Author: Redazione AEVF

A new hostel will open along the Via Francigena. On Sunday 8th April at 11:30am, the new pilgrim hostel of the Via Francigena in San Germano Vercellese will be inaugurated.

The structure, managed by the association of Friends of the Via Francigena in San Germano Vercellese, can be found at piazza Garibaldi 1 and is a communal residence equipped with four beds, a lounge, and kitchen with an electric hob, bedroom and services. 

Open from April to the end of October, the new hostel has a washing machine, a fridge, a coffee machine, a snack machine and its own pilgrim passport stamp. Just 150m from the official Via Francigena route, the hostel hosts pilgrims for 10 euros per night (15 euros for use of additional services or the electric hob).

In the new hostel a multi-language brochure will be available, which provides details of San Germano’s history and culture, and gives useful information on services which can be found in the city. The door key will be available from an appointed individual who lives above the hostel. Telephone numbers can be found in the entrance in case the assigned individual is not present upon arrival. 

How to get there: from via Cavour, road marked on the via Francigena, turn right onto via Deabate until corso Matteotti, turn left and after a few metres, along corso Matteotti, at no. 60 there is an opening to the courtyard (cortile del fabbricato) where the hostel is found. The entrance is signposted in corso Matteotti. 

For more information, send an email to viafrancigenasangermanovc@gmail.com

Contact: Federico Berti (president of Associazione Amici della via Francigena di San Germano Vercellese) at 3771136597

Many associations surrounding it animate The Via Francigena. Mediterraid Cammina proposes free hikes and a help service along the Lazio tract of Sigeric’s route, as well as other paths. 

Founded by Antonello Fratoddi and Monica Ardizzone in 2004, the association’s headquarters can be found in Campagnano di Roma, a rest-stop of the Via Francigena Viterbo Roma. A geographical feature, which in time became a true “mission” for its founders. 

From the Vie of the Mediterranean to the Francigena, in 2014 Mediterraid added the suffix ‘Cammina‘, dedicating itself to the ancient communication route, which unites Europe to Jerusalem. “Our association was founded with the aim to traverse the Vie of the Mediterranean and to contribute to a EuroMediterraenean dialogue, with meetings and sister-cities. – says Antonello Fratoddi – Since 2006 we have driven full circle around the Mediterranean five times, but the explosion of tension and rebellion in some countries in 2011 meant we were forced to abandon the project.“

With their passion and experience matured along the roads, routes and tracks of the Mediterranean, they came across the Via Francigena. “When we realised the Francigena was just down the street, we understood that it would be the key to our work,” confirms Antonello. From then on, the association has organised several day excursions along the Francigena, organising hospitality, offering aid and luggage transportation services, supervising the route from Viterbo to Rome in terms of signage, accessibility and cleanliness. 

“We propose hikes without guides, the Francigena is well signposted, and we supply assistance to all pilgrims, not just those registered for our proposal, we intervene in case of emergency with two off-road vehicles. – Explains Fratoddi – We began this initiative participating in an event organised by the region of Lazio, with the Viandante project. We are not paid for our work but we do it with great passion. With our initiatives, we can say we have contributed to making people aware that the pilgrim figure is an asset, we have helped make people aware of this kind of experience. We are working towards the appreciation of the Viterbo to Rome tract of the Francigena; some variants have recently been created that have made the last part of the Francigena very beautiful, on equal footing with the Tuscan tract.“

Mediterraid Cammina is also working on pilgrim hospitality: “Over time we have created a prevailing hostel, thanks to our friends who made room available in their own homes in Campagnano di Roma. It’s called Case nel Borgo, and in 2017 it was an accommodation benchmark for the 750 pilgrims we welcomed.“

 “The last kilometres of the Via Francigena will be the first in your heart”: reads the Via Francigena Viterbo Roma website. There is no alternative but to take to the road with Mediterraid Cammina 2018, along the Via Francigena in Lazio and Tuscany, as well as other routes near Lazio and in Sardinia. 

The next events are as follows: from 18th to 22nd April the Via Francigena from S.Quirico d’Orcia to Viterbo and from the 25th to the 29th April the last five rest-stops from Viterbo to Rome. Bed & breakfast accommodation, luggage transport services and aid all supplied by Associazione Mediterraid. 

For more info and the Miterraid calendar, please visit: http://www.viafrancigena-viterbo-roma.it/

The new walking season in Puglia is the fruit of teamwork. From Gargano to Salento, ancient trails and tracts are in the process of being enhanced thanks to the integrated works of Regione Puglia, associations and territories.

“Trails are to be walked” wrote Antonio Marchado, the Spanish poet. Thus, slow tourism has reignited activity along the routes of Puglia over the past few years, giving life to new proposals of recovery and development.

