Seasons
Walkable any time of year. Some snow at higher elevation in winter, more rain between December and January, and very hot in July and August. The best months are mid-September to mid-November, plus March to early June.
Centres
Rome, Benevento, Bari, Brindisi, Lecce, Otranto and Santa Maria di Leuca. Variant route destinations include San Giovanni Rotondo, Monte Sant’Angelo and Barletta.
Difficulty
No technical skills or specialised equipment are needed, although the occasional forest or beachside pathway can require careful footing. Sturdy trail runners work well as footwear. Low-cost pilgrimage lodging infrastructure is available on about 50% of the route.
Must See
The 940km Via Francigena south of Rome includes enchanting seaside cities Bari, Brindisi and Monopoli, plus beloved Lecce. The route follows the UNESCO World Heritage Via Appia, plus trails, quiet backroads and over 150km alongside beaches. A major variant leads through Gargano National Park to historic Monte Sant’Angelo.
The Authors:
Sandy Brown: Sanford ‘Sandy’ Brown is a community activist, long-distance walker and ordained minister from Seattle, Washington. Inspired by The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho, he trekked the Camino de Santiago in 2008 and since then has walked or biked over 18,000km on pilgrim trails in Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy and the United States. He leads group pilgrimage treks through his travel company, www.pilgrimpaths.com.
Nicole Bukaty is a secondary school French and Spanish teacher in Crieff, Scotland. Originally from Kraków, Poland, she grew up in London and France, and has lived in Colombia, Spain and Russia. She obsessively uses up her holidays and weekends to hike mountains or take on long-distance walks, totalling over 7000km so far, predominantly on pilgrim routes. She has even completed 450km all on asphalt from her mother’s house in Ilawa, Poland, to the Polish monastery of Jasna Góra in Czestochowa. She is the author of the Vía de la Plata and Camino Sanabrés guidebook, and co-author of the Via Francigena in the South of Italy guidebook for Cicerone. Her next projects include books on Scotland and Norway.
