FlixBus and our Association have renewed their agreement for 2024, offering reduced fares to pilgrims on their pilgrimage route who use the green buses to travel between stages, reach their starting point or return home at the end of the journey.
The agreement is valid throughout the network, and is supported by a number of EAVF’s partners, such as DMO Francigena Sud in Lazio and Visit Piemonte, who wish to encourage people to discover their territories travelling at a slow pace and in a responsible manner, combining walking with bus transportation.
The itinerary after Rome
In Lazio, the Via Francigena links 21 stages, entering Tuscia from the Val d’Orcia (Tuscany), then crossing the provinces of Viterbo, Rome and Latina as far as Minturno, continuing on into Campania. In Lazio the route passes through Rome and Ciampino, where it intersects the FlixBus network, offering advantages for those travelling the route but also for the local area: visitors arriving at the Roma Tiburtina, Roma Anagnina or Ciampino bus stops can set out on foot, discovering Lazio at a slow pace.
Our partner DMO Francigena Sud in Lazio promotes and enhances the itinerary in southern Lazio on the way to Campania and Apulia. The route passes through little-known villages abounding in scenic, natural, artistic, cultural and historical charm. A complete list of municipalities is available at this link.
The Via Francigena in Piedmont
The Via Francigena has 13 stages In Piedmont, with two variants that cross the region, meeting at Vercelli and then heading towards Lombardy: one descending from Valle d’Aosta and the other proceeding from the west. In Piedmont the route passes through the towns of Turin, Chivasso, Oulx and Santhià, where it intersects the FlixBus network, offering benefits for those travelling the route and for the local area. Encouraging the discovery of Piedmont at a slow pace, Visit Piemonte, a regional company for the promotion of incoming tourism, FlixBus and the Association of the Via Francigena ways promote a more authentic way of travelling, in close contact with local communities, which at the same time significantly reduces the environmental impact of the journey. Caring for the local community also means caring for the environment!
A new way of travelling
Overtourism or tourist overcrowding has shed new light on the fragility of Italy’s national heritage and the need for a different approach to the promotion of tourism that is capable of generating wealth for local economies without jeopardising the balance and quality of life of the communities involved.
After all, it is the visitors themselves who are demanding the right to access new, more conscientious ways of travelling. A study entitled What motivates us to travel, conducted for FlixBus by research company Squadrati, revealed how more and more people are now expressing, among other things, a need for authentic travel experiences and a greater demand for sustainability. To cite two of the most significant figures, 33% of those surveyed indicated a preference for ‘educational’ trips ‘to discover places and cities with the eyes of an explorer, not a tourist‘ (compared to 26% pre-Covid), and 41% specified that they wanted to ‘live an experience of enrichment, of personal growth‘ (compared to 31% pre-Covid).
To learn more about EAVF’s partnerships, download our Media Kit.
