I am travelling north on a train. Although slightly to the west of my intended route later in the summer, with a blue, cloudless sky and fresh green vegetation everywhere, the countryside does look very appealing and only stands to encourage me to get on my bike in […]
Basil & Liz Ford – trying to keep warm over a beer in what passes for “café culture” at The Oracle, Reading. Basil is a fellow languages teacher and they are the couple who spend their holidays in Puglia. Should you be planning to visit the area yourself, […]
Just been checking availability of the youth hostels and they are fine until…. The Peak District. Many seem to be closed for “summer camps” in August, including Alstonefield and Crowden. Alstonefield is not really a problem as there are the other two places I have already identified, but […]
OK. More progress planning my trip to Yorkshire this summer. I have identified some Youth Hostels en route, or just off the route in some cases, that I could use. Although they are by no means equidistant from each other, they do split the journey into a 6-day […]
OK. Three maps and one route from Reading to Yorkshire. The middle map – Leicester, Coventry & Rugby – is twice the size of the other two so that section is a bit enlarged on the second picture. When you mark the route on the maps it doesn’t […]
Just finished reading Peter Moore’s book “Vroom with a View” where he rides a 1961 Vespa from Milan to Rome. He takes the route of more or less the Via Francigena – it even gets a mention (see below) a couple of times. Nice read that can’t fail […]
I have found the following site:http://www.directferries.co.uk/routes.htm which has a nice graphic allowing you to see where ferries go from and to in Europe. It doesn’t look as though Slaerno – Olbia is a possibility. The best alternative seems to be Naples – Palau in Sardinia and then a […]
Thanks to Silvia Nilsen (“Sil” to her friends!) for posting the details:
Swine flu is a bit worrying…. let’s hope we all make it to August 2010. A British Airways member of cabin crew is reporting flu like symptoms after having returned from Mexico City and has been hospitalised. Mmmm…Anyway, my new friends in New Zealand have replied:“Thanks for that […]
A couple of new links – and useful ones by the look of them.I was contacted by a lady in South Africa a couple of weeks ago who goes by the name of “Amawalker”. She had seen this blog and has kindly put a message of the Yahoo […]
Despite the technical problems with my chain and the resulting train journey to work on Monday, the rest of the week went to plan, to the extent that I have a “plan” in the first place for my cycle from Reading to Henley-on-Thames and back! It’s about 16 […]
My commuting to work by bike – usually a 30 minute early-morning workout – takes a step back as I have had to resort to the train with my broken chain. I will take the bike to be repaired this afternoon. All things considered – broken bike and […]
My Saturday evening reading has, temporarily, brought my mind back to Pulglia 2010 and my plans to follow the Via Francigena to Rome and beyond. The book that I am reading – Vroom With a View – recounts the travels (on a 1961 Vespa) of the author, Peter […]
I bought the maps and got the 3 for the price of 2 offer…. except that the Peak District “Tour” map won’t arrive until the end of the month. It’s fun however, with the two maps that I have got, following the route. It doesn’t actually seem that […]
Now this map shows the no-brainer routes from Reading to Stratford-upon-Avon and from Derby to Huddersfield (covered by the two maps mentioned below). The question is whether I continue via Birmingham (the blue circle on the left) or whether I continue via Coventry (the red circle on the […]
My focus must now be on what I have predictably called “Yorkshire 2009” (no change of website however!). And I am making good progress already. Thanks to the National Cycle Network, my route planning is more or less done for me. This probably won’t be the case next […]
Today will go down as a milestone on my road to Puglia 2010. Many good things have happened, one an out of the blue but “why didn’t I think of that earlier?” idea that I shall come to in a few moments (the map on the left is […]
No wonder they are going down the pan. My books were delivered this morning – at 8.30am. I was in, getting ready to head off to the swimming pool. The postman must have arrived, discovered that he was not able to fit the books into the small letter […]
The handbook is ordered. Cleared up the confusion over the publication dates at Waterstones this afternoon. It looks as though the 2004 edition is the most recently updated. The 2007 version was simply a reprint. It should be here on Wednesday of next week.In the meantime, I am […]
As I twittered, I did my spinning class last night. It was good fun. And hard work. And as predicted, the instructor, a nice chap in his 50s, did camp the whole thing up to and extraordinary degree. At one point (while pedalling madly to a western style […]
The gym induction went well. The council run gym at Palmer Park in Reading is OK. It doesn’t have the all singing and dancing facilities that you would find in a privately-run place (free towels, sauna, piped music in changing areas etc…) but at the end of the […]
There is a risk of this blog becoming a bit monotonous: I just went swimming again this morning but refrained from sending a Twitter message…Jon in Australia has emailed back. I had told him that I aimed to get from Reading to Berkshire in a maximum of six […]
I got an email from a chap in Brisbane today – he is planning on doing the trip in May 2010. This is what makes the Internet such a fantastic tool! Nice of you to get in contact Jon (if you are reading this). Anybody else out there? […]
I spend far too much money on too many books that I never finished reading. But I bought one today that is about travelling through Italy. It’s got a naff title: “Vroom by the Sea”. I did look at cycling books but there was nothing on offer in […]
Probably very immodest to say so but I do like the look of the new blog. I still get the impression I am the only person reading it however. The Twitter updates over there on the right might drag in the punters…. perhaps.The composite picture up at the […]
The are some questions to which I need to find a definitive answer over the course of the next few weeks. Let’s set 10th June 2009 – my 40th birthday – as my deadline. The questions are:– Do I do my cycle ride for charity?– If so, which […]
This blog has become (for the reasonable price of $10 or £7.70) http://www.puglia2010.com . And just to make life simple, I have renamed the email address: puglia2010@hotmail.co.uk .
It’s been a long winter break but I am back to update my blog. Cycling to work in the cold, wet, snowy winter months, my mind went off cycling, but as the spring warms my little life in Reading, Berkshire, so the enthusiasm for cycling to southern Italy […]
The first numerical milestone, although you could argue that 699 is more of a change. It will take about three and a half months to knock off each 100 days and I look forward to being as committed as I am now to doing the ride in the […]
I went to great lengths on Google Maps earlier this evening to plot the route from town to town – about 15 of them – and then get Google to fill in the bits in the middle. It did that and told me that it is only 2,700 […]
Edging ever closer to the 700 day point, I have just started to re-read Tim Moore’s book called French Revolutions. A month before the Tour de France in 2000 he decided to spend 6 weeks cycling the route of the tour. That year it was 3,630 kilometres – […]
Another useful site – and an incentive to improve my Italian! – “La proposta della Federazione Italiana Amici della Bicicletta” (“The Website (?) of the Italian Federation of Friends of the Bike”). Look – my route is on the picture! It’s here: http://www.bicitalia.org
A few developments since I last wrote:1. I have been discovered – by the people I know who spend their summers in Puglia and whose idylic holiday destination / yoga retreat you can link to over there on the right under “The destination in Puglia”. Check out their […]
It is a strange thing, but being on holiday for six weeks every summer means that you forget the passage of time and struggle to say what day it is. With my blog vote (still four votes), however, I can say that it is 714 days until I […]
Still waiting for my maps!
I have another vote – and my plan is still “inspired” after (only) 4 votes!I couldn’t sleep last night so when I eventually did nod off it wasn’t until 10.30am that I woke. Expecting to feel very stiff after yesterday’s efforts, I was glad to discover that my […]
Was it the fact that Britain won its first Olympic Gold in Beijing in cycling or was it my good mood (see earlier post). I decided to cycle to London via Windsor and then catch the train back from Paddington. I did all that – it took about […]
It is so nice to have had a good night’s sleep and to wake up without a hangover from excessive alcohol and late night stodgy food. It is one of those feelings that you really wish you could bottle and open up on the days that you don’t… […]
I have a third vote over there. I’m still inspired. 🙂After the British Library, I went to the British Museum to meet two friends and to see an exhibition about Hadrian – the Roman Emperor. He was refreshingly liberated in his personal life :).In the shop afterwards, I […]
This morning I went down to London, applied for and obtained a card to become an official “reader” of the British Library (sounds grand but the entrance criteria were not tough!) and found my document. As I sat in the manuscripts reading room I made the following notes:“I […]
I bought (at great expense) some updates for my Filofax (which must use more this year), including year planners for both 2009 and 2010. It looks like the summer holidays in 2010 will be from Friday 23rd July to Monday 6th September. I could aim to do the […]
I mention below my need to get my Italian up to scratch for the trip and this afternoon I enrolled on a course at the University of Reading School of Continuing Education (posh words for “night school!). It all kicks off on Thursday 9th October.
