Although others had made their way before him, it was Archbishop of Canterbury, Cigeric, in the year 990, who was the first to document his journey home from Rome to Canterbury.
He recounts 79 of the stages along what we now call the Via Francigena (VF). Of particular relevance to MTW customers are the ones in the Aosta Valley, namely Aosta (city), Monjovet and Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses.
MTW walkers on The Five Days of the Matterhorn trip take up the VF between Nus and Aosta (pictured), crossing the Ponte Romano as they enter the city. We pass the house of a famous son of this city, Saint Anselm, who used the VF to take up the post, like Cigeric a century before him, of Archbishop of Canterbury.