FRANCIGENA ROAD

From Assisi to Rome, tracing the route that St. Francis took through Umbria and Lazio to ask Pope Innocent III for his blessing of the Order of Friars Minor: the Via Francigena is one of Europe’s oldest pilgrimage roads, the earliest accounts of which date back to the tenth century when pilgrims from every part of Europe passed through Italy on their way to the Holy Land

In 1994, it was designated a Council of Europe Cultural Route. The Umbrian section of the road is a route divided into 16 parts, with Assisi at the centre, in the Church of the Porziuncola where St. Francis died on the 3rd of October in 1296, beginning in Città di Castello and terminating at Lake Piediluco.

Approximately 270 kilometres of road run through the historic centres, villages and trails immersed in nature that St. Francis travelled along in 1209. The route also passes near the churches and hermitages constructed in remembrance of the journeys of St. Francis, the olive groves, hills and forests that inspired the saint to write the Canticle of the Creatures.