The presence and imagery of pilgrims, “pelligrini” in Italian, along the towns of the Via Francigena is centuries old, as the reproductions of medieval pilgrims, above, represent.

Viterbo has a sizable medieval quarter, an astonishing and beguiling portal to another era. The medieval “profferlo,” above right, is a beautiful architectural structure unique to the Viterbo area, a ground-level commercial space with a curved stairway up to the living quarters.

Two small packing “cubes” will stuff into each of our daypacks, all that we are carrying for the next week. Two shirts, one pair of pants, one skirt, a light sweater, and a “Houdini” (a compressible wind- breaker). We are leaving our suitcases with the hotel.

The greeting to fellow pelligrini is either “buon viaggio” (have a good journey, in Italian) or “buen camino” (have a good walk, in Spanish, adopted from the more famous walk to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, known as the Camino de Santiago or Way of St. James).

Tomorrow morning, we will start our walk under the lace-like arches of the Palazzo dei Papi, the complex where 13th century popes left Rome for a safer situation and cooler climate. For us, a cool May offers a forecast of 60 to 70-degree temperatures mixed with rain. We buy Paul a 2 euro plastic poncho, just in case. We’ve got our pelligrini “passports” to collect stamped imprints along the way that will validate that we made the 112km journey to Rome. Will we make it??

Guidebook (check), All Trails app (check), phones (check), water (check), ponchos (check!)–backpacks on! Andiamo a Roma.