We finished the Cammino di Assis ("Cammino") on October 2 and spent the weekend, which included the Festival of St. Francis, in Assisi. It was a wonderful pilgrimage.
It was much harder than the
Camino de Santiago ("Camino") in the sense that there was so much more climbing. The first six days, until we reached La Verna, were sort of like crossing the Pyrenees to Roncesvalles again, and again, and again. After La Verna, it eased up. On the other hand, the Cammino only takes about 2 weeks or less, so there isn't the long term wear and tear on the body you can experience on the Camino.
It was much quieter than the Camino. There was only 1 pilgrim who started the same day we did; we never saw more than about 8 or so, and we never waked with more than 3 others. My credential was number 592 for the year, but there are other organizations sponsoring pilgrimages to Assisi. Nothing like the Camino, with a quarter million pilgrims or more walking each year.
The accommodations were very good, generally a step up from the typical stops on the Camino. Some monasteries and convents, a couple of farms where we ate with the families, several small apartments set aside for pilgrims and a couple of simple refuges where there was a key code to get in. Much quieter of course - there were only two or three others who might snore!
The food was great. On the Camino, the pilgrim menus were generally specially created for pilgrims and, while we enjoyed them, and some were very good, they were generally nothing special. In Italy, with so few pilgrims, the participating restaurants just gave you a choice of a limited number of things from their regular menu. You ate what regular customers ate, at least if they ate the less expensive choices. The meals at the farm houses were fantastic; everything was very local and very good.
So, a somewhat similar, somewhat different, experience. We missed the bustle and camaraderie of the Camino, where we had a fairly large Camino family whose members we would catch up with, or be caught up by, continuously. We missed having everyone, pilgrims and locals, all knowing what we were about and wishing you "buen Camino" (on the Cammino, at least until you got close to Assisi, most people had no idea what we were up to). We missed the endless meseta, where we could walk for hours lost in meditation.
But, we didn't miss the bed race, the toilet paper, and those fellow travelers for whom the Camino was really just a cheap vacation. The scenery, like that on most of the Camino, was wonderful. And, as members of a Franciscan parish, walking in Francis' footsteps, and arriving in Assisi for his festival, was glorious.
We'll be back on the
Camino de Santiago in the not too distant future, but the Cammino di Assis was a wonderful experience.
Karl
