The route follows the path taken by Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, who travelled to Rome in 990 to meet Pope John XV and receive the investiture pallium. The 79 stages recorded in the Archbishop’s succinct diary of his journey have made it possible to retrace the key stops on this, the shortest route between the North Sea and Rome, which first became known as the “Via Francigena” in 876. The Via Francigena honours the shared European cultural heritage both as an expression of cultural diversity and identity, by linking together into a single route of outstanding interest a network of routes along which European identity and unity has been created through the centuries.