Book details

Book description

This comprehensive new guide by an experienced author of guides to pilgrim routes covers the first half of the Via Francigena walking route - 1900km of contrasting terrain crossing Europe from Canterbury at the south-east corner of England to Rome in Italy. Part 1 takes walkers as far as the Great St Bernard Pass in the Alps and, with its companion volume to be published in 2012, it will make up the first full guide (in any language) to this ancient route, now designated a European Cultural Itinerary and increasingly waymarked and well supplied with accommodation. Illustrated with clear, original sketch maps and colour photographs, the step-by-step route description also includes detailed information about historical sites and all facilities available along the way. Relatively flat sections in northern France, full of historical and cultural resonance from great and ancient cathedrals to the battlefields and cemeteries of two world wars, give way to the mountainous Jura and a strenuous passage over the Alps, via the Great St Bernard Pass, all passing through villages and towns with interesting churches and religious monuments. Alison Raju is a former language teacher and author of three other Cicerone guides to pilgrim routes: 'Way of St James: Pyrenees - Santiago', 'Via de la Plata' and 'The Pilgrim Road to Nidaros: Oslo - Trondheim'.