The Road to Rome

Pilgrims’ Trail

The Road to Rome is one of the most interesting journeys in Europe. It is also known as the Via Francigena. This journey takes you along one of the most historic and longest pilgrimage paths. The Way begins in Canterbury and makes its way to Dover. A ferry takes the traveller to Calais, where the land journey resumes. Across France to Switzerland. Then down to Lake Leman and along the Rhone Valley, up to the Alps and down to Aosta in Italy. Along the Italian peninsula, before arriving in Rome.

These days, pilgrimage is an exciting and challenging opportunity to depart from our usual lifestyles and experience the world beyond the horizon. In this ebook we look at the background of the pilgrimage on the Road to Rome, and the preparations required for a journey across Europe along the ancient Via Francigena.

In the Middle Ages, the Via Francigena was a fundamental part of a network of pilgrimage roads that connected Christianity’s three main cities of worship: Rome, Jerusalem and Santiago de Compostela. A southern Via Francigena brought pilgrims from Rome to the east coast of Puglia where they would sail to Jerusalem.