Via Appia antica Road trip day on a combination of the old and newer via Appia. On the old you have to watch where you are going, and on the new, watch where other people are going. Staying on the road rather than the designated path saved us a day and many kilometers. Medieval fortress … Continue reading VF del sud day 8: Fondi to Formia, 21.5km →

Same old, same old, going from one Roman town to the next. The difference today was that neither is a hilltop town. Fondi is actually dead flat, and likely a convenient one day march from Terracina for a Roman legion using the via Appia. After faithfully following the designated path for the first section, in … Continue reading VF del sud day 8: Terracina to Fondi, 19.6km →

Terracina Predominantly a bland day heading along the VF mostly in the right direction. A mid morning diversion to a supermarket added a few hundred metres, but the provisioning opportunity was well worth it. However, the blandness of the day's journey was to lull us, so that arriving in Terracina was all the more impactful. … Continue reading VF del sud day 7: Fossanova to Terracina, 23.6km →

Actually, we're not at Fossanova Abbey quite yet. Although it marks the end of a stage according to the app, there is no accommodation at the abbey (I believe historically they hosted pilgrims, but no more), so we are in the countryside nearby, b&b courtesy of booking.com and navigation by Google maps. It's not too … Continue reading VF del sud day 5: Sezze to Fossanova Abbey, 19.2km →

A double day, partly as the second leg of it was only 12km, and partly because the host of the app-recommended accommodation didn't respond to our request. Double days involving hill-top towns is not the best mix! First leg from Cori was a hard descent on medieval stairways, then a steep climb up the other … Continue reading VF del sud day 4: Cori to Sezze, 32km →

I'm a day behind posting as I got distracted watching the All Blacks vs Argentina rugby match. The path was mostly a mix of country laneways and trail, although we were told there was a detour due to a bridge washout. Lack of fluency in Italian was a handy excuse and we traversed the washout … Continue reading VF del sud day 3: Velletri to Cori, 18km →

Sign post deep in the forest! Actually we started from Albano Laziale as this is the town where we managed to find a roof over our heads. It made the day a couple of km shorter, which is always welcome. Much of the day was on forest paths, initially skirting the rim of Lago Albano, … Continue reading VF del sud day 2: Castel Gandolfo to Velletri →

Sam needs to work on the correct pose! The relentless heat of Rome inspired us to hit the trail at 0630, but we also lucked out as early morning thunderstorms had dampened down the dust and temporarily lowered the temperature. The path out of Rome was well marked, but that still didn't prevent us from … Continue reading VF del sud day 1: Rome to Castel Gandolfo →

All smiles from being blister free at km 0 Omnes viae Roman perducunt..... If all roads lead to Rome, then logically they all must also lead from Rome. Sam and I are here to test that theory by embarking on the Via francigena del sud, from Rome to Santa Maria di Leuca. Today was our … Continue reading Via francigena del sud: day 0 →