A

Accommodation

There are plenty of B&Bs all along the route, some youth hostels, plentiful campsites in France, several in Switzerland but few in Italy, a few monasteries that provide accommodation in France and Switzerland but many more in Italy.  Parish/refugio-type accommodation is in short supply in France and Switzerland but is now much more generally available in Italy and can vary from a mattress on the floor in a church or community hall to a bed in a single room.  However, you will always need to phone ahead so you will need to be able to speak enough French/Italian to cope with this.

 

Details of where to stay are given in all the various route-finding guides listed in the Guide Books & Maps section of this website but also in the first part of the CPR's dedicated Guide to Accommodation and Services on the Via Francigena, Part 1: Canterbury to the Great Saint-Bernard Pas.  This is a 20 page, A5 size booklet with laminated cover, costs ’5 and is available either from the CPR Secretary or the CSJ bookshop.  Note, however, that this is intended to accompany, not replace, existing route-finding guides and provides information only on where to sleep and eat, buy food etc. along the way.  Part 2 will cover the route in Italy and it is hoped to have this available later in the year.  In the meantime CPR members requiring information on accommodation from the Great Saint-Bernard Pass to Rome can request a copy of the CPR spreadsheet list for the Italian section of the route by emailing the Membership Secretary - see the Contact Membership page   (A slightly less up-to-date form of this list is in the member's-only section of our website.)

 

Also worth trying are hospitality exchange websites such as http://www.hospitalityclub.org/ & http://www.couchsurfing.com/ though they may be more aimed at backpackers than pilgrims.