Angelofabio Attolico, president of In Itinere, worked on the front lines of “South Cultural Routes”, the enhancement project of the Salento tract of the Vie Francigene in the south, implemented by Regione Puglia, Puglia Promozione and Associazione Europea delle Vie Francigene (EAVF), in collaboration with Itineraria and Itinere, the Association “La casa delle comunità ospitanti degli Itinerari Francigeni della Puglia meridionale“, experts and scholars of the territory. 

“In close collaboration with the EAVF and Regione Puglia I supported the coordination of various pieces which worked on the project. At the end of February, in Lecce, we presented the results – says Angelo – We mapped and georeferenced all the Francigena route in the south, from Gargano to Santa Maria di Leuca, beginning in the summer of 2017.“

An intense job preceded by a research and study phase: “The VF in Puglia coincides with two historical routes, the Via Micaelica in Gargano and the Via Traiana in the rest of Puglia, two more routes have been added to these: the Via Leucadense and the Via Salentina – explains Attolico – horizontal and vertical signage is in the process of being placed in Gargano and Salento.“

After reconnaissance and direct checks in the field, followed by interaction with associations and residents of the rest-stop towns, the project was realised with vertical and “light” (stickers and paint) signage in accordance with the signage abacus of the European Association of the Vie Francigena. The region of Puglia is structuring the routes following the European standards of the Council of Europe.

“It is very satisfying because such an ordered action has never been found south of Rome. – says Attolico – Together with Luigi Del Prete and Michele De Giudice, we have been working on these tracts for years and preparation of the territory was necessary. Of course, there is still much to do, especially regarding hospitality, but we had to begin at some point and at last a project exists, a foundation to begin from“. A job that must obviously be networked with the regions and municipalities along the Via Francigena in the South for its certification as European.

A great result for pilgrims and archaeologists. After years as a researcher abroad, Attolico returned to Italy, transforming his passion for pilgrimage into work. A life choice which lead him to invest in the territory, in Puglia. “Two years ago I founded a cooperative society named “In Itinere”, returning has allowed me to see my role in the area” he explained.

Doctor of research in post-classic archaeology at the University of Bari, Angleo is an accredited archaeologist for MiBACT and also among the authors, in the field of cultural and environmental heritage, of the 2017-20 strategic plan of culture for the region of Puglia. Today he handles the design and development of slow and green cultural touristic products for public and private entities. With his cooperative he designed, planned and structured the Cammino Materano and the Via Traiana. He is the cofounder of the regional web of routes in Puglia as well as national routes in the south.

Attolico is an expert in on foot journeys. He has traversed many Spanish and Italian routes to then dedicate himself to routes in the latter. “Experiencing your own territory at 3.5km per half hour means rediscovering it – he says – Puglia is a land of routes. There is work in place, we invite hikers to come her with the spirit of pilgrimage. It’s important that everyone contributes with their own experience.“

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Every year, hundreds of thousands of people hike along the Camino de Santiago following the yellow arrows, which indicate the way to Compostela. However, those who want to walk in the other direction find it difficult with no signposts. 

Movimento Lento, the association which for years has worked towards the promotion of the route on foot and by bike, has launched SantiaGoToRome, an innovative project which will allow hikers to walk “the wrong way” along the Spanish route, encouraging them to continue through France, over the alps to Rome along a marvellous route: the Via Francigena. 

To do just this, Sara, a young member of Movimento Lento, left 20th March from Muxia, on the Atlantic Ocean, for a long hike “in a tenacious and backwards direction”. She will travel for at least five weeks along the Spanish tract of the Camino de Santiago, and will place over 3000 adhesive “SantiaGoToRome” signs as she goes, which will mark the road to Rome.

In the meantime, Movimento Lento has launched a collection of funds on the Ulule platform, to support the project and develop an app which allows orientation travelling east through Spain and France, to the beginning of the Via to Rome. 

“We don’t have the ability to install complete and perfect signage”, explains Alberto Conte, president of Movimento Lento, “but we want to inform the pilgrims which crowd to route that they could choose Italy for their next journey. The Via Francigena is a stunning route but still little known to the east, there isn’t an easier way to promote it than to inform those who, having completed the Camino de Santiago, are looking for a new route and new target.” The European Association of the Vie Francigene is a main partner of a project, which could bring thousands of new travellers to Italy. 

Sara’s journey will be documented daily on the project Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/santiagotorome/,

To support the project please visit: the Ulule platform: https://it.ulule.com/santiagotorome/ , the official site: www.santiagotorome.org.

Watch the video presenting the project