Pavia - Bobbio Ed. 2019

http://www.viadegliabati.com/

There was an older route of the Via Francigena, which passed through the mountains and was used as early as the 7th century mainly by those traveling on foot, as a shorter path from Pavia to Lucca and towards Rome.
This Way, already used by the Lombard kings before the conquest of the Cisa, controlled by the Byzantines, also touched the Abbey of Bobbio, in the heart of the Apennines, where pilgrims heading to Rome and coming from France and the British Isles passed to venerate the remains of Saint Columbanus (+615), a great Irish abbot and father, along with Saint Benedict, of European monasticism.
Already in the Lombard era, "hospitales" of Saint Columbanus stood in Pavia and Lucca.

In 2012 Giovanni Magistretti, with the crucial contribution of Mario Pampanin, president of the Friends of Saint Columbanus, recovering suggestions from Monsignor Domenico Ponzini, reconstructed also the route from Pavia to Bobbio.
In this research, consideration was given to the writings of the Lombard historian Paul the Deacon who, in his “Historia Langobardorum”, places Bobbio 40 miles (about 60 kilometers) from Pavia, and therefore the itinerary closest to this indication was identified, taking into account places linked to Lombard memories, early medieval times or the Abbey of Bobbio, even without a precise reference to the translation of the body of Saint Columbanus from Bobbio to Pavia. The monks of the Abbey of Bobbio, indeed, led by Abbot Gerlannus, on July 17, 18, and 19, 929, transported the relics of Saint Columbanus along a route slightly longer, from Bobbio to Pavia, specially designed to claim the Abbey's properties before King Hugh of Provence, usurped by the Bishop of Piacenza Guido and other feudal lords.

Association of the Friends of Saint Columbanus
Founded in 1951
29022 Bobbio (PC), Piazza Duomo 5 - Phone 339 1669451 (Secretary) - latrebbia@email.it

Contacts are being made with various interested entities to publish, also for the Pavia-Bobbio section, a Color Cartoguide, scale 1:25,000 with the addition of historical, artistic, and environmental information about the municipalities crossed, as already done for the first section Bobbio-Pontremoli. Several Mayors have commented favorably on the initiative.

Interesting detail: the Via degli Abati has been included in the map of the historic roads of Tuscany, as an Apennine variant to reach the Po Valley. The importance of the extension up to Pavia of the Via degli Abati thus becomes evident within the network of routes between Tuscany and Lombardy and towards northwestern Europe.

The route, starting from Pavia towards the hills of Oltrepò and then towards the Apennine ridge of Mount Penice, consists of three parts, each nearly equal in length (about 20 kilometers each): the first is flat (from Pavia to Broni and the first hill); the second is hilly (ending at Pometo / Caminata); the third is high hill and mountain (from Caminata to the ridge of Penice), at the end of which the crest is crossed and then it descends to Bobbio.

List of stopping points along Pavia - Bobbio:

Pavia - Broni - Colombarone km 18
Colombarone - Francia km 10
Francia - Canevino km 7
Canevino - Pometo km 3
Pometo - Caminata km 4
Caminata - Grazzi km 14
Grazzi - Sassi Neri km 6
Sassi Neri - Bobbio km 5
Total km 67

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No responsibility is assumed for the information provided, which is purely indicative. More updated information and direct contacts should be obtained from the relevant tourist offices or individual establishments.