Through the centre of Siena runs the ancient pilgrimage route known as the Via Francigena, which begins in Canterbury and ends in Rome. Last summer, while studying Italian in Siena, I explored the route and saw the churches and hostels that had sprung up in the city for pilgrims during the Middle Ages. From Siena, the Via Francigena winds its way south through the towns of the Val d’Orcia, following the route taken by Sigeric, the Archbishop of Canterbury, more than 1,000 years ago after he had received his pallium from the Pope. Many of the churches and abbeys on Sigeric’s itinerary are still there, enabling us to imagine what it must have been like for 10th-century British pilgrims travelling to Rome.