{"id":767053,"date":"2026-06-28T16:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T16:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/767053\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T16:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T16:07:14","slug":"10-cycling-pilgrimages-via-francigena-to-st-columbas-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/767053\/","title":{"rendered":"10 cycling pilgrimages: Via Francigena to St Columba’s Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via Francigena
\n\"TwoYou\u2019ll have to negotiate Switzerland\u2019s Gotthard Pass on your way to Rome. Joseph Branston \/ Our Media<\/p>\n

Via Francigena: Canterbury to Rome
\nDistance: 1,300 miles<\/p>\n

Follow in the footsteps of Sigeric the Serious, Archbishop of Canterbury. He was a notable early exponent and proto-blogger of the great pilgrimage to Rome in 990.<\/p>\n

The formal route goes from Calais down northeastern France and western Switzerland before the fabulous final stretch from the Gran San Bernardo pass into Italy, down the Po Valley to Siena and Rome.<\/p>\n

Most cyclists, though, follow the signed (mostly) Eurovelo 5 through Lille, Brussels, Luxembourg, Strasbourg and Basel, before the final well-signed (mostly) Italian legs.<\/p>\n

All-tarmac versions are possible, so you can take your road bike<\/a>. But decent gravel<\/a> stretches, especially in Italy, can avoid some nasty main roads where ponderings on mortality may be more urgent than expected.<\/p>\n

Thanks to pilgrim facilities, you can set the budget and comfort dials flexibly to your accommodation requirements, and trains and ferries mean you don\u2019t have to fly.<\/p>\n

However you do it, it\u2019s an intense cultural and scenic epic, an odyssey through Europe\u2019s history. No wonder it\u2019s topping many cyclists\u2019 bucket lists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Via Francigena You\u2019ll have to negotiate Switzerland\u2019s Gotthard Pass on your way to Rome. Joseph Branston \/ Our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-767053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}