The Way of Saint Francis

In terms of walking, this Italian trail is an appealing alternative “cammino” to the popular caminos in Spain. It receives between eight and ten thousand pilgrims per year, compared with more than half a million in Spain. Unlike on the Spanish caminos, you will probably meet a handful of pilgrims daily, but you might also hike alone. Meeting pilgrims along the way and asking them why they are walking this path adds to the experience: some want a challenge, to add to a bucket list of pilgrimages, others want to cement a friendship, or to reflect about a life event.

On the way, you might come across a local market selling pecorino, red wine and Mediterranean tomatoes, or a festival. If you’re lucky, your cammino will overlap with the Running of the Candles festival in Gubbio, or times when pilgrims’ feet are washed and blessed in a little hermitage chapel.

You leave Florence on foot along the Arno River, hiking into the lush Florentine hills. The path crosses hills and valleys, and goes through bird-filled, leafy beech and oak forests. You will pass olive groves and vineyards, fields of barley, sunflowers and poppies, jasmine bushes and (in springtime) spot various kinds of orchids. You can stay in pretty hillside towns and villages. Lodgings include beautiful monasteries, convents, and hermitages on the trail such as La Verna, where some of Saint Francis’ relics are to be found and which perches on a cliff above the moss-filled forest. Halfway along the trail, you reach Assisi, birthplace of Saint Francis. And at the end, you walk into the bustling city of Rome to reach Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City.

The first section from Florence to La Verna is the most mountainous and secluded. After obtaining your first pilgrim’s stamp at the Basilica Santa Croce, you will find Stage 1 to be quite flat along the Arno River. The next few stages involve around 1000m ascent, through quiet forests filled with birdsong, Stage 5 up to La Verna Sanctuary being the most challenging – but also perhaps the most rewarding – of the whole trip.

After La Verna, you descend into the Tiber Valley, but Stage 7 is again a challenging, long climb, worth dividing into two. In the forest, it passes the tiny Hermitage of Cerbiaolo, donated to Francis in 1217. Between Montagna and Sansepolcro, on Stage 8, you walk through the forest to the Eremo di Montecasale, where you can sit with a statue of Francis on the wall overlooking the valley.

Stage 9 is practically flat, passing through flower-filled Citerna on the hills above the Tiber, and Stages 10 and 11 are roller coasters, with pleasant views. Stage 12 involves, unfortunately, quite a lot of asphalt, but ends in the beautiful town of Gubbio.

From Gubbio, the path undulates over the hills of the Chiascio Valley, arriving at the charming and remote Eremo di San Pietro in Vigneto on Stage 13. This tiny monastery is run by volunteers of the order of Saint James (Santiago) and has one 11-bed dormitory. From here, the path on Stages 14 and 15 takes you via Valfabbrica, along the Valfabbrica Lake and crossing a ridge into Assisi, the official halfway point.

After Assisi, the path provides panoramic views of valleys and goes through olive groves. Stage 16 is short, offering views of Assisi and the Spoleto valley from the flanks of Monte Subasio (1290 m). Stage 17 is pretty flat, through the town of Foligno and up into Trevi. Stage 18 involves a challenging total ascent of 952 m, but ends in Spoleto, a largish and quite charming town.

After Spoleto, you hike a panoramic stage along a ridge overlooking the Nera river valley, and Stage 20 is again pretty flat, visiting the Marmore waterfalls – a busy tourist spot – on the way. Stage 20 ends in Piediluco on Lake Piediluco. Stage 21 takes you on a long climb up to Labro past a huge beech tree where Francis is said to have sheltered, and into hilltop Poggio Bustone.

Stage 22 from Poggio Bustone is a forested walk along the flanks of the valley into the bustling town of Rieti. From here, you enter olive groves, and the mountains give way to the Tiber river valley. You pass fields and creeks on easy Stage 23 and finish up in tiny Poggio San Lorenzo. Stage 24 has some steep climbs through farmland. On Stage 25, you wind down into the Tiber River plain on asphalt and gravel, and the end of Stage 26 sees you arriving in the suburbs of Rome.

During the final Stage 27, you walk through Rome to enter the Vatican City, walking along the Tiber and through Roman parks. Finally, you arrive at Saint Peter’s Basilica to receive your pilgrim’s Testimonium.

The best time of the year to hike the Way of Saint Francis is in spring or autumn. Summer is too hot and you can encounter snow in winter. By May, most of the snow has melted in the Apennines, depending on the year; check the snow on the Apennine mountains before you go. Spring flowers are abundant in May and early June.

Although this is not a high-altitude trek, you need to be prepared for rain and cold, as well as strong sunshine and the occasional thunderstorm. If you are staying in basic accommodation, take a sleeping bag liner. You should also bring walking poles to save your knees. A backpack of about 35 litres or more should suffice. Keep clothes to a minimum but take rain gear and a fleece for cooler evenings. Make sure you can carry enough water – 2-3 litres per day if it’s hot – and sun cream. Also take a simple medical kit: emergency blanket, blister plasters of various sizes, painkillers, other plasters, and tape.

If you don’t want to carry your rucksack, you can organize luggage transport between stages via Beppino.

The trail is mostly moderate, with a few more challenging – but not technical – stages at the start, which involve climbs of around 1000 metres. These stages are, however, the exception: the average daily ascent and descent is 540 metres, and some stages are easy and nearly flat. The trail has an occasional steep passage, but the gradient of most days is quite gentle. It is also possible to halve the longer stages.