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Via Francigena
- Cultural Route of the Council of Europe
The long pilgrim road between Canterbury and Rome, extended south to Santa Maria di Leuca in Apulia, follows the journey recorded by Archbishop Sigeric around the year 990.
At a glance
- Starts in
- Canterbury Cathedral
- Ends in
- Santa Maria di Leuca
- Length
- 3,200 km
- On foot
- ≈ 128–160 days
- Countries
- United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, and Italy
About the trail
Sigeric travelled to Rome to receive his pallium and wrote down the 79 stops on his way back. That list gives the historic skeleton of the Via Francigena, which crosses England, France, Switzerland and Italy and joins the Alps at the Great St Bernard Pass.
The Council of Europe certified it as a Cultural Route in 1994. In 2019 the Association of the Via Francigena extended the route from Rome south to Santa Maria di Leuca, where Italian pilgrims traditionally embarked for the Holy Land.
No source gives the days on foot, so they are worked out from the length at 20–25 km a day.