The Via Francigena Part 15 route map |

Monte Mario ~  Vatican City  ~  ROME  |

Distance: 40km (2,078/1,900km) |

S l o w time:  2 days |

Views of the Basilica at Monte Mario Park  |  The Spanish Steps  |  St Peter’s Square and Basilica |  Behind doors of the Vatican | 

To walk to Rome you will need:

  • 2 walkers, just about done
  • 4 legs, browned
  • 115l of combined luggage
  • 2000km of walking (completed before you start)
  • Smatterings of blood, sweat and tears
  • The stiff peaks and domes of Vatican City

Pre-plan for nine months and then stir until thoroughly combined. And you’re done!

But don’t let the simplicity of the ingredient list fool you: a bit like beginning a 2,000km walk to Rome, ending one is pretty bloody fraught.

The thoughts, emotions and memories you have are so numerous that they just all congeal together to create a fuzzy layer of disbelief. It just kinda mutes everything. All these things had gone into getting us to Rome but it seemed surreal.

How do you really take it all in?

Well, this is what we found out about how to walk to Rome, and finish the Via Francigena.

Walk to Rome

Our last day (or two) started in La Storta, part of the wide sprawl of Rome. Past shops we walked, past huge apartment blocks, billboards, industrial bins, long busy roads.

Eventually we made it to the wrought iron gate of the park of Monte Mario, the highest hill in Rome. Any view of Rome so far had just looked like a hazy mass of buildings, still faraway and unreal. How could we be all that close to it?

But we cut up to the top of the hill and suddenly caught sight of tthe broad dome of St Peter’s Basilica, our finishing line on the Via Francigena. It was literally breath-taking, so much closer than we had imagined: we could pick out the colours in the roof, see the columns encircling the dome.

Walk to Rome

In that moment, we started thinking about odd, unconnected parts of this walk to Rome. Hey, remember when we met that woman walking her shih tzu in Kent on our first day? Or when near Reims how a man on a canal boat offered us a lift as far as we liked – how about to Marseille? Or a hour spent eating brownies from a man 1,200m up the Alps?

We weren’t sure about the relevance of all that, but it suddenly all seemed important.

We followed rough cobbles down the hill and into the suburban areas of Rome. It had suddenly started looking city-ish, busy, tall. We found we were dragging our feet, and stopped in a café, consulting the guidebook one last time, and stopping to look around.

Walk to Rome
Walk to Rome

And when there wasn’t anymore to do, we walked on, down those last streets. You begin to notice every stride, every muscle working. Working like they’ve done for the past four months, and working like they always do to get you someplace. It was like pride to feel it still going even now.

We passed the Spanish Steps, one of Rome’s world famous tourist sites. Early in the morning still, it was deserted and wonderful.

  • Walk to Rome
  • Walk to Rome

The buildings grew grander and whiter. We didn’t need the map now to tell us where we were.

We were stopped near a white pillar. ‘Bags,’ a man in blue uniform ordered. We looked at each other, and at the huge packs. We heaved them off for him to root through, and waited some more.

Walk to Rome

Beyond the white pillar was a broad street, where we were diverted left. We walked around with baited breath.

And out of nowhere we were there. How it had stayed hidden we don’t know, but suddenly we were faced with the enormous dome and ornate façade of St Peter’s Basilica.

The Vatican. Rome.

Our legs stopped walking. Just for a few minutes –we still had things to do– but it didn’t escape us that that moment of stopping was The Actual End of our walk to Rome.

Walk to Rome

We sent a picture to our parents (of course) and continued around the side, to find a Swiss Guard. We were here to finish our pilgrimage, we explained. He looked at us. ‘Shorts,’ he said, pointing at our legs. A quick change.

We were ushered into a small courtyard and into a security office. He eyed us and gave us two visitor badges, telling us to go through a door opposite.

Cue security guard #3, who pointed us upstairs. We walked together to a sacristy where five priests swept past us. It was weirdly nerve-wracking walking a marble hall in our walking clothes.

Security guard #4 whipped out two sheets of paper from his desk when he saw us. Can we take a picture? We asked.

‘No.’ He said, not looking up.

We were back in the courtyard within minutes, clutching our papers and passports.  Blank pages filled, finally complete.

Other than surly Vatican security, how cool that we got to go through a private entrance, flanked by Renaissance guards, into the Vatican ITSELF to complete our walk?

We kept a beady but unsuccessful eye out for the Pope the whole time (he does appear on Sundays and Wednesdays in St Peter’s Square if you’re interested).

In the days that followed, we wandered sunny Rome and began the subtle change from ‘pilgrim’ to ‘normal’. We bought new clothes, we slept in. But we returned to the Basilica again and again, trying to get our heads around the end, just as we had tried to soak up the beginning four months prior.

There are a few amazing things to see in Rome that seemed connected to our long, long walk. We visited the Trevi Fountain, where we had thrown coins when we last visited Rome, years before. Well we were back, just like they say!

We also visited the Scala Sancta, the set of holy stairs said to have been the stairs Jesus walked up to be sentenced to death.

And if churches so please you there are in fact twenty-three that the original Via Francigena guy Sigeric whizzed around when he arrived in Rome too.

Walk to Rome
Walk to Rome

So. How do you walk to Rome? What does it feel like?

We started this post with a recipe: put in all this stuff and ta-da! you come up with a triumphant entrance to Rome.

But that’s not what we really found. This might surprise you, but the end moment seemed less of a big thing. It only made sense as (an important) one of the many, many moments that had made up this amazing experience.

After all, by the time you get to Rome, you’re just another person in a crowd that is wandering to Vatican City. Maybe it’d be cool if you had some kind of huge banner to carry around: ‘WE WALKED HERE FROM ENGLAND, ADULATE ETC’.

Walk to Rome

But that’s not how life works is it? Your achievements you carry within you, and experiences are so much more than just the bit at the end.

We realised we treasured the little moments of this walk to Rome. Like: drinking tea at the top of the Alps, seeing Lake Geneva for the first time, eating that first Italian gelato.

But these bits too: that time we sat in a bus stop five days in looking for trains home because it all felt SO hard.

Or when someone actually jumped on our tent at 2am, bending our poles beyond repair.

Orrr even that time we had to find a doctor for Luke’s third infected sting of the trip, as it had turned his leg into something like a boiled purple vegetable.

Treasured not because those bits were really enjoyable (they weren’t) but because those were the bits that made it feel real. And the loop-the-loop excitement of seeing and feeling the textures of so many places, people and things.

So we let go of the pressure of Rome as ‘The Perfect End’, of all the STUFF in our heads. We’ll just remember the stones of St Peter’s Square worn smooth by feet; the shimmer of the coins at the bottom of the Trevi Fountain and our brown skin against the blue water; the frown of Security Guard #3; and the autumn light on the tops of the beautiful buildings around each piazza.

Our relief, trepidation and happiness to be in that beautiful place.

Walk to Rome

It’s just occurred to us too that this blog writing has been a part of this: our chance to collect as many of these moments as possible, to keep them, to process them and not forget them. And to pass the wonder of it all –the wonder of life, we suppose– on.

-END-

Find out more: our full Via Francigena Guide, updated for 2020

Walk to Rome

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