Via Francigena 24th March 2012

Via Francigena 24th March 2012

The Via Francigena is an ancient pilgrims route - which essentially covers the path trodden by the those faithfull fools centuries ago from Canterbury Cathedral to Rome. It is known by several names, but when in Tuscany it is the Via Francigena.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_Francigena

It is not formally established, but certainly a thousand years ago it became a serious route and worthy of note. Through Tuscany it resulted in the enlargement or at least the agrandisement of several towns and cities, not least Siena. In fact, the famous bank of Siena - Monte die Paschi di Siena - essentially came about because Siena was a key stopping point on the way to Rome. Not only a resting point, but also a strategic point to refuel, in more ways than one. Travelling thousands of miles across remote countryside in these times was dangerous, especially if you were a pilgrim, with little beefcake but some money, and robberies were extremely frequent. Monte dei Paschi became the first bank to have "travellers cheques" which could not be spent by highwaymen after a little light robbing.

For many years the Via Francigena has lain dormant. Actually, it really isn't a single road, but rather it is a network of smaller routes, all leading more or less in the same direction. It had disappeared of the maps, but recently, and more so during the past two years that I have been here, Tuscany is elevating the significance of the Via Francigena and making it more of a tourist route again. Certainly, it is not an uncommon site to see walkers strolling along, or even hiking along parts of it. Some of them are taking it seriously, with packs and some look self-supported but some are clearly day trippers. Now it is possible to trace most of it, and there are lots of access ways to it. In Siena, it runs straight through the middle of the town, but away from the city you can walk across the old roads and paths, and now there is a way to recognise when you are on it.

Each part of the track is marked with a red and white signal - this can be a stone, a wooden signpost, painted on a wall, a rock on the ground, on a metal telegraph pole, on a tree - anywhere - it can be quite fun looking out for them and the sign VF. Where I run there are lots of routes and some fantastic information - and some of it is even in English. This is very forward thinking of the Italian tourist board, or whoever, and quite nice to see tourists abroad and getting out and about.

There are some fascinating parts. The pictures here are where I run occasionally (when the military are performing manoeuvres where I want to run!) and talk about the draining of the lake of Pian del Lago. This was done for two reasons - one to stop the terrible mosquitos that inhabited the hot and damp lands and secondly to provide hunting grounds. I am always seeing deer, foxes, and signs and whispers of cinghiale (wild boar). This has left several tunnels and an underground river that can still be followed along the excavations that were built several centuries ago to perform this draining - impressive Italian engineering indeed.

Indeed, I feel that the land holds a memory of the water. Compared to other areas in Siena, it is cold around there - very cold - when I was running there earlier in the year it was always about 5 C colder than the rest of Siena - hence my face/beard freezing several times! I feel the land has this memory and mourns for it's missing water and still hungers for it. At the minute there is a slightly wooded corridor through which I run, where there has been a fire recently - it is the sort of time of year when the farmers burn excess olive and other trees, so I am sure it was done in a controlled way, however, I strongly believe that the earth and the trees there still feel very warm as I run through and feel that they are reaching out to me and telling me that something is wrong. I want to comfort them. I must have lost it! Either that or my taoist tai chi is making more receptive to these things.