Author: Redazione AEVF

Via Francigena watercolour poster with vintage drawings celebrates 3200 km of the European route!

This original design was born the collaboration of the European Association of the Via Francigena ways, an illustrator Giuseppe Bottoli, who drew the children’s book “La Francigena narrates”, and Edizioni Studio Guidotti, the EAVF technical partner in charge of the graphic charter.  

This vintage map enjoys stunning drawings of twenty-five famous points of interest and monuments of the Via Francigena. You start your travel from the Cathedral in Canterbury, one of the oldest English cities and the zero km of the Via Francigena, to go down to France via Reims and the Champlitte castle. The route continues towards the Notre Dame de Lausanne in Switzerland, reaching tis highpoint in the Grand Saint Bernard Pass on its way to the Italian peninsula. The final point of the journey is the renowned Saint Peter’s Basilic, depicted on the map with a beautiful drawing. The Sigeric’s journey ends here, in a place where a pilgrim receives the testimonium of his travel. Then you continue to Santa Maria di Leuca, following the Via Francigena of the South on its way to Jerusalem and enjoying the monuments of the Apulian ports. Multitude of places narrate their stories embedded into the Via Francigena architectural heritage.

This poster sends a message of European values and shared identity of the route, uniting countries of the Via Francigena. A great gift and a souvenir for pilgrims who have walked the route or those looking for a travel inspiration. A story of success and accomplishments of local authorises which can enjoy cultural heritage and a physical itinerary on the poster.

This poster will be exclusively sold in our Official Via Francigena Store managed by the Switch Up team, EAVF partner starting from 21 July 2020.

The proceeds from the sale will be used for communication actions and route enhancement projects to create a future Via Francigena based on the memory of the past.

On 12 July a Breton family travelling from French Briançon arrived in Vercelli with their seven children: a team ranging from 8-month-old Maria up to 12-year-old Flavia, the eldest.

“It was an enormous pleasure to welcome this family” says Mr. Valmer Buosi from the Vercelli Friends of the Via Francigena association and a volunteer at the Hospitale Sancti Eusebi Hostel, where the family spent the night.

“I was deeply impressed by the courage of the parents who decided to travel with all their children, an adventure that seems already challenging in normal times and is even more difficult due to the pandemic. That is an example of a deep faith and a great spirit of collaboration, also visible in children. Especially the older ones have shown a great sense of responsibility and were working hard to help the parents in the daily activities”.

The group still has more than a month of travel ahead: hundreds of kilometres separate them from Rome, the target of their journey.

How does such a big family move with young children? Dino Olivetta, Head of the Hospital tells us: “They are equipped with two carts,”- as their mother called them – “in which the little ones can be pushed by their parents as if they were in big strollers and the youngest is carried in a baby carrier. The rest of them walk with their parents, making about twenty kilometres a day.”

Vercelli hostel is used to welcome unusual guests: last year they accommodated a family, also from Brittany, made up of mom and dad (a couple of doctors on leave from work), three children and two donkeys. In that case, the reception was quite a challenge, as the volunteers had to find space for the animals.

Nowadays the volunteers have done everything possible to organize overnight stays for the next stages of the De Camburg family, a decidedly not easy operation: “This year, due to the health situation, it is difficult to find sleeping places at times, even for individuals pilgrims. Nine is very complex, “said Olivetta.

We wish an amazing journey for this family which testifies great faith, a spirit of adaptation and love for the pilgrimage.

Writer Monica Nanetti, EAVF close friend, has recently announced her new Via Francigena guidebook for Switzerland on the Action Magazine website. The Swiss section of the route has been missing its own guide and Monica found it to be “a spectacular, interesting, extremely varied and full of suggestions of all kinds” opportunity.

The result is a work conceived in eleven stages, first-hand experienced by the author. Adventures and experiences shared in her blog were put together in the guidebook – already her third publication dedicated to the Via Francigena, as Monica published “If I did it. By bike on the Via Francigena” and “Via Francigena for dummies”.

The guide will be available in bookstores and on Morellini Editore website from 16 July 2020.

The Sienese part of the Via Francigena has been included in the publication “Cammina Italia” by Ediciclo. The book is available to public from July 2020.

The Via Francigena is a precious gem of this publication among other routes such as the Sardinian path of Santa Barbara and the route of Brigands in Abruzzo. The book proposes selected itineraries on foot for each region of Italy. The Sienese trait of the Via Francigena chosen by Luca Gianotti, the book curator, gives the best Tuscan experience.

Those who have walked it will certainly not be surprised by this choice: the section of the Via Francigena, crossing the province of Siena, is undoubtedly a breath-taking experience of art, heritage, wild nature and spirituality. Hills covered with vineyards, architectural charm of the towers of San Gimignano, the art of glassmakers of Val d’Elsa and Piazza del Campo in Siena are just a few examples of exceptional beauty you experience while walking.

The Sienese Via Francigena is all this and much more. That is why we take this opportunity provided by the Ediciclo guide to renew our invitation to explore the route and its different sections – each being beautiful in its own different and unique way.

Ediciclo is a publishing house established in 1987 by some friends sharing their bicycle rides stories. Since then, in addition to the ever-present theme of velo-tourism, the series has been enriched with numerous publications on walking and travel.