The first leg starts from Rimini Train Station, ideally “door” east of the Way. You cross quickly the historic center reaching the first hills behind the town and the Valley of Marecchia. In the city, the route touches the church of Santa Chiara, where probably San Francesco stayed and the ancient cloister of San Bernardino which is home to the Clarisse nuns. Then the leg rises rapidly towards the first hills behind Rimini, where you reach the Franciscan sanctuary of Santa Maria delle Grazie, protected by the Friars Minor. With several ups and downs you get to the suburb of Vergiano, at the beginning of Valmarecchia. Here an ancient tradition says  that St. Francis was hosted for a night in a modest house where he was offered a cypress stick as support for the journey, planted by the Saint in Villa Verucchio. That stick would later become the current ancient tree. Later the itinerary leads you to the beautiful historical and natural path up along the river Marecchia (possible detour to Santarcangelo), up to Villa Verucchio, where, on the hill above the modern town, is the convent of Santa Croce (quarters). An oral history tells that St. Francis, along the Valmarecchia, probably in 1215 from Rimini, stayed at a country chapel dedicated to the Holy Cross, and built a poor wooden hut. This is considered the nucleus of the monastery, documented the first time in 1311.

It is possible to visit the church, built in sec. XIV and consecrated 16 June 1400; the cloister with the famous cypress and the St. Francis chapel. Very interesting historical center of Verucchio that requires a deviation from the main leg.

L'articolo Rimini – Villa Verucchio sembra essere il primo su Il Cammino di San Francesco.

The route goes into the beautiful landscape of the middle-high Valmarecchia, dominated by rugged cliffs and crowned by fortresses. You  walk mainly on roads unpaved and some stretches of asphalt. From the cloister of Santa Croce you continue straight on Via Convento, getting off at SP Marecchiese, and after it you come back to the historic and naturalistic trail along the right bank of the Marecchia to Ponte Verucchio. Here you cross the river and proceed on the left  just below the rocky cliff on which stands the hermitage of Madonna di Saiano. After a few hundred meters a moving iron bridge guarantees, during the summer,  to get back on the ford across the river. In the months when it is not possible to cross the river, you can proceed to walking towards to Ponte Verucchio with the variant described in the guide.

After crossing Marecchia River you can keep going on the naturalist trail to Ponte Santa Maria Maddalena. From here there are some roads that starting to go up and alternating asphalt and unpaved paths, where you can enjoy a breathtaking view of  San Leo (still distant), Pincio and Aquilone Mountains also known as the “Bishop Sleeping”, for the unmistakable shape that is considered an important point of orientation for Pilgrims’s Romea Path who came down to Rimini to pass though Valmarecchia and then walk towards Rome by Viamaggio Pass (called “Via Major”). After crossing pastures, cultivated fields and wooded patches, you reach the Cloister of Sant’Igne, one of the most important point of the itinerary.

From the convent the town of San Leo is easily accessible, by the final stretch with the beautiful view of the cliff dominated by the imposing fortress, such as recalls Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Hence the May 8, 1213 St. Francis received as a gift from Count Orlando Catani of Chiusi, the mountain of La Verna, which became one of the most important places in the history of Franciscans. This episode is considered so significant for the town which St. Francis is depicted in the civic emblem under the elm tree from which he preached.

On the central Dante square stands Palazzo Nardini, within which is located the room, converted into a chapel, where it would take place the meeting between St. Francis and the Count Orlando Catani.

L'articolo Villa Verucchio – San Leo sembra essere il primo su Il Cammino di San Francesco.

You go down again to the valley and then up on the opposite ridge that borders the left hydrographic bank, beyond which, in the Valle del Savio, there is Sant’Agata Feltria. The stage twists and turns most entirely though dirt tracks, with some stretch of asphalt.

It starts in the direction of the rocky cliff of Maioletto, visible from the center of San Leo, while you are walking you can admire the wonderful landscape from San Leo to Il Poggio, a small town lined up on a crest. You can cross it though a beautiful scenic route, with suggestive passages of deep ravines, passing through a clayish area, which may be arduous in the rainy periods. After arriving at Maioletto cliff, turn on the left inside the wood, descending until you reach a bridge over Marecchia river. If you cross it crossed you can visit Novafeltria.

Turn left on the bike path that goes up the Marecchia and follow it to the height of Torricella, birthplace of the Servant of God “Blessed” Father Francesco from Torricella which is reached through the SP. Marecchiese.

