BrianLe
04-16-2015, 07:56
Pronounced, btw, "Fran-chee-jay-na", this is a pilgrims route that goes from Canterbury to Rome, about a thousand miles or so in total. My wife and I just came back from Italy, where we walked all of about 5 days on it. Having hiked the most famous pilgrim route (Camino de Santiago in Spain) in 2013, I thought there might (?) be interest in a comparison. Bearing in mind, of course, that this represents only 5 days of hiking on a pretty long trail, plus chatting with a couple of other pilgrims we met.
And that points out the first and biggest difference: In 5 days we met exactly one other set of folks who were out hiking for more than just "this afternoon" or "a few days" --- a couple of german women who had hiked out from where they live on the Jakobsweg until they got to the Via Francigena. There they turned right and headed (and are still headed) for Rome. On the Camino, one meets lots and lots of pilgrims every day. On the Francigena one rarely does. There's also not much in the way of infrastructure or knowledge of the trail. So in particular, the system of relatively inexpensive Albergue's mostly doesn't exist. A guidebook will sometimes direct you to less expensive lodging options, but unless you're trying to stealth camp, which I personally wouldn't recommend, it's best to have a healthy budget set aside for staying in various types of lodgings along the way. And you had best have a telephone with you and have enough of the local language (French or Italian or both if doing the whole thing) to call ahead and make reservations as you go, and get text message and email replies. And there's more road walking than on the Camino. And while the stretch we hiked was very well signed, the german ladies we met said that some parts they had hiked through were not.
So now that I've said a lot of bad things about this route, let me give some upsides ...
The part we hiked (in Tuscany, from Lucca south to near Siena) was beautiful. NOT hiking in a huge herd of hikers, with concomitant competition and stress to obtain lodging --- this was very nice. Mind you, the other way is nice too, for meeting folks from around the world. This way is nice insofar as it pushed us to use our limited Italian more --- e questo mi piace (I like this); in Spain the focus was more on meeting fellow pilgrims from around the world. Here, most of our interactions was with local Italians (both are wonderful, just a matter of what you want to emphasize). The weather was great, and despite just five days we had some nice and interesting experiences along the way. And on a perhaps just personal note, I like the food in Italy better than in Spain overall. Also pretty personal, but from a good working knowledge of Spanish, I found it pretty easy to come up to speed to do basic communication in Italian --- very enjoyable, and when away from the more touristy areas, it's easy to actual use Italian in Italy. I know that sounds odd, but in touristy areas in Italy, and pretty much all along the Camino, English is so prevalent that there's little incentive to learn any of the language.
There is a guidebook; we used the 2-part Cicerone guide by ALison Raju. The German women we talked to had this plus a couple of different German language guidebooks (one of which was apparently out of date but somehow still useful). The Cicerone guide is primarily a turn-by-turn description of the route. It DOES have some descriptive and historical stuff, and does have basic "yogi's guide" town guide stuff. But the core text is turn-by-turn "where to go next on the route". We used this a lot the first day and found it to be good (we had made reservations in advance and so didn't use the somewhat limited 'town guide' details). Then I found .gpx (gps route) files for each section of the trail on the official website, http://www.viefrancigene.org/en/ Those gpx files plus backcountry navigator on my smartphone eliminated use of the guidebook pages much after that --- if there was a question about route, if the signage wasn't complete unambiguous, the trail plot was always exactly "on" --- again, for those 5 days, anyway. So if hiking this trail for real, I would favor the Cicerone guide in eBook format, with the gpx files downloaded, particularly for areas that are un- or poorly-signed.
We asked the German pilgrims if it would be feasible to bike the Francigena. They told us they wouldn't do it. I got the impression that a more intrepid mountain biker might find it okay (?), but that it wouldn't be the overall easy bike experience that the Camino is in Spain. Or, that you would do more alternate road routes, something that bikes always have to do at least some of when they go on pretty much any hiking route where they're allowed, from the Camino to the CDT.
We hiked a bit on this trail because friends who live near Siena told us "Why hike the Camino in Spain? We have a great pilgrim trail that goes almost right by our door!". So we hiked to near their door. But I liked it a lot more than I expected that I would. Given the opportunity, I would happily consider hiking this in chunks or thru-hiking it.
