LA VIA FRANCIGENA - Five Pilgrims to Rome
(Kindle)
Carrying everything on their backs, five very different, not-so-young women share an amazing adventure on the ancient Via Francigena pilgrimage trail in Switzerland and Italy. Walking almost 700km, with an average step length of 75cm, they took over 1 million steps from Vevey to Rome. Their longest day was 11.5 hours when they climbed from 680m at La Douay to 2472m at the Grand St Bernard Pass covering 28 km. They walked through over 210 villages and towns and crossed a variety of bridges - metal, wood, hanging, stone and Roman - over more than 150 rivers. On some days the temperatures reached +40oC.
Although they didn’t have an English guide book, at no time did they actually get lost – only confused a couple of times - usually when following the VF signs along the way. They stayed in a backpackers, a hospice, a campsite, a Gite, a castle, on a farm, three youth hostels, nine B&B’s, two convents, six hotels (one a converted monastery) and two apartments.
Val was the Foodie in the group and wrote daily despatches on their blog about the Regional cuisine.
They raised over R50 000 for the Homenet Children's Charities in South Africa.
Amazon review:
"Just finished reading this narrative of five ladies of a certain age (my age) hiking from Switzerland to Rome, Italy. I had read six books about the Camino de Santiago in Spain, in preparation for my mini-Camino this year, and now have
a full Camino on my calendar for 2015. But just when I thought that journey in Spain would be my one and only pilgrimage, I read this enjoyable account of hiking the Via Francigena. I felt as though I got to know all five women as
each of them took turns writing about the sights, the people and the food and wine along their journey through Italy. Now I want to add the Via Francigena to my bucket list of long hikes! Bravo to these ladies for their impressive
trekking accomplishment and thank you for this inspiring book."
(Kindle)
Carrying everything on their backs, five very different, not-so-young women share an amazing adventure on the ancient Via Francigena pilgrimage trail in Switzerland and Italy. Walking almost 700km, with an average step length of 75cm, they took over 1 million steps from Vevey to Rome. Their longest day was 11.5 hours when they climbed from 680m at La Douay to 2472m at the Grand St Bernard Pass covering 28 km. They walked through over 210 villages and towns and crossed a variety of bridges - metal, wood, hanging, stone and Roman - over more than 150 rivers. On some days the temperatures reached +40oC.
Although they didn’t have an English guide book, at no time did they actually get lost – only confused a couple of times - usually when following the VF signs along the way. They stayed in a backpackers, a hospice, a campsite, a Gite, a castle, on a farm, three youth hostels, nine B&B’s, two convents, six hotels (one a converted monastery) and two apartments.
Val was the Foodie in the group and wrote daily despatches on their blog about the Regional cuisine.
They raised over R50 000 for the Homenet Children's Charities in South Africa.
Amazon review:
"Just finished reading this narrative of five ladies of a certain age (my age) hiking from Switzerland to Rome, Italy. I had read six books about the Camino de Santiago in Spain, in preparation for my mini-Camino this year, and now have
a full Camino on my calendar for 2015. But just when I thought that journey in Spain would be my one and only pilgrimage, I read this enjoyable account of hiking the Via Francigena. I felt as though I got to know all five women as
each of them took turns writing about the sights, the people and the food and wine along their journey through Italy. Now I want to add the Via Francigena to my bucket list of long hikes! Bravo to these ladies for their impressive
trekking accomplishment and thank you for this inspiring book."