sacred sites
 

I want to make a journey through France and Italy by bike and see all the sacred sites. Does anyone know where I can find a complete list? How hard is it to travel between small towns in the countryside of these countries? Can you always get a taxi if you bike too far and can't pedal any more?

Moved to the Europe Forum

"All" the sacred sites of two large countries? How many years, or rather decades, do you have for this trip?

I would not count on being able to call a taxi if you bike to far and can't pedal any more.

while this is not all of the sacred sites, it is a starter list.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...lgrimage_sites

What do you consider to be a "sacred site?" There are at least hundreds, if not thousands, of them, depending on your definition. France and Italy combined are huge swaths of territory.

How hard it is to travel between small towns in the countryside depends on your level of fitness, the weather, the time of year, deviations, road conditions, and other factors.

Getting a taxi anywhere out in the countryside is difficult if not impossible. You can almost NEVER get a taxi if you bike too far and can't pedal anymore...unless you figure this problem out in advance and arrange a taxi, say, two or three days in advance. And taxis won't normally transport your bike. You'd have to depend on sacred intervention to make that happen.

I don't know of a definitive list, but I can't imagine it would be of any use to you anyway. I'm not even sure that a pilgrimage site necessarily equates to a sacred site. Sacred for whom? There are mosques and synagogues all over Europe that are "sacred sites." What's your definition?

>There are mosques and synagogues all over Europe that are "sacred sites."
And churches, chapels, monasteries. Thousands and thousands of them.

You could follow the ancient pilgrimage route between Canterbury and Rome and Apulia. It's not focused on "sacred sites," but pilgrims have been traveling these roads for 1000 years. This is the cycling route they recommend, but you could train some segments.

https://www.viefrancigene.org/en/res...igena-francia/ [France]

https://www.viefrancigene.org/en/res...gena-svizzera/ [Switzerland]

https://www.viefrancigene.org/en/res...category/bici/ [Italy]

I found a list with more than one hundred "sacred" sites in France, but here is a more manageable one with just 15 "religious" sites:

https://www.inspirock.com/religious-sites-in-france

Having cycled extensively in France, I would say: no, you can't always get a taxi if you "bike too far" and "can't pedal anymore"
How much experience in long distance cycling do you actually have if you ask a question like that?

What to do when you get too tired is a question I often have to deal with. My thoughts of solutions

1) Go to a restaurant, have a meal while you wait for a taxi and ask if you can leave it with them if so, take the taxi to somewhere to sleep and then come back for the bike and cycle some more
2) Look out for trains and take the bike and yourself on the train focusing on the slower moving trains
3) take your rooms with you in the form of a tent etc, so you can sleep where you fall
4) book your room for your night when you get tired, not weeks before, booking.com often allows you to cancel rooms up to a set point (normally out of season) while I don't like this method it is possible

I hear you, bilbo, but I know from hard experience living in a tiny, rural commune in France that you cannot just go to a restaurant and sit there and hope for a taxi; here you have to call ahead at least 24, most often 48, hours, to get a taxi anywhere. And they won't take a bike. So your first option is dubious.

As to the train option, who even knows if the OP is going to be near train lines? And not all trains take bikes; you have to know this stuff before you take off..

>There are mosques and synagogues all over Europe that are "sacred sites."
And churches, chapels, monasteries. Thousands and thousands of them.>>

Yes, I was just trying to add to the obvious Christian references. Sacred covers a lot of territory. We even have a huge Buddhist community here in the Périgord with their own sacred sites.

If there are any sacred sites you already have in mind, please tell us. There are so many, and the definition of "sacred sites" is not very precise.