The route

Some historic routes from Augsburg to Rome.

As a Pilgrim on the way to Rome, you can not expect the great infrastructure with signes and accomodation, that is existant on the way of Saint James to Santiago de Compostella. Since all the roads lead to Rome, it's pretty hard to find the right one. So I took inspiration from recordings of travelers in medieval times and ancient routes. I will follow the Roman road called Via Claudia Augusta, that connects southern Germany and nothern Italy until Schongau. There I will switch to the Hauksbók-route, wich is described in an Islandic manuscript dating from the 14th century. It will lead me across the Brenner Pass to Brixen. The next etappes will be Bolzano, Trento and Verona. All these steps match with the route of Albert of Stade, a 13th-century abbot from Hamburg. From there I will try to find my own way across the Po-valley to get onto the important Pilgrim-route called Via Francigena. It represents the way that Sigeric the Serious, the Archbishop of Canterbury walked in the 10th century, but is probably much older. I hope to find well marked ways and also other Pilgrims there. Closer to the end, it will hit the routes of other historic persons like Martin Luther and Johann Wolfgang von Göthe.