Tips, advice and our experience with Via Francigena | Things important to know

[@MikesHikeCanada]

Thank-you. Complete, informative and precise. To answer one of my earlier questions about places to stay , I found this on the official website. "The average price for a night in one of the refuges for pilgrims is hardly ever more than 20 Euro (minimum 10, maximum even 25 euro for the more “touristy” hostels), but there are facilities (above all religious ones) who provide accommodation on an “offer” basis." I believe "offer" is a translation for donation. This is not important and I realize that English is not your first language but I notice the use of the word "shadow" A better way to say it would be "shade". An example would be " the trail does not provide much shade from the Sun" Your presentation is always great and I always admire someone who speaks more than one language. Thanks again for all your hard work. Most people don't realize how time consuming videos like this can be. Time the both of you could have spent eating Ice-cream, jaja

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Thank you so much for completing the information that we had, very important to know for many people. Yes, that's one of the problematic words for us, always forget to use the word shade in the right times, will try our best for the next episodes:) That's true about the time required to do this kind of videos, filming and editing it can take hours. But it is all worth it knowing that it may be useful for some people. And the comments like yours are very much appreciated:)

[@jamesrancho]

Hmm, Via Francigena is not Saint Jacques de Compostelle? I did once from Paris to Saint Jacques, there are lots of refuges and services on the road.

[@sujaeha6833]

I'm Korean. Nice to meet you.. I watched the video and studied a lot. thank you

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

You are welcome! Thank you for watching and commenting.

[@justbob4731]

OUTSTANDING Video. !!!! Thank you !!!

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Thanks, glad you found it helpful!

[@sergeycherenkov6547]

Super vidéo, Merci !!!

[@elnaferreira8418]

Thank you so much. Lovely video. Take care.

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Thank you, it is so nice of you:)

[@loriannmckeever3752]

Thank you. Very informative. (Yes, Italians drivers are special :)

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Thank you for the comment! 😊

[@hildaolivier6169]

Thank you for your valuable information.

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Thank you, glad you found it helpful🙂

[@sujaeha6833]

hello I also walk Via Franchi Gena from 4/1 ^^ Walking from the Vatican to Lucca, and after sightseeing in Venice, climbing the Dolomites Swiss Camino in Liechtenstein, Switzerland For walking along the Rue Pré Street in France^^

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Hello, wow, that sounds incredible, very long and exciting journey ahead of you! Hope you are going to enjoy it and share you experience afterwards:)

[@markanderson8775]

Very helpful. Thank you guys.

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!

[@JoseMCasas]

Thank you very much!

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Happy you found it helpful:)

[@TK-qu1ht]

Thanx guys! Informative!

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Glad you found it useful, thank you for watching

[@NearFromHome]

This was very helpful! We are doing the Via Francigena Lucca to Siena this April :D

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Glad it was useful! It is a beautiful stretch to do in spring, enjoy the experience!

[@DartmoorPaul]

You both create great content. Another really useful, informative video. I’m looking at either Camino or Francigena and your comments really help me make decisions and be aware of challenges I might face. Thank you! By the way, I’m loving my MSR Elixir which was the first video I found you on 🙂

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Thanks a lot of your kind words. Our MSR Elixir is also still serving us as a great tent and it´s still our favorite. Camino and Francigena are similar in many ways but also different in some aspects. Every region and country has its uniqueness for sure. We love that there are many Camino´s to choose from though:)

[@hikyproholky]

Hi, very informative video. Thank you!

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Glad it was helpful!

[@andrearcand2263]

Merci ! J'ai vraiment apprécié vos commentaires.

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Merci beaucoup, André!

[@GiuseppeContinisio]

Nice video and a lot of informations. But sorry, Focaccia and Pizza from Supermarket instead of bakeries? Only in a absolute emergency😅 You should once compare the quality differences😊

[@pinkiesmum]

Wow! Good tips. New subscriber here. But really amazed by the fact that you openly admit to trespassing on private land and wild camping when it is illegal! Trespassing is very offensive to land owners, even if you are not a car! On the other hand, I am sure the Italians would not say anything if you ask to camp for one night, leaving very early in the morning.

[@bettinawernisch6637]

Hi guys, great video, thank you very much! A lot of useful information :) can you tell me what offline app for navigation you would recommend? Where did you find information about timetables of public transport?

[@_..____]

Thank you for this presentation! You mention that find water is a problem at times. I'm used to hike in forests where there is lots of water. How often would you come back a source of water (I will filter it...), even if it's dirty?

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Thanks for the comment! Yes, it was a struggle for us indeed. So sometimes we had to buy water in advance in supermarkets and carry more with us. There is also the tap water available in the towns you pass by every day. In terms of natural water sources we met just a few on that part.

[@olgalichikova9833]

ребята приезжайте на крестный ход Городец-Павлово-Дивеево. Идем каждый год пешком по 300 км к батюшке Серафиму по полям и лесам

[@alycespicer5721]

Hey! What a great and useful video. Thank you. We are a couple traveling in October (on a budget), we are looking for a 7-14 days hike. Any advise besides this one?? Thank you!!

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Thank you for watching! Glad you found it useful. We would suggest doing a hike in Dolomites too if you could move around there, there are plenty of one day and two day hikes you can do. Otherwise we haven't been to the south of Italy, not sure if there are any hikes you can do there. Definetely think to come back to Italy one day.

