Читать книгу The Way of St Francis. Via di Francesco: From Florence to Assisi and Rome онлайн

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Pilgrims have physical limits, so another goal was to avoid unnecessarily long, difficult or poorly marked routes. This route honors safety rules and minimizes time on busy auto roads that provide little or no room for pedestrians. It was also important to allow for a one-month timeframe as a natural follow-up to a pilgrim who has finished the Camino Francés and is looking for another memorable pilgrimage experience.

After weighing the options, this route follows most closely the Via di Francesco and Via di Roma itineraries from Santuario della Verna to Rome, occasionally opting for the other routes when they offer a better option. The primary addition is a walking itinerary from Florence to hard-to-reach Santuario della Verna, which mostly follows the German guidebooks, leading pilgrims through the lovely Casentino Park.

A group of pilgrims walking to Assisi from Spello (Stage 16)

Geography and climate

The Apennine range is the thick spine of the Italian peninsula, and the forested Central Apennines form the north and east borders of the route of the Way of St Francis. On the Western slopes of the Central Apennines the primary rivers are tributaries of the Arno and Tiber (Tevere), which catch rainfall from western Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio before flowing into the Tyrrhenian and Ligurian Seas.