A walk along the Via Francigena. This year we're trying something different – instead of following one of the many paths to Santiago de Compostela we are setting out on a medieval pilgrim route that leads from Canterbury to Rome. The way starts in the English cathedral city of Canterbury and passes through England, France, Switzerland and Italy. Its name "Via Francigena" is Italian and means the "road that comes from France". In the Middle Ages it was the main pilgrimage route from the north for pilgrims on the way to the Holy See and the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul. It is a distance of about 1900km and is still much less walked than the well-known routes to Santiago. There is also less pilgrim accommodation so the plan is to camp whenever possible. 2019 – we will be starting in Aosta where we finished last year and there are about 950 km / 600 miles left to walk to Rome. No tents this time as campsites are few and far between!

Ponte a Rigo to Acquapendente 24k Lazio at Lastio

Another bright sunny morning and we set off among rolling hills and fields of corn and maize. Mount Amiati dominates the view to our right and the tower of Radicofani that we climbed up to yesterday slowly disappears from view behind us.
At some point we cross into Lazio, the province of Rome and see the first cows of our trip.
It takes us most of the morning and a climb to reach Proceno, an Etruscan town, allegedly founded by their legendary king, Lara Porsenna. It is another long street of dark stone houses with a fortress on the top.
We sit in the main square and a man rides up on a horse, dismounts, downs the customary expresso and sets off again whilst consulting his phone.
We make it up a steep climb to Acquapendente in time to meet Ann and Jane off the bus. After a late lunch at a bar in the main square, we set off up a another hill to a pleasant cloistered Ostello and settle ourselves in.