Pilgrimages began to be common around the year 1000; pilgrims, merchants and clergymen from all over Europe set out to visit the tombs of the apostles in Rome or to get all the way to the Holy Land, while others turned west to Santiago de Compostela where there was the tomb of the apostle James. The pilgrimage to Santiago had a particular significance at the time, since it was believed that the Earth ended there.
One of the oldest pilgrims' trips was that annotated in a travel diary by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sigerico, in 990-94 on the road known as the Via Francigena or Via Romea, names indicating one, the departing place, and the other, the destination. The Tuscan-Emilian part of the Via Francigena was for centuries the easiest and most frequented route, a bridge between central Europe and Christianity's holy places.
Of the Tuscan-Emilian part of the route we describe the stretch crossing the province of Parma. From two different starting points, Fidenza and San Pancrazio, Via Francigena becomes one road at the little town of Fornovo di Taro, leading to the Cisa pass in the Apennines, and from here, crossing the Lunigiana to reach the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Travelling along the route today, we may relive the mysteries of olden times, visiting important Po Valley Romanesque centres, while observing other works of art, monuments and places of later eras that over the centuries have enriched this land. The provincial administration has had the entire route marked with road signs and special trail signs for the sections to be travelled on foot or horseback. All the places described in the following itinerary are easily reached by automobile. More detailed information can be obtained from pamphlets and other material published by the provincial administration on the subject.