cyclingeurope.org site? Click on eurovelo 5 and then index of posts or route planning,they both mention the route(if you haven't looked there already of course )
Re: Via Francigena
Anne Mustoe's excellent book, "A Bike Ride, 12,000 miles around the World" is worth a look, she follows various Roman roads from London to Rome and onwards. This might be of interest and doubtless there will be some correlation with pilgrim routes.
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- Posts: 2
- Joined: 27 Jul 2015, 11:32am
Re: Via Francigena
many thanks for all the advise. I will follow up on your suggestions.
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- Posts: 1716
- Joined: 8 Dec 2007, 10:26am
Re: Via Francigena
I know a bit about the Via Francigena in Italy (and almost nothing at all about the rest).
One thing I should say is that there are different flavours of the Via Francigena that differ in the degree to which they follow the classic Sigeric route (Sigeric the Serious was the Archbishop of Canterbury who left the first travelogue of the route). The eurovelo website claims that the eurovelo 5 is following in the steps of Sigeric - although in fact it really bears very little resemblance to the route taken by Sigeric. However, if that doesn't matter to you then it may be what you're looking for.
In Italy, the Via Francigena is really the cycling equivalent of the Camino di Santiago, in Toscana and Lazio it uses strade bianche (unsurfaced roads). These are perfectly rideable, but fatter tyres are going to be more comfortable. There's also quite a lot more climbing involved. In general I'd say that if you're looking for something like the Camino Santiago, and you're planning to travel light and stay in pilgrim hostels (you'll need a credenziale) then it would be a good experience, but if you're planning on camping and travelling with a full-loaded touring bike I'm not so sure. If you're looking for a convenient off-the-shelf route to Rome then this isn't really it.
There's a lot more information and links to other resources on my website:
http://italy-cycling-guide.info/cyclewa ... urovelo-5/
One thing I should say is that there are different flavours of the Via Francigena that differ in the degree to which they follow the classic Sigeric route (Sigeric the Serious was the Archbishop of Canterbury who left the first travelogue of the route). The eurovelo website claims that the eurovelo 5 is following in the steps of Sigeric - although in fact it really bears very little resemblance to the route taken by Sigeric. However, if that doesn't matter to you then it may be what you're looking for.
In Italy, the Via Francigena is really the cycling equivalent of the Camino di Santiago, in Toscana and Lazio it uses strade bianche (unsurfaced roads). These are perfectly rideable, but fatter tyres are going to be more comfortable. There's also quite a lot more climbing involved. In general I'd say that if you're looking for something like the Camino Santiago, and you're planning to travel light and stay in pilgrim hostels (you'll need a credenziale) then it would be a good experience, but if you're planning on camping and travelling with a full-loaded touring bike I'm not so sure. If you're looking for a convenient off-the-shelf route to Rome then this isn't really it.
There's a lot more information and links to other resources on my website:
http://italy-cycling-guide.info/cyclewa ... urovelo-5/