Brian Slattery

This is a picaresque and mostly true account of the sixth stage of a pilgrimage from Canterbury to Rome, which follows a meandering version of the ancient pilgrimage route called the Via Francigena.  I started the trek in 2015 with my son, Mike, and hiked for roughly three weeks each successive year until interrupted by the Covid lockdown.   The current stage resumes where I left off in 2019 – in the village of Embrun in the French Alps.  It covers some 350 km and crosses the Alps into Italy through the pass at Montgenevre, ending in the town of Pavia.  It will take two more stages to reach Rome, which lies about 750 km south of Pavia.  Here is a rough map of the entire route so far.  It doesn’t correspond to the actual hiking path but at least shows the start and end points for each year of the hike:  (2015) Canterbury to Reims via Dover & Calais   (2016) Reims to Vézelay (2017) Vézelay to Le Puy (2018) Le Puy to Ai...