LIVE from the Camino Via Francigena- Lucca to Rome

[andycohn]

Any recommendations on accommodation for the route?

I'm looking forward to your accommodation list. I've bookmarked places for most of the route, and am tempted to do like you and just book ahead. I'm wondering if you ever felt locked-in by doing that. In France I booked one or two days ahead, and in Spain I did a mix of booking and not booking. I like both styles, but there's a peace of mind in booking ahead - and in a tourist area like Tuscany I think it might be easier.

I really llike your enthusiasm Michael! I didn't put enough thought into options beyond the normal stages of the route and assumed wrongly that I wouldn't have many options to cut stages up to my own liking; I guess that's what fast planning does. I didn't even know that as soon as you leave Colle di Val d'Elsa there is an amazing blue water creek, the "Sentierelsa Trail" with many waterfalls along the that path and it's very unusual. It's a bit obscure to find, yet still simple. It does add a bit of time, but totally worth it, so be sure to plan to walk along that creek right after you leave the town as it is beautiful with many waterfalls and a few fun rope bridges to walk over from side to side if you want. Many walkers miss this gem and continue on the road because for some reason it didn't seem to be listed in Sandy Brown's guidebook, but my son noticed it was mentioned on the Via Francigena app. Here is that side route shown on the app. You can see how the red line follows the tiny blue creek. There is nothing else like it on the whole route from Lucca.
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P.S. If you google the name you will see many gorgeous images that are far better than my own photos.

I did walk the Sentier Elsa last year coming out of Colle di Val di Elsa. Details are in that Itinerary and accommodation list I posted above (response #98). Camino Chrissie is right. It's gorgeous. As I wrote in my itinerary, it's "a no-brainer." And it doesn't add any extra distance. There's lots of posts about it on the Via Francigena Facebook page, too.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I did walk the Sentier Elsa last year coming out of Colle di Val di Elsa. Details are in that Itinerary and accommodation list I posted above (response #98). Camino Chrissie is right. It's gorgeous. As I wrote in my itinerary, it's "a no-brainer." And it doesn't add any extra distance. There's lots of posts about it on the Via Francigena Facebook page, too.

I'm glad you mention that people do know about it as I am not on FB so am glad it is talked about there.