Way of Saint Francis

This poster maps the Way of Saint Francis, the Via di Francesco, a pilgrimage of about 536 km through the Apennines of central Italy from the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence to St. Peter's Square in Rome. The route climbs through the beech forests of the Casentino to the cliff-top sanctuary of La Verna, follows the upper Tiber valley to Gubbio, and reaches Assisi near its midpoint before turning south past Spoleto, the Marmore waterfalls and the Franciscan sanctuaries of the Rieti valley. The poster draws the whole line, Florence to Rome, as one walk. Most adventurers take four weeks or a little more, sleeping in convents, parish guesthouses and small family inns, with a pilgrim credential stamped along the way. The path links places where Francis lived, prayed and preached eight hundred years ago. It is far quieter than the Camino, and there is more climbing on almost every day.