0. The day before it all begins

So suddenly this is real. We arrived at San Miniato this morning by train from Lucca, and tomorrow we start on our epic adventure, walking almost 400km to Rome. It seemed a good idea at the time we booked this in Australia but I will admit to a flutter of anxiety now that It is real. No turning back though, so I am glad to have your company along the way.

This photo is for those of you who may not know me. I’m with my partner, Grant, who is doing the walk with me.

The via Francigena is a pilgrimage- an ancient one (as I described in the introduction). We are not doing it the truly authentic way. Firstly our bags are being transported for us so we are carrying day packs. Secondly we have pre booked all our accommodation through a wonderful Australian travel group called #rawtravel. They have also helped us with some logistics. But it is still a very long walk through a country where our language skills are rudimentary at best, along paths which may or may not be clearly signposted, so I still feel pretty proud of us :)

We had a chance to explore San Miniato today and it’s a gorgeous little city set on top of a tall hill. We climbed to the tower at the very top and here is the view.

This is the direction we will walk tomorrow to Gambassi. About 20km. San Miniato has a beautiful ’old city’ which was strategically very important for centuries as it sits at the crossroads of the via Francigena and the route between Pisa and Florence - major trading routes. There are Roman, Gothic and Renaissance pieces of architecture and art and plenty of promising bars, osterias and bakeries.

We are packed and ready to go in the morning. Wish us well and I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow.