This walking route begins in Tuscany at the La Verna monastery, where St. Francis first received the signs of the stigmata.
This is a 7 day, 6 night holiday with 5 days of walking.
Price:
£675.00 per person based on two people sharing.
Single supplement: £140.00
Supplement for one person walking alone £60.00
Included:
Not Included:
Travel to and from the holiday, meals not mentioned in the programme, drinks with meals, insurance.
Departure Dates:
Daily according to accommodation availability from the 1st April until the beginning of November.
Day 1: Arrival at Città di Castello
Arrive at your hotel in the old centre of Città di Castello, a town situated in the Upper Tiber Valley and surrounded by a green landscape of rolling hills. It is a town bubbling with life and an important economical centre of the valley. Worth visiting are the municipal museum -with works by painters such as Raphael, Luca Signorelli, Giovanni and Andrea della Robbia, Pomarancio and Ghirlandaio- and the two museums dedicated to the works of Alberto Burri. On request you can start the tour in the monastery of La Verna.
Day 2: La Verna – Pieve Santo Stefano
After breakfast you will be taken by vehicle to La Verna Abbey, built upon the mountain bearing the same name. This is the spot where Saint Francis received the signs of the stigmata. Still remaining from this period are the small church Santa Maria degli Angeli and the cells of St. Francis and his companions. After your visit of the abbey you will start your first walk, climbing to the top of mount Calvano. From here there are magnificent views over the valley of Pieve Santo Stefano far below.
Distance: 16 km / Walking time: 4 ½ hours / Difficulty: medium / Ascent / descent: + 330m, – 970m
Day 3: Pieve Santo Stefano – Eremo di Cerbaiolo – Montagna
Today’s walk leads you to the hermitage ‘eremo di Cerbaiolo’ , the pass ‘Valico di Viamaggio’ and the mountain village of Montagna. Leaving Pieve Santo Stefano the route climbs towards the hermitage. There is a saying that “whoever has visited La Verna and not Cerbaiolo has seen the mother but not the child”. Cerbaiolo is cradled against the mountain, surrounded by an oak wood. It was a dreary and abandoned place when Francis and his companions stayed here in 1216, but two years later the first Franciscan monks came to live here and restored the hermitage.The route continues climbing to the Valico di Viamaggio from which you reach the top of Monte Verde. You descend towards the village of Montagna. Here you will be picked up and brought by taxi (incl. in the price) to Sansepolcro. You will stay in the centre of town. On request you can stay in the monastery of Montecasale about 6 km outside Sansepolcro.
Distance: 24,4 km or 22,5 km / Walking time: 7 or 6hrs 30 min (not visiting the hermitage of Cerbaiolo) / Difficulty: difficult / Ascent / descent: +968m, – 746m
Day 4: Montagna- hermitage Montecasale– Sansepolcro
After breakfast you will be taken by vehicle back to Montagna. You will walk through woodland with occasional clearings, from which you can enjoy amazing views over the surrounding hills and mountains. Your descent continues to the monastery of Montecasale, where there was once a tavern for pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land. Further downhill you reach Sansepolcro, the birthplace of the painter Piero della Francesca, whose famous painting ‘The resurrection’ can be admired in the town’s museum.
Distance: about 13 km / Walking time: 3 hours / Difficulty: easy / Ascent / descent: + 186m, – 570m
Day 5: Sansepolcro – Monterchi – Celle
A shorter walk today with less climbing sees you leave Sansepolcro and cross the fertile Tiber valley and enter the region of Umbria. The terrain becomes more hilly and the route climbs through the woods to the town gate of Citerna, a small medieval town, which is listed as one of the most beautiful villages (borghi) of Italy.
Distance: about 17,8 km / Walking time: 5 hours / Difficulty:medium / Ascent / descent: + 460m – 260m
Day 6: Monterchi – Città di Castello
Today you walk through a hilly landscape with oak woods and fields before arriving in Città di Castello. You will pass the hermitage del Buon Riposo, built on the spot where St. Francis stayed in a cave during his journeys to La Verna. The last stretch of descent will take you past Villa Montesca, where Maria Montessori taught, across the bridge over the Tiber and into the centre of Città di Castello.
Distance: km 15,1 / Walking time: 4 hours / Difficulty: medium / Ascent / descent: + 475m – 674m
Day 7: Departure after breakfast.
HOTEL LIST
Santuario della Verna Chiusi della Verna (AR)
Hotel Santo Stefano *** Pieve Santo Stafano www.hotelsantostefanoarezzo.it
Hotel Il Fiorentino Sansepolcro www.albergofiorentino.com
Agriturismo le Burgne Città di Castello www.agriturismoleburgne.it
Hotel Tiferno Città di Castello (PG) www.hoteltiferno.it
