In this post, I wanted to provide some more information about the route that we will be taking this summer. As I have previously mentioned we will be following the Via Francigena through Italy (until Milan to be precise). At Milan we will be heading North and begin to follow the EuroVelo 5, which we will follow the whole way to London.
The Via Francigena is an old path that dates back to the (at the latest) 725 A.D. It was designed to be a route for pilgrims from France to follow to pay Homage to the Vatican in Rome. However, since it linked all the way to the North Coast of France it was quickly connected to the cathedral of Canterbury in England. One of the first documents journeys of the trip from Canterbury to the Vatican was in the 10th Century by Sigeric the Serious, the Archbishop of Canterbury. As such traditionally the path is intended to be followed from North to South. However, for our purposes this summer, since we are not treating this as a Pilgrimage, we plan to do the route in reverse thus hoping to escape most the really hot weather of Rome in the summer. Unfortunately, the Via Francigena is also designed to be a walking path and, as such, is not ideally suited for bicycles in many spots. This is the reason that we will not follow the Via Francigena exactly after Milan. Below is a picture of the route of the Via Francigena and as you can see, the Via Francigena goes much more into France than we will this summer.
That being said though, through Italy we will largely be following the path exactly. This will mean we will be winding through the hills of Tuscany, cutting through vineyards, and dropping to the coast at Massa just north of Pisa, where hopefully a scene like the one below will great us.
The riding through Italy will be some of the hardest (aside from crossing the alps), due to the very hilly terrain of Italy. Looking at the elevation profile really shows the beginning portion very jagged and hilly leading all the way to the Alps, but after the Alps the profile shows a relatively gradual decrease in elevation all the way to the Channel.
Talking of the Alps brings me to the EV5. As I mentioned, we will be picking up the EV 5 in Milan. From there we will head North to Como and then into Switzerland to begin the long climb to the base of the Alps. We will be crossing the Alps using Gotthard Pass in Switzerland, where the below rode will await us:
After that day we cross Switzerland and then flirt with the Franco-German border for many, many miles before entering Luxembourg and the Belgium. From there we enter France one more time to catch a ferry from Calais to Dover in the United Kingdom. Once we reach London, we will have to leave the EV 5 (as this is where it terminates) and pick up the EV 2 to carry us to Hollyhead on the coat. It all seems almost trivial, until you start to remember the mileages that we will be riding (to see a break down see the Planned Itinerary page of this blog).
The EV 5 is part of the much larger EuroVelo bike network. This network composes 14 long distance cycling routes all over and around Europe. As of May of 2013 the network had 27,962 miles of route in place, and the plan is to extend the network to 43,496 miles by the end of 2020. The EV network is a project of the European Cyclists' Federation in conjunction with the European Union. The goal of the network is simple, make long distance bicycle touring (much like we are doing) easier and more accessible to all. The routes combine national bike routs, designated bike paths, existing general purpose roads, and stretches of brand new bike routes. According to Wikipedia (a source for a lot of the information in this post so far) the current route infrastructure is broken up by type as follows (n.b. this is for all routes in the EV network):
- Bicycle path/lane: 14%
- Traffic-free asphalted road: 8%
- Traffic-free non-asphalted road: 6%
- Public low-traffic, asphalted road: 56%
- Public non-asphalted road: 3%
- Public high-traffic, asphalted road: 14%
Below shows a map of all the EV routes in existence (or in the planning/development phase) throughout Europe.
Below are some pictures from the EuroVelo website of what they consider are highlights of the EV 5 (EuroVelo Website):
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| Rome, Italy |
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| Tuscany Region in Italy |
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| The 3 Castles of Bellinzona, Ialy |
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| Chapel Bridge in Lucerne, Switzerland |
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| The Alsatian Vineyards in France |
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| Luxembourg City, Luxembourg |
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| Brussels, Belgium |
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| The White Cliffs of Dover, United Kingdom |
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| Canterbury Cathedral, United Kingdom |
This is all just some of what we have to look forward to over the course of this trip. I think I am going to end here, I wanted to giver a brief overview of the routes we are taking, talk a but about their histories, and a bit about what we will see, and I feel I have accomplished that. With that I will leave you all. Till next time.
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