25 November 2008, Milan – There are those who walk the Via Francigena and those who bike…and then there are those who paint it, more than 100 times. Undoubtedly the best example in that department is Jannina Veit Teuten, an English woman who has lived in Italy since 1970.

Jannina lived for seven years along the Via Francigena, painting and preparing an exhibition of her watercolors to celebrate the Millennium. She lives near Lucca in Tuscany not far from where the Via Francigena passes and continues to paint the route. Having done an exhaustive series along the trail from Canterbury to Rome, she has begun to work on the track from Rome to Otranto.

I caught up Jannina by phone the other day while she was in a small village called Abbadia d’Isola near Monteriggioni in Tuscany taking part in a bi-monthly conference on the Via Francigena (the conference moves around and will next be in Vercelli on January 24th). Here’s our conversation.

How did you get interested in the Via Francigena?
I did eight exhibitions in a short amount of time and a priest in Fidenza liked my paintings and watercolors and he thought I was very clever. He noticed the people in Parma where getting money for the Via Francigena so he thought I might get a grant to do watercolors of all the places Sigeric stopped. The idea was good and we started working on it together. He wrote off to 46 local churches asking for one week board and lodging for me so I could paint there. I said just lodging was fine, but he insisted on the board too and we didn't get any offers. So the priest backed out and I was left holding the baby. It could have died there, but I thought it was a good idea.

When I started I thought I knew a lot about the Via Francigena, but of course I didn't know absolutely anything. In 1992 and 1993 I was asked to do exhibitions in France. I was in France for 3-4 years and it was the beginning of putting paintings together for the VF.

How many paintings do you have of the Via Francigena?
in all there were 144 done, some of have been sold, some have been given away and one or two have just disappeared.

What’s next?
There were large gaps in my itinerary. I didn't stop everywhere where Sigeric stopped so I’m going back to perfect the exhibition. The project still has to be realized.

When will we be able to see your next exhibition?
In 2010 there will be a new exhibition and it will be much more educational. It was originally anyway, but instead of multimedia devices I was there to give a guided tour of the exhibition. It was shown in 23 places along the Francigena including in Canterbury. I could show the paintings that were most interesting to the places where I stopped off. In Italy it was in Aosta, Biella/Roppolo (½ in each of the two places), Piacenza, Fidenza, Pontremoli, Altopascio, San Gimignano, Viterbo and Roma. I was dead at the end, 23 exhibitions in 18 months, from the summer of 1999 to 2000.

It’s asked of me all the time and now it’s my turn to ask you…how did you end up in Italy?
I was born and bred in London, but I have been in Italy since 1970 when I was 30. my grandfather was Italian and it seemed silly that nobody in my family spoke Italian so I came here. I saw Florence and like many Anglo-Saxons, I fell in love with the city and never left. I mean that I was literally in love with the city for several years. I lived in and around Florence for nearly 30 years and since 2002 I have lived in Pescia near Lucca. I also lived seven years on the Via Francigena.

You have spent more time than probably just about anybody along the Via Francigena. What do you think of the state of the route?
In 1996 I walked some of the route in France and that was very difficult. It was sleeping on floors in church halls and wherever we could get accommodations. Now the Francigena is very well know, but at the time it was hard to convince people to give us a place to sleep. Things have changed, but some of the places that were bad then are still bad today. It is interesting to see how it is developing and it hasn't developed as a route as such yet. It’s not like the Santiago route.

I’ll give you an example. Monteriggioni has become a tourist town now, I remember when they kept oxen in what is now a restaurant. The oxen were used to plough the fields. That is the sort of thing that has chanced. I have seen the shift from medieval habits and customs to modern habits and customs. There are still quite a lot of places if you are still walking that are hiding away and partially derelict as Monteriggioni was 30 years, but you have to walk to find them. You won’t find them if you go by car. There are wonderful places walking south of Monteriggioni. That is what I find great about the Via Francigena.

How is the Via Francigena in France compared with Italy?
In France they are completely behind. They aren’t interested in the Via Francigena, they have completely ignored it.

While we wait for the 2010 exhibition, how can we see your paintings?
We are trying to get one of the places along the Via Francigena in Italy to put up a permanent exhibition with a multimedia component so it can work to get people interested in the route. All types of people will be able to go there, people who are interested in the Via Francigena, but also those who are simply interested in pilgrimages or geography. In the meantime, you can come to see the paintings at my house in Pescia, everybody is welcome.