Paul and Tim met in 2017 while walking the Via Podiensis in France. That might have been that except Paul had an idea to walk along the Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome. He telephoned Tim on Christmas Eve from his home in California to make the proposal. After a little consideration Tim joined up and said that the walk should start from his house in Weybridge, in the spirit of the medieval pilgrimage.

A simple plan emerged: they would walk along the North Downs Way to Canterbury and then follow an approximately straight line to Dover, across France and Switzerland to scale the Alps at the Great St Bernard Pass and then onwards to Rome. This was the route first documented by the Archbishop of Canterbury on his return from Rome in 990AD.

The two pilgrims set off on 28 May 2018. Every day, Tim wrote a blog to tell the story of their adventure, the extraordinary people they met and the often bizarre thoughts that long distance walking can stimulate. In this book, the blog is reproduced in full together with photographs and other paraphernalia to form a lasting account of their epic journey.