Via Francigena Pilgrimmage

Yesterday was all about museums, churches, archeology. Today we more or less started our
journey on the Via Francigena. This pilgrim path actually starts in Canterbury and ends in Rome. Our goal has been to complete the Via Francigena within Italy. We’ve been doing it a bit back backwards, completing the final stage first and the first one last. We cycled from Lucca to Rome in 2018 and last year we rode north from Lucca to Piacenza. This year’s goal is to complete the last leg - from the Swiss-Italian border to Pavia (near Piacenza). However, St. Bernard’s Pass in the Alps is much too risky anytime, but especially at this time of year, (think snow, steep, avalanche). Instead, we opted to start from Aosta, the northernmost town on the Via Francigena accessible by train. Aosta is 12 miles south of the border and today’s hike partially bridged that gap. We hiked north on the Via Francigena, footpath #103. The final destination, the Col du Gd St Bernard has an elevation of 2469 meters, an estimated hike time of 8 hours and 25 minutes, and the difficulty level is rated “E”. That’s not E for Easy but E for Excursione (I’d say experienced expert). We hiked as far as Excenex, elevation 1046 meters, with an estimated hike time of 1 hour and 40 minutes, also rated “E”. Mike the navigator informs me that we hiked a total of 6 miles with a climb of 1500 feet. My glutes can attest to the steepness of the climb. After a cappuccino in Excenex, we started back, stopping for a picnic lunch under a tree and a view of the Alps. Oggi era una bella giornata. Today was a beautiful day! It was such a blippable day, I couldn’t pick just one.