One path, many ways to travel

Along the Via Francigena between Sarzana and Siena I met people travelling in many different ways, from many different starting points. I heard about, but never met, Michel and Ginette, a French Canadian couple who were walking the whole Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome - they arrived at their destination on Tuesday, after walking 2059 km in 82 days!

Others were walking only a few legs of the Via Francigena due to limited availability of time. Some of them had picked up where they left off at the end of their holidays last year, and will pick up again next summer where they left off this year.

Another French Canadian couple, Guy and Chantal, didn't have enough time to walk the whole way, and had got folding bikes so that they could ride their bicycles on some stages, them fold them up and put them on the train for other sections of their trip. They said this worked, but that the folding bikes were not as comfortable to ride as regular bicycles.

One group of French pilgrims travelled with a camper as back-up and support. My French was not up to the task of discussing the details of how this worked, but I got the impression that the camper travelled in parallel along the road, stopped in the same towns overnight, and provided the kitchen serving lunch for those who were walking the trail! Here is one point where the trail intersected with the road, luckily right next to a shady picnic spot.

Towards the end of this first part of my adventure on the Via Francigena, I met a couple who represented a rarity in three ways. First, they were young - the average age of the pilgrims I met on the way being over sixty. Second, they were Italian - almost all the walkers I met were French, Belgian, French Canadian or German; Italians tend to prefer to walk more exotic trails abroad, such as the Camino de Santiago. Third, they were walking with dogs - little dogs! I don't know how many steps those little dogs took per human step, but they certainly must have been tired out after walking all the way from Siena to Buonconvento! Andrea and Selvaggia were walking - with their dogs - on their honeymoon, and partly for this reason, but mainly because of the dogs, they were staying in hotels rather than hostels. You couldn't really risk waking up a whole room full of weary pilgrims with a dog barking in the middle of the night.... They reported that the dogs were enjoying this extended version of going walkies, but because of them, they had to carry a lot of extra stuff. They were carrying folding dog carriers (I wonder whether these were for the dogs to sleep in, or whether they sometimes had to pick them up and carry them along the trail later in the day?) and of course a good stock of kibbles, bowls and water.

And, last but not least, here is the most attention-grabbing way to walk the Via Francigena: in the company of a donkey! Meet Réglisse, who stopped overnight in the same hostels as me (and brayed under my bedroom window) for two nights along the way before our paths parted, and he and his people headed east towards Assisi. I had been hearing about this particular donkey for three days before I actually met him, and he had gained a sort of legendary status.

His hiking companions reported that Réglisse - French for Liquorice, thus named for the colour of his coat - is very fuel-efficient, as he eats only grass, and provides a handy way to meet people and strike up conversations: the French couple walking with him reported that people stopped them all along the way to ask if the donkey needed any food or water - though without seeming overly concerned about whether the humans with him needed any food or water!

Réglisse enjoys a well-deserved rest at the Ostello Sigerico in Gambassi Terme