The paths goes forward to narrow roads and cattle tracks to the ridge road, at the height of Botticella fraction. Turn left in the direction of Sant’Agata Feltria and follow it to the chapel of the Madonna del Soccorso, from where left a wide path, with even the white and red signs of the San Vicinio Way leading up to Sant’Agata feltria at whose doors we find the Convent of the Capuchin Friars (quarters) and the Convent of the Poor Clares (quarters).

The village is one of the main “Franciscan places” of Montefeltro. An ancient tradition reports that St. Francis discovered this territory, most likely in May 1213. The presence of the Poor Clares area is contemporary  San Francis, as the Monastery of Saint Antimo, whose foundation is traced to Agnes, Saint Clare’s sister, in 1218, six years after the foundation of the Convent of St. Clare at San Damiano in Assisi. It is considered the second oldest monastery of the Poor Clares order. The Capuchin monastery was built in 1575-77. For a long time it was also present the Friars Minor who moved in Rocca Fregoso 1781 to 1820, abandoned the old convent of the Plans, dating back to the sixteenth century.

L'articolo San Leo – Sant’Agata Feltria sembra essere il primo su Il Cammino di San Francesco.

After Sant’Agata Feltria we return in Valmarecchia, on the highest part of the valley, where the landscape changes radically, from a bucolic and rural setting to a mountainous place, typical of the Apennines. The stage is carried out mostly on small roads gravel and paved roads with little traffic which make the journey faster with a wonderful landscape.

The first part coincides with the path “Frate Francesco in Sant’Agata Feltria” which follows through from the site with the ruins of the Convent of St. Francis of the Plans, shortly after which the road ends at Ca ‘Abbot (dogs), where you continue to the right on a road for vehicles  leading to paved road from Sant’Agata to where crosses the point between Valle del Savio and Marecchia. It takes it to the right following the signs for Palazzo. Once in this town take the uphill road to Balze and follow it ignoring forks and detours. After the Madonna del Piano chapel, about 3 km you reach the provincial road Alfero – Balze.

To the right you will come to a crossroads, where you turn left onto the small road that reaches the car park below the Hermitage of Sant’Alberico. (Option B recommended in case of delay or bad weather: take the road on the left in about 3.5 km. It leads to Balze).

From the car park under the hermitage, we take a steep climb a paved driveway, lined by Via Crucis stop, and within minutes the hermitage of Sant’Alberico. Its presence has been documented since 1043 and, according to ancient tradition, was founded by Saint Romuald.

Continuing in the woods at the bottom of the valley, first on a beautiful trail lined for a stretch of Stations of the Cross; Then on a beautiful stone street, called “Via Grand Ducal” because built by Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany for a grace received, you reach the town of Balze.

L'articolo Da Sant’Agata Feltria a Balze di Verghereto sembra essere il primo su Il Cammino di San Francesco.

This stage shortens the path originally conceived, joining directly Balze to La Verna, eliminating the intermediate step Verghereto-Balze.

It takes place between Romagna and Tuscany, in a landscape that sweeps over the ridges between the Valmarecchia, the Valley of the Savio and the Tiber Valley.

This path is well marked by white and red signs, supplemented by the yellow Tau that identifies all the Path San Francesco from Rimini to Rome.

Leaving Balze, we take the road for Verghereto to the village of Falera, where, on the right, there is road that climbs towards the rock face of Mount Fumaiolo.

The paths is distinguished by wooded pastures and strokes, following the signs for Montecoronaro, a small village where you can find refreshment in a bar. After the village and a long stretch of paved road, there is that begins with a long climb through the woods, leading to Poggio dei Tre Vescovi (1238 m). Here the ridge trail, which is part of an ancient medieval street, goes far to the south along the border of the Nature Reserve Upper Tiber Valley and, after a flat stretch, it reaches a hill from which one sees the Monte Penna, unmistakable for its large and flat top, behind which stands La Verna. The path becomes a track drawn in coppice reaching a cross path and, to the right, a wide dirt road. Follow it in a grazing land, reaching Step Gualanciole and, after a few kilometers, the Passo delle Pratelle (1075 m), the conjunction with the Franciscan path that leads from La Verna in Rieti.

He turns on the track right on the ridge, first through meadows and then in the pine forest and then the beech forest, you climb to the great grassy shelf and panoramic Monte Calvano at the beginning of the forest (1253 m).

It descends steeply to the Calla Cross (1135m), under the wall of Mt. Penna. Follow it to the left to reach a wider road that to the right in the beech forest to the Sanctuary of La Verna (1128m).

L'articolo Da Balze di Verghereto a La Verna sembra essere il primo su Il Cammino di San Francesco.