[@markstringfellow8608]

Thanks for your video. You suggest that September-October would be a good time for walking but then add that you were not sure about "the harvest season on the vineyards." Are you able to explain how "the harvest season on the vineyards" would affect the camino, please.

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Hi, Mark, yes, we think it would be great months for hiking the Via, as for vineyards we referred to the difficulties with wild camping in case of being close to vineyards and them being supervised.

[@jinkyarrabisblog1115]

thanks for sharing..New friend are here

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Thanks for watching and welcome to our channel!:)

[@jinkyarrabisblog1115]

@@WalkingNatureWorld your welcome I hope you visit mine too.

[@papagai15]

Hey ! thanks for your video ! Is there a lot of people on the trail? I enjoy meeting new people and I'm a bit scared of being alone

[@papagai15]

because I want to walk the via francigena alone...

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Thank you so much! We walked it in July and there weren't too many people, but we are quite sure that if we were to walk it in spring or autumn there would be much more hikers due to the more comfortable weather. We could see from the record books that are left throughout the trail, there are enough people walking it so you won't be alone especially if you stay in some hostels.

[@thomasn9295]

Hello, Angelina and Dima, this was great information. This is just what I was looking for to find out a little about this route. I am not sure, but I feel like I met you before. Did you do the Northern Spain Route in 2016? Anyhow, thank you, good and concise video.

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Hello, Thomas, thank you for your comment, happy to know you found this info useful. We actually did the Northern Camino in September 2018, so probably it wasn't us:)

[@Ollie-dh9it]

Hello This was a great video, very informative! How was the mobile signal on the trail? I'm from the UK and we have good 4G coverage across most of the countryside. Did you have coverage along the Via Francigena? I want to hike the trail some time in the future and I was thinking about using mobile apps to navigate, but did you have good enough coverage to access the internet?

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Hello, thank you for leaving the feedback. We found that the signal is always good around the villages and towns that you encounter a lot on this trail and sometimes it was a bit slow in the fields. But we were also using quite an old phone and we think with the new modern one it won't be much problem. Also there are a lot of offline apps you can use too. Hope it helps.

[@ChrisTenalach77777]

Chek the trail sights. On the sights of the trail you can see how fare it is to a drinking water place. In km

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Thanks for the info, we haven't spotted such signs for some reason.

[@mic12345687845]

my total respect. i'm italian. 1800km? wowwwwwwwww

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

Thanks a lot! Yes, the whole trail is aprox 1800km in length. But we did do only the Tuscany part:)

[@mic12345687845]

@@WalkingNatureWorld ah ok ok the next time you come to Italy avoid industrial ice cream and take the artisan one is 100 times better.

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

@@mic12345687845 Thanks for recommendation, though we found that in Italy even industrial ice cream is much better than in any other country;)

[@mic12345687845]

@@WalkingNatureWorld clear is Italy. our only problem is the politicians and the ruling class who ruin us

[@outdoorsman1140]

Thanks for sharing. I’m curious to know why you are not so keen on the fattier bread. Was it the taste or because it might be fattening? In everyday life, we are told to avoid fat because it is fattening. Fat contains twice as much energy (calories/joules) as carbohydrate for the same weight hence it is easy to put on weight. When expending a lot of energy on a long journey, high energy foods for their weight such as oils and fats mean that you don’t carry so much weight and have a smaller food bag, and/or it is easy to re-fuel very quickly with little food bulk when eating something fresh in towns and villages. I even carry a small bottle of olive oil to add to my food in the evening because of the amount of energy that it contains for the size and weight, meaning that I need to carry less other foods. Nuts, particularly the oily nuts are also good high energy food and taste nice as snacks.

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

We are not sure what you mean by "fattier bread"? We prefer to have the multi-cereal dark varieties of bread if possible for its great taste and because it is healthier than a white one but there in Italy we were keen on their focaccia bread which may not be very healthy but tastes amazing to us. And while hiking overall we are not concerned much about how fat the food is because we realize how many calories we burn and that it would be in balance anyway. We do take with us a bottle of olive oil too if you've seen our what's in a backpack series and of course nuts are our main source of energy on the trail not counting chocolate and few other things, these snacks are our base.

[@dysdaffy6905]

In case you really walked the Siena- Acquapendente part of the via Francigena, near Mount Amiata there are hectares and miles of wold forests your eyes can't miss. I cannot understand how you couldn't see them actually 😅. Well I walked last year and I am about to do it again this october. Obviously Tuscany is full of vinegards and agriculture fields and I bet Santiago way as well!

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

We walked the Siena-Radicofani part where we finished our trail and only met some chunks of forest in between the fields, but most of it were very big tall trees like old oaks for example that were astonishing. Sure that the Camino ways are also quite developed and populated, we've heard that Camino Primitivo is one of the wildest nature ways.

[@lesvoyagesdelouis6574]

La vie que j'aime

[@allanwestphall8108]

are there cheaper refuges or hostels for pilgrim wanderers on the way? Can these be used by all, irrespective of faith? I would very much like to walk the Via but not for religious purposes

[@WalkingNatureWorld]

As we stayed in the campgrounds and were wild camping with our tent we don't know much about the refugees. But from a Camino experience you are likely to find a refugee or hostel in almost every village or town but of course need to plan it in advance, to know the opening times, prices and availability. And the albergues used to accept everyone indifferently from their beliefs.