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Cammino di Assisi - Guide? and question.

RuediG

Member
Time of past OR future Camino
Dovadola-Assisi-Rome (2019)
I would like to do the Cammino di Assisi, Dovadola - La Verna - Assisi (and then continue to Rome) next year.

Which guide book (in English, or in Italian) has the most useful maps and accommodation information?

A detail question: Do the rifugi between Dovadola and La Verna have blankets on the beds? (I am hoping to carry only a liner, not a sleeping bag, but I'm concerned that in April/May this could get too cold...)
 
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I would like to do the Cammino di Assisi, Dovadola - La Verna - Assisi (and then continue to Rome) next year.

Which guide book (in English, or in Italian) has the most useful maps and accommodation information?

A detail question: Do the rifugi between Dovadola and La Verna have blankets on the beds? (I am hoping to carry only a liner, not a sleeping bag, but I'm concerned that in April/May this could get too cold...)
Hello, We are walking the Way of St. Francis now and are using Sandy Brown’s guidebook. It has helped us a lot, as has his Facebook forum page. Our blog is carryoncouple.com if you want to check out our journey from La Verna. Buon Cammino!
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
Walked it three times. Sandy Brown's guidebook (and his GPS tracks) are fantastic - and extremely well updated at the website of his publisher, Cicerone Press. We used the Kindle edition on our phones and it was wonderful. However, he starts in Florence, not Dovadola. The two routes join after a few days.

If you want to walk the Cammino di Assisi, starting in Dovadola, the official website at http://www.camminodiassisi.it has very good guides to each of the stages, and provides GPS tracks as well.

Although the site also has English pages, you may