Via Francigena

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The Via Francigena arrives in Santiago de Compostela
An information desk at Santiago Airport, Spain, is open daily until 31 May 2025. This initiative serves as an international promotional tool for the Via Francigena during the Jubilee Year.

Throughout the month of May 2025, the Via Francigena is featured at Santiago de Compostela Airport—one of the key hubs for international slow tourism—with a dedicated space welcoming pilgrims and travellers returning from the renowned Spanish pilgrimage route. Operating daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., the info desk provides visitors with informative materials, practical advice, and inspiration to plan a new journey—this time along the ancient European route stretching from Canterbury to Rome, and onward to the ports of Puglia.

This initiative forms part of the “Fondo Sviluppo e Coesione – Piano Sviluppo e Coesione(Card 33 – Via Francigena – Cross-cutting Actions), which aims to enhance the Via Francigena as a driver of tourism, culture, and regional development. The Via Francigena is increasingly seen as “our Camino de Santiago”—a central axis in the network of slow travel routes across Italy and Europe. The Italian Ministry of Tourism is actively promoting it through a wide-reaching campaign.

With over 500,000 pilgrims having received the Compostela in 2024, Santiago Airport is a strategic location for engaging a motivated audience interested in meaningful, authentic experiences. The Francigena stand, designed as a welcoming and interactive space, offers multilingual materials, meetings with route experts, personal stories from walkers, and multimedia presentations showcasing the history, emotions, and landscapes of the Via Francigena. The goal is to inspire visitors to embark on a new pilgrimage along the historic path connecting Canterbury to Rome, and further on to the ports of Brindisi and Santa Maria di Leuca in Puglia.

The Via Francigena’s presence in Santiago carries strong symbolic value and is of great significance at a European level. It represents a bridge between two of the continent’s most iconic pilgrimage routes, both recognised as Cultural Routes by the Council of Europe. This synergy fosters dialogue among peoples, shared spirituality, and a vision of a connected Europe, united through its historical paths.

Following participation in international outdoor travel fairs in New York (January) and Paris (February), the Santiago initiative reaffirms the commitment of the Italian government and Ministry of Tourism to promoting the route on a global scale—engaging directly with an international community in search of slow, sustainable, and deeply cultural travel experiences.

Stretching over 3,200 kilometres across four countries—England, France, Switzerland, and Italy—the Via Francigena continues to grow as a symbol of sustainable tourism, regional enhancement, and shared heritage.

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