Way of St. Frances

[Daisyray2018]

After a wonderful Camino de Santiago I am planning to walk from Florence to Assisi then take transport to Rieti and then walk from Rieti to Rome. Has anyone done this route recently and what is the safety aspect as I will be walking on my own.

 

[edandjoan]

I can't answer any of your questions. I can say we plan to walk from La Verna to Rome starting mid May 2019 and we meet a guy the other night who will start from Florence in June. We are both using The Way of St. Francis by Sandy Brown. And there is a very good web site with all the info and maps as well.
I have found a few blog, I didn't bookmark them but you could google it.

 

[Jo Jo]

We walked Florence to Rome in July 2015 (I'm not sure if that is recently in your book or not). This route will be considerably more challenging than your previous Camino walking Sarria to SdC. Additionally, there will be very few other pilgrims (we saw a total of 5 others). As far as safety, I think there are three concerns.

Statistically, probably the biggest threat would probably be motor vehicles. Most of the road walking was on fairly quite roads and I did not feel it any riskier than the CF or CP.

Second, would be getting lost. The walk between Florence and La Verna is often on relatively unused forest paths. Without sign posts in places. Sandy's GPS tracks saved us more than once, especially when forestry had obscured the path since he wrote. After La Verna, Sandy's path merges with other more established and very well marked pilgrimage routes. From that point on we hardly consulted the GPS.

Third would be human predators. These woodland trails are pretty isolated and I doubt cell phones work in all areas given the steep terrain (and resulting "shadows" where signals are not available). I am a big guy, and my wife and I walked together. We never had a moment of worry about our safety in this regard. Others might feel differently based on their own situation.

One last word of advice: Do not go in the summer. I've walked the mesetta in July and thought it was hot but bearable. July in Italy is much hotter; too hot for any comfort or enjoyment. My wife and I are hoping to go back and do this path again in either spring or fall. The country and people were great, the mountain around La Verna (not the monastery itself, which was overrun by tourists) is one of the most magical places I have ever seen anywhere in the world.

Buen Camino,
Jo Jo

 

[Daisyray2018]

After a wonderful Camino de Santiago I am planning to walk from Florence to Assisi then take transport to Rieti and then walk from Rieti to Rome. Has anyone done this route recently and what is the safety aspect as I will be walking on my own.

I can't answer any of your questions. I can say we plan to walk from La Verna to Rome starting mid May 2019 and we meet a guy the other night who will start from Florence in June. We are both using The Way of St. Francis by Sandy Brown. And there is a very good web site with all the info and maps as well.
I have found a few blog, I didn't bookmark them but you could google it.

I have got Sandy's book but will follow more blogs to get more up to date advice.

 

[Harington]

After a wonderful Camino de Santiago I am planning to walk from Florence to Assisi then take transport to Rieti and then walk from Rieti to Rome. Has anyone done this route recently and what is the safety aspect as I will be walking on my own.

There is an account of a recent walk on this route in the Confraternity of Pilgrims to Rome's latest print newsletter (which I edit). I could send you the relevant pages if you PM me.

 

[sharon w]

We walked from Gubbio to Spoleto in mid September. It was still very hot in the day. We found the way marking almost non existent in some places. We used Angel Seracchioli’s guidebook: On the Road with St Francis.
Other books we read to prepare our minds and hearts were:
We Were with St Francis as told by his first companions
On the Road with Francis of Assisi by Linda Bird Francke
Chasing Francis by Ian Morgan Cron
We had 2 nights in Assisi and could have done with a third night here.

 

[JohnMcK]

Hi
I walked from La verna to Rome at the end of september this year with a friend and we met very few pilgrims. A few Italians doing the route on weekends and a few through routers doing a week or so at a time. In all we meet no more than 12 pilgrims over the 2 and a half weeks. There was 1 women walking on her own and she was unconcerned about her safety. We didn't come across any awkward or unusual situations where i would be concerned per say but I would be concerned about lone walking from the point of view of hurting yourself or getting lost as could be waiting a while for assistance. The Sandy Brown book is fairly good and the route is reasonably marked but we would have made a few errors without the GPS route from Sandy Browns book which we converted and loaded into maps me so you have at all times- don't need a phone signal.
John

 

[carryoncouple]

After a wonderful Camino de Santiago I am planning to walk from Florence to Assisi then take transport to Rieti and then walk from Rieti to Rome. Has anyone done this route recently and what is the safety aspect as I will be walking on my own.

My wife and I walked from La Vern to Rome in soring 2018. Some parts are quite isolated and we saw few other trekkers. GPS was a must. Our blog is carryoncouple.com if you want to see how it went for us. Best wishes!