The Via Francigena

by Sandro di Stefano

The medieval roads, unlike the Roman ones, had an official nomenclature and were identified with nicknames, deriving above all from their origins and destination. In the Middle Ages the name "Via Francigena" qualified a road that connected the Italian territories with the world beyond the Alps. The origins of the Via are uncertain, according to some historians this route was traveled for the first time by Hannibal around 217 BC, while for some it derives from the ancient Via Emilia, crossed by the Roman consul Scauro in 109 BC.

The most well-founded hypothesis is its Lombard origin, in fact it was known as "Montebardone", from the name of Mons Longobardorum and its homonymous pass, respectively the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines and the Cisa pass. The “Via di Montebardone” was born around 667 AD from an obligatory choice for the Lombards who had to connect the kingdom of Pavia with the southern duchies, the Via was configured as «a truly fortified territory, attested by a network of fortifications». When the Lombard domination was replaced by the Carolingian one around 774 AD, the Via became a major communication road, useful for connecting France with Rome through the Italian territories of the reconstructed Holy Roman Empire. From the territory of origin, the expression Francigena (or Francesca). In 820 AD, the new road of the Franks was hit by important "modernization" and "renovation" operations aimed at improving circulation on it, making it a major communication road used by pilgrims marching towards Rome but guaranteeing easy transit also to the merchants who converged from France and Italy on the great Champagne fairs. The most important itinerary source for the purposes of reconstructing the route of the Way in this period was the diary (990 AD) in which Sigeric, archbishop of Canterbury, wrote down the stages and memories of his return journey from Rome where he had gone to become pope John XV could invest him with the archbishop's pallium. The road thus rearranged became a crucial communication route for European cultural unity in the Middle Ages, along which people and goods, but also knowledge and experiences, passed with the slowness and depth typical of those who move on foot. A rhythm, that of one's steps, which also allows modern pilgrims a better understanding of the territory, the history, the people; of the past and present. The journey turns into a gradual immersion in the roots of our culture, in which we let the imperceptible changes in the landscape, the small and large works of art, the few people we meet along the Way, transmit their message to us. Which we can assimilate step by step, calmly, to understand its essence, far from the media chaos that characterizes our every day, and which does not allow us to understand one piece of news before the next one arrives, the rhythms and dilated spaces of the Francigena path change our perception of the world, bringing us back to a medieval vision of what surrounds us. We have to deal with practical problems such as hunger, thirst, heat and cold, fear of the dark in the woods at dusk, or of a dog chasing us along the path.

The Via Francigena is also a transversal journey across the Italian territory, an interesting alignment of completely different geographical, productive and social realities. The landscape changes seamlessly: from the Valle d'Aosta pastures to the industrial and agricultural plain of Piedmont; from the Grande Fiume to the rolling Emilian hills; from the harshness of northern Tuscany to the sweetness of the Crete Senesi, to the enchantment of the volcanic lakes of Lazio. And with the landscape the professions, the people, the social fabric, the population density change: we move from the depopulation of the Alpine and Apennine valleys to the overcrowding of the Roman villages, traveling through the Italian province, in its various declinations. An extraordinarily beautiful route, unexpectedly new and original even for those who already know the places crossed. Change the point of view, change the pace. Many of us know the various towns we pass through, or at least think we know them: in reality, only by progressing along the Francigena route do we realize how much the Road has influenced the urban fabric of the villages which often develop in length, and line up along the Via the main churches and the most beautiful buildings.

Perhaps we know many of the Romanesque masterpieces that populate the Francigena, but on our journey we encounter them one after the other, fully understanding the importance of this itinerary, and the influence it had on the religious and artistic development of an era. The road brings uncertainties, joys and tiredness, but finally arriving at Monte Mario makes us savor with gusto after so much walking the view from the top of the Dome of St. Peter, surrounded only by the branches of the trees, and the pilgrim savors the final descent to make its last stop before the longed-for destination, that is, San Lazzaro.