Walking Lucca as a Pilgrim

Our reason for being in Lucca is that it is the starting point for our small section of walking the Via Francigena. This is an ancient pilgrimage route that goes from Canterbury in England to Rome ( and for dedicated pilgrims the route goes south to Santa Maria Leuca in the heel of Italy from where they set sail for Jerusalem).

Canterbury to Rome is a distance of 1900 kms.

In 990 - 994 A.D Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, went to Rome to receive his palium  from the Pope. A palium is a stole type article that was (and is)  the official symbol of the office of Archbishop. On his return journey he recorded his route and where he stopped and the record is still in existence at the British Library. It is also the basis for the modern Via Francigena which has become increasingly popular.

For our part, we are walking alone from Lucca to Siena, a distance of  between 100 & 120 kms. However, thanks to the great plans in place  at RAW Travel in Mornington we have extensive walking notes, printed maps and a GPS system tailored to our specific walk.

To help us forget the horrors of the previous day we threw ourselves into doing the pilgrimage route as the pilgrims would have done passing through Lucca. We walked around the city walls to Porta Santa Maria, the ancient entry gate into town from the north. We entered through the gate and walked on to the Basilica di San Frediano, then to the Chiesa di San Michele in Foro, the Chiesa di Santa Giulia and finally to the Cattedrale di San Martino. 

Later we left the city through the Porta Sant' Elisa, then visited the Sanctuario di Santa Gemma a stunningly attractive modern church and convent dedicated to a local saint, Gemma Galgani.

We finished the day with more walking around the wall, exited at a spot that had multiple restaurants and sat down at the first space we came to. Pizza with tomato, mozzarella, gorgonzola and salami. Bliss.

Viewing the wooden statue of the Holy Face is one of the features of the Duomo however at the moment it is undergoing restoration. Kel noticed that Jesus has tape on his feet, no sacrilege intended but maybe he had blisters or was preventing them?