Well they got back to me with the correct reference: I wasn’t too far away – it is “Cotton Tiberius B V Part 1, folio 23 verso to folio 24 [TEXT ONLY]”. They call it the “correct foliation”. I can see a facsimile on CD which they have […]
I have just spoken to a very helpful gentleman at the British Library who explained the procedure for accessing the original document – it doesn’t look as though that is a possibility as it is such a rare and delicate part of the Cotton Collection – but they […]
“The manuscript collections of the antiquary, Huntingdonshire landowner and administrator, Sir Robert Cotton (1571-1631) contain many maps, charts and plans. Cotton’s collecting was driven by a blend of patriotism and a passion for antiquity. The latter accounts for the presence of one of the earliest detailed European world […]
“ManuscriptsSigeric’s journey back from Rome after receiving his pallium (either AD989 or AD990) is recorded in a manuscript… in the British Library. The manuscript forms part of the Cotton collection: Tiberius B.v., folios 34 and 35.”
The document is from the International Francigena site (a German organisation I think – hence the cycle route being in German and English?) http://www.francigena-international.org . But is it the original handwritten script of Segeric? At the very bottom of the document it states that this is from the […]
Adventus archiespiscopi nostri Sigeric ad Romam : primitus ad limitem beati Petri apostoli : deinde ad Sanctam Mariarn scolarn Anglorum: ad Sanctum Laurentium in craticula : ad Sanctum Valentinum in ponte Molui : ad Sanctam Agnes : ad Sanctum Laurentium foris murum : ad Sanctum Sebastianum : ad […]
“Usually the pilgrims were men, but women could undertake the trip as well. The person had to pay his debts, prepare a will, receive from his local priest his pilgrim costume, ask forgiveness of anyone whom he might have offended and finally to say goodbye to everyone before […]
A good, clear picture of the route from Cantebury to Rome and confirmation, if it is needed that “The roads that Sigeric followed became known as the Via Francigena (the road to France) or “Via Romea” (the road to Rome)”. Hence the name of the blog.http://www.san-quirico.com/francigena_eng.htm
Here is a picture of the serious monk himself – at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset complete with plaque….
I speak fluent French – I teach it. 700 days should allow me to bring my Italian up to a very good standard. Another incentive. There is a course at the University of Reading that I shall sign up for today… For the bit across German-speaking Switzerland, I […]
Two people who have completed the pilgrimage twice – first on horseback then on bike – have produced a very detailed blog and two guidebooks. The blog is at http://www.pilgrimagepublications.blogspot.com and the guides can be purchased athttp://www.pilgrimagepublications.com/EUShop/PayPal/ppvfbooks.html . They seem t be cheaper at Amazon.co.uk…..
“Thanks to the work of the International Scientific Committee, we are today in a position to retrace this route on the basis of a document left to us by Sigeric, Archibishop of Canterbury. In 994, on his way back to Canterbury from Rome, he described the itinerary and […]
Wonderful quote:“The Via Francigena is a historical itinerary leading to Rome from Canterbury, a major route which in the past was used by thousands of pilgrims on their way to Rome. At the beginning of the 11th century mainly, a multitude of souls “looking for their Lost Heavenly […]
Archbishop Sigeric, our friend who first described the route of my trip (from Cantebury to Rome) has a couple of local connections. According to Wikipedia he was elected Abbot of St Augustine’s in about 975 to 990, and consecrated by Archbishop Dunstan to the See of Ramsbury and […]
I have 723 according to Blogspot (see the vote I have just put over there on the right) assuming that I leave on the 1st August 2010.
That is up for discussion. I certainly won’t be cycling back to the UK. The beer that I have with my friends near Ostuni in Puglia will be well deserved and I won’t be repeating the journey in reverse. That said, I have been thinking about travelling back […]
Good question. And a complicated answer. I have just turned 39 and am beginning to enter a “mid-life crisis”. Summer 2009 is too short a time to make the changes I want to make to my life. In two years however, I think I have a chance. Cycling […]
Where is the adventure in that? Plus it is not very green. I gave up on my car more than 12 months ago and have been cycling the 8 miles to work in Henley-on-Thames (and back) every day since, so I have been in training to cycle (albeit […]
I live in South-East England – Reading, Berkshire to be exact, so not far from the start of the route in London. I have a friend who has bought a house in Puglia – the heel of Italy – and he has invited me to visit. I have […]
…is to cycle the route from London to Brindisi in the summer of 2010.
The route starts in London, passes through Canterbury, Dover and Calais, Brussels, Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Basel, Luzern, Milan, Parma, Siena, Rome and ends on the the Adriatic coast in Brindisi.
Originally…The ancient route from Canterbury to Rome, followed by archbishops travelling to receive from the pope their symbols of authority as well as ordinary pilgrims en route to Rome or onward to Jerusalem, has become known as the Via Francigena. It was first formally described by Archbishop Sigeric […]