Ironically, I'll be hiking the Camino in Spain for a second time this coming Autumn, because a couple of good friends are hiking it and I want to hike with them. That will be a blast too (!), but all things being equal, I'd spend a little time studying French and then start from Canterbury and head for Rome.
And that points out the first and biggest difference: In 5 days we met exactly one other set of folks who were out hiking for more than just "this afternoon" or "a few days" --- a couple of german women who had hiked out from where they live on the Jakobsweg until they got to the Via Francigena. There they turned right and headed (and are still headed) for Rome. On the Camino, one meets lots and lots of pilgrims every day. On the Francigena one rarely does. There's also not much in the way of infrastructure or knowledge of the trail. So in particular, the system of relatively inexpensive Albergue's mostly doesn't exist. A guidebook will sometimes direct you to less expensive lodging options, but unless you're trying to stealth camp, which I personally wouldn't recommend, it's best to have a healthy budget set aside for staying in various types of lodgings along the way. And you had best have a telephone with you and have enough of the local language (French or Italian or both if doing the whole thing) to call ahead and make reservations as you go, and get text message and email replies. And there's more road walking than on the Camino. And while the stretch we hiked was very well signed, the german ladies we met said that some parts they had hiked through were not.
So now that I've said a lot of bad things about this route, let me give some upsides ...
The part we hiked (in Tuscany, from Lucca south to near Siena) was beautiful. NOT hiking in a huge herd of hikers, with concomitant competition and stress to obtain lodging --- this was very nice. Mind you, the other way is nice too, for meeting folks from around the world. This way is nice insofar as it pushed us to use our limited Italian more --- e questo mi piace (I like this); in Spain the focus was more on meeting fellow pilgrims from around the world. Here, most of our interactions was with local Italians (both are wonderful, just a matter of what you want to emphasize). The weather was great, and despite just five days we had some nice and interesting experiences along the way. And on a perhaps just personal note, I like the food in Italy better than in Spain overall. Also pretty personal, but from a good working knowledge of Spanish, I found it pretty easy to come up to speed to do basic communication in Italian --- very enjoyable, and when away from the more touristy areas, it's easy to actual use Italian in Italy. I know that sounds odd, but in touristy areas in Italy, and pretty much all along the Camino, English is so prevalent that there's little incentive to learn any of the language.
There is a guidebook; we used the 2-part Cicerone guide by ALison Raju. The German women we talked to had this plus a couple of different German language guidebooks (one of which was apparently out of date but somehow still useful). The Cicerone guide is primarily a turn-by-turn description of the route. It DOES have some descriptive and historical stuff, and does have basic "yogi's guide" town guide stuff. But the core text is turn-by-turn "where to go next on the route". We used this a lot the first day and found it to be good (we had made reservations in advance and so didn't use the somewhat limited 'town guide' details). Then I found .gpx (gps route) files for each section of the trail on the official website, http://www.viefrancigene.org/en/ Those gpx files plus backcountry navigator on my smartphone eliminated use of the guidebook pages much after that --- if there was a question about route, if the signage wasn't complete unambiguous, the trail plot was always exactly "on" --- again, for those 5 days, anyway. So if hiking this trail for real, I would favor the Cicerone guide in eBook format, with the gpx files downloaded, particularly for areas that are un- or poorly-signed.
We asked the German pilgrims if it would be feasible to bike the Francigena. They told us they wouldn't do it. I got the impression that a more intrepid mountain biker might find it okay (?), but that it wouldn't be the overall easy bike experience that the Camino is in Spain. Or, that you would do more alternate road routes, something that bikes always have to do at least some of when they go on pretty much any hiking route where they're allowed, from the Camino to the CDT.
We hiked a bit on this trail because friends who live near Siena told us "Why hike the Camino in Spain? We have a great pilgrim trail that goes almost right by our door!". So we hiked to near their door. But I liked it a lot more than I expected that I would. Given the opportunity, I would happily consider hiking this in chunks or thru-hiking it.
Ironically, I'll be hiking the Camino in Spain for a second time this coming Autumn, because a couple of good friends are hiking it and I want to hike with them. That will be a blast too (!), but all things being equal, I'd spend a little time studying French and then start from Canterbury and head for Rome.