CicloVia Francigena - Part 4
The meanderings of two unusual souls on their way to Rome on the back of steel donkeys
Part 4 - The markings of the way
Forget the abundance of arrows of the Camino, the cycling path for the via Francigena is an authentic mess. There’s a harsh dispute between different schools of thought on where the way should pass. We saw at least three competing markings for the (red) walking path, and heard stories from several hospitaleros about the business interests behind the route promoted as official. Despite those petty power games, the marking of the walking path was definitely in a better shape than that of the cycling one (blue). Signs for cyclist were few and far between, too small and often pointing in an ambiguous direction. In some cases they were literally hidden behind other signs, or, worse, there were unmarked junctions where only a blind guess or the GPS track could help. On the biggest roads, the choice was to either crank down the speed in the hope of spotting a sign before a car crashed on your back, or hold a good pace and then risk having to swerve in front of a driver at the last second…
One thing we learned is that the cycling and walking paths are often very different, so that following red signs for too long was a sure way to get into trouble…be it in the form of gravel, quicksand, vertical climbs, or river crossings.
But there was also another doubt that started to bug us. Isn’t this whole ciclovia just the fruit of a crazy mind? There were stages when we would literally spiral around in all directions to find ourselves still in visual reach of the departure point. Others when we were sent across crazy woods, instead of a nice quiet paved road. Some paths were authentic traps: a few times my baggage flew off when hitting an oversized pot hole… The last straw for us was at the end of the taxing uphill to San Quirico. At the last mile, a sign tries to lure you off the paved road up to an impracticable gravel wall…just to send you back on the road half a kilometer later! Being disciplined pilgrims (and lazy planners), we vowed to stick to the way, but we ended up paying this choice dearly. Rome had to be traded with the more modest Viterbo.
A few rules of the thumb helped us keeping on the right path:
1) If it’s a gravel uphill wall… It’s probably the Francigena!
2) Don’t ask –don’t know. Stop trying to understand the road. Assume there’s always a crazy uphill coming up around the corner
3) At no point of the stage can we declare to be half way: final destinations are often villages perched on gruesome hills!
4) Any mistake is costly. On the very last day we missed a turn during a downhill and dug ourselves into a hole. In only half a kilometer we had lost more than 150m of altitude!
5) Remember that those who marked the cycling path probably never biked
We survived and we got to Rome (by train) so you can trust us!
