From Alpine passes to medieval hill towns, volcanic uplands and river valleys, five of Europe's great walking routes cross through Italy. And, of course, all roads lead to Rome.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
That pull towards Rome is nothing new. Pilgrims have walked to Rome for more than a thousand years. They came from England, Germany, the Baltic states and across the Mediterranean world. The roads they followed carried ideas, faith, trade and identity across the continent.
Many of those ancient roads still exist, still waymarked, still walked.
The Via Francigena, the Via di Francesco, the Cammino di San Benedetto, the Romea Strata and the Via Romea Germanica, together known as the Antichi Cammini d'Italia, or Ancient Walking Routes of Italy, each carry Council of Europe certification and together trace some of the most historically rich terrain on the continent.
Slow travel, the idea that how you move through a place matters as much as where you end up, is now one of the fastest-growing segments of cultural tourism in Europe.
Italy, with five certified transnational routes threading its length, makes a compelling case for being the continent's finest walking destination.
The road that started it all
The Via Francigena, or ‘the road from France’ is the most internationally recognised of the five. Since 1994 it’s been certified as a Council of Europe Cultural Route.
It follows the ancient travel diary of Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, who in 990 AD recorded every one of the 79 stages on his return to England from Rome.
More than a thousand years later, walkers cover the same ground. Within Italy alone, it spans 1,000 kilometres across 45 stages, from the Great St Bernard Pass south through Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Liguria, Tuscany and into Lazio.
The final stages through Lazio follow ancient Roman roads into the capital, where the route ends at St Peter's Basilica in Rome.
A medieval archbishop's travel diary became the blueprint for one of Europe's great walking routes.
In the footsteps of Francis
Few figures are as tied to landscape as Francis of Assisi (1182–1226). He renounced his inheritance, embraced radical simplicity, and spent his life moving through the landscapes of central Italy. The route that bears his name, the Via di Francesco, the Way of Saint Francis, traces the ground he knew best.
The route runs in two directions, north and south, both ending in the historic town of Assisi.
The Southern Way is slightly longer- 300 kilometres in 13 stages from Rome, through the Sabine countryside and the Rieti Holy Valley. Four sacred sites connected to the life of Francis mark some of the most important pilgrimage stops in Italy, including Greccio, the site of the world's first nativity scene dating back to 1223.
Those who complete the full route receive the Testimonium, a certificate of completion, at the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi.
Silence, stone and a thousand years of monasticism
The Cammino di San Benedetto or The Way of Saint Benedict, is perhaps the least-known of the five internationally, and all the better for it.
Benedict of Norcia, referred to as The Father of Western Monasticism, left his mark on three places in central Italy: Norcia, where he was born around 480 AD; Subiaco, where he lived for over thirty years and founded thirteen monasteries; and Montecassino, where he established the abbey that bears his order's name. The Cammino di San Benedetto links all three.
It’s roughly 300 kilometres, with 16 stages that pass through Umbria and Lazio, it features some of Italy’s quieter, unspoilt landscapes: including Subiaco, where the Abbey of Santa Scolastica housed Italy's first printing press in 1465. Benedict has been Patron of Europe since 1964.
For walkers who prefer their routes unmarked by crowds, it is arguably the most compelling of the five.
Italy's newest certified route - and its most ambitious
The Romea Strata is the most recently certified of the five, receiving its Council of Europe designation on 17 June 2025.
It also has the largest footprint: more than 4,000 kilometres across seven countries, (Italy, Austria, Czechia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia), 245 stages and over 50 UNESCO sites, reconstructing the web of roads that once carried pilgrims from the Baltics to Rome.
The main Italian section is approximately 1,000 kilometres and is divided into 47 stages from Tarvisio to Lazio.
In its final approach, the route joins the Via Francigena and shares its closing passage to Rome through the Tuscia of Viterbo, the volcanic uplands north of the capital that feel worlds away from the city below.
A medieval abbot's road through the heart of Lazio
The Via Romea Germanica has one of the great origin stories in European walking.
Its route is based on a journey recorded by Abbot Albert of Stade in his Annales Stadenses of 1236, a medieval itinerary that still holds up across some 2,200 kilometres from Stade in northern Germany to Rome.
The Italian section enters at the Brenner Pass and descends for around 1,050 kilometres before joining the Via Francigena at Montefiascone.
From there, the route moves through some of Lazio's most distinctive terrain: Bolsena on its volcanic lake, Viterbo, Sutri, and a variant that takes in Civita di Bagnoregio, a clifftop town above eroded tufa valleys that has barely changed since the medieval pilgrims who passed through it.
Italy's slow travel moment
Antichi Cammini d'Italia, Ancient Walking Routes of Italy, brings these five routes together under a coordinated international promotion for the first time, positioning Italy as Europe's reference point for slow cultural tourism.
The timing feels right. Travellers increasingly want journeys that reward attention, routes that carry history in every stage, and destinations that reveal themselves gradually.
Italy, with five certified routes, centuries of layered heritage and a final destination that needs no introduction, offers all of that. Italy's ancient routes don't just lead to Rome. They give you a reason to walk there.
The only question is which one do you walk first.
__________
Project funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU "Antichi Cammini di Italia", PNRR – Mission M1C3, Investment 4.3, Measure 274 – the Italian Ministry of Tourism is the subject operator, ENIT S.p.a. is the subject agent.