Cycling the Via Francigena — EuroVelo 5 and the CicloVia

"Cycling the Via Francigena" means two different things, and it helps to separate them before you plan. One is EuroVelo 5, a continental cycle route that borrows the pilgrim corridor's name. The other is the CicloVia Francigena, an Italian itinerary built for touring bikes from the Alps to Rome. This guide describes both from their own pages, then answers the questions cyclists ask most — which surface, which bike, which sections, and how far you must ride for the Testimonium — using our stage data for the distances. Where a source is silent, we say so.

EuroVelo 5 — the Via Romea (Francigena)

EuroVelo's page for EV5 describes a route "3,250 km long" through "7 countries", following the pilgrims who "traveled all the way from England to Rome" and then, "after the Eternal City", continued towards Jerusalem "through the port of Brindisi". It counts 20 cathedrals and 21 UNESCO sites along the way and divides the itinerary into eleven stages, from "Crossing the Channel" through the Low Countries and the Alps to "Rome and Latium Hills" and "Along the Roman Via Appia".

Two things matter for planning. First, EV5 is not the walkers' line: it runs through the Low Countries rather than Champagne, and in Italy, per EuroVelo's Italian page, it "runs through the entire Italian peninsula, from lake Como to Brindisi, along the Sigeric corridor from Pavia to Rome", crossing the Po plain and the Cisa Pass into Tuscany. Second, it is unfinished. EuroVelo offers two GPX downloads — one for "the whole route, including well developed sections but also parts of the route under development", and one containing "only parts of the route which are either developed, developed with signs or certified" — and its Italian page advises taking the train to skip the Palagiano–Taranto section. The Italian coordinator is FIAB, the national cycling federation.

The CicloVia Francigena — Great St Bernard to Rome

The route most cyclists on the pilgrim road actually ride is the CicloVia Francigena, mapped by ViaFrancigena.bike, "a project of Movimento Lento Network, in cooperation with itinerAria and Associazione Europea delle Vie Francigene (AEVF)". Its information page gives the shape: "more than 1000 km from the Great Saint Bernardo pass to Rome, which can be cycled by medium trained people in 23 legs, with an average length of more or less 50 km".

It is a separate line from the walking route. The itinerary "include many secondary, little trafficked asphalted roads, and avoids as much as possible the unpaved, rough roads" — which is exactly the ground the walkers take through the Apennines and southern Tuscany. My Via Francigena's cycling page describes the same route under the same name, with the same 70% asphalt figure, and splits it into three sections: Great St Bernard Pass to Parma, Parma to Siena, and Siena to Rome.

Surface, and which bike

The one hard number both cycling sources give is the surface share: the CicloVia "is asphalted for more or less the 70% of its length, and the unpaved traits are for the most part on 'dirt roads', with stabilized ground" (ViaFrancigena.bike); My Via Francigena calls the dirt sections "gravel roads with a stable surface". The recommended machine follows from that: "an itinerary travelable with travel bicycles equipped with bags" — a touring bike with panniers.

Neither source publishes a surface split leg by leg, so we will not invent one. What they do publish is the difficulty split, and it maps onto our stage data:

• The easy half, to Fidenza. ViaFrancigena.bike says the first part, as far as Fidenza, has minimal elevation changes and "is quite easy to cycle". That is the descent from the pass down the Aosta Valley and the crossing of the Po plain — our walking stages 41 to 54, where the six Po Valley stages carry only 807 m of ascent in 160 km and the two Emilia-Romagna stages 209 m in 46 km, and where the stage pages warn of exposure, no shade and mosquitoes near the rice paddies rather than gradient. A road bike would cope with the asphalt here; the flat dirt levees and farm roads are the question, and the touring bike is the sensible answer to it.
• The hard half, the Apennines and Tuscany. The second part "is quite challenging, and requires a good training". Between Fidenza and Rome the walkers' stages climb the Cisa (the Fornovo to Berceto stage alone rises 1,391 m), then roll through the Tuscan hills to the 991 m climb to Radicofani. The cycling line uses roads rather than the walkers' tracks, but the hills are the same hills, and this is where the 30% unpaved matters most — the white roads south of Siena are where a gravel bike earns its keep and a road bike does not.

The Alpine start deserves its own note. The Great St Bernard guide covers the pass road's season and the tunnel; on our stage data the walking stage down to Etroubles loses 1,271 m and warns that it is hard on the knees, which on a loaded bike means brakes and rims rather than knees.

Signs for cyclists

SloWays' description of the Italian signage includes the cyclists' marks. The larger brown metal plates show "Via Francigena" with pictograms for foot, bike, car and horse routes and stand "where motorized vehicles travel"; and among the stickers on poles, walls and milestones, the walking route uses red-and-white and the cycling route "blue-white stickers", each with a small black pilgrim. Where the two lines diverge, follow the blue-and-white, not the red-and-white — the walkers' mark will take you onto exactly the rough tracks the CicloVia was drawn to avoid. The waymarking guide covers the rest of the system and the official app.

The 200 km Testimonium rule

St Peter's Basilica issues the Testimonium "to all those who have travelled at least 100 km on foot or 200 km by bicycle to Rome", a journey that "must be verifiable by the stamps placed on the pilgrim's credential". The credential guide explains the document and the collection process; here is the arithmetic for a cyclist, counting the published walking-stage distances back from St Peter's Square:

So a cyclist should start at San Quirico d'Orcia or earlier; Siena, with rail access and 283 km to go, is the natural start. Two cautions. The distances are the walking stages; the CicloVia's road-based line will differ by some kilometres in either direction, so do not cut it fine — the Basilica verifies by stamps, and a credential that shows Siena leaves no argument. And note a discrepancy: the Confraternity of Pilgrims to Rome's FAQ says cyclists need "the last 400 km from Lucca". The Basilica's own page says 200 km, so we follow it, but the 400 km figure is what some reception desks may have in mind — starting from Lucca would satisfy both.

Getting there with a bike

Across the Channel, P&O's Dover to Calais page says passengers travelling with only a bicycle "should arrive close to 90 minutes before departure" and that "cyclists need to dismount and walk their bikes across the bridge to the ferry"; the Confraternity advises cyclists to check P&O's terms for bikes and which sailings take them. The crossing is about 90 minutes with a minimum of 11 sailings a day. The English stages and the crossing are in the Canterbury to Dover guide.

Beds are easier on two wheels. The Confraternity's budgeting page notes that "cycling pilgrims will benefit from a wider range of potential choices for their accommodation and can almost always go further to find somewhere more within their price range". The credential still gets you into pilgrim houses; the cost guide has the bands.

How long

The Confraternity's figure for the full route is "about 30 days to cycle" the 1,900 km from Canterbury. For the Italian CicloVia, ViaFrancigena.bike's 23 legs of about 50 km give about three and a half weeks from the pass at a touring pace, and My Via Francigena's three-section split — pass to Parma, Parma to Siena, Siena to Rome — is a convenient way to ride it in three separate weeks, each starting and ending in a city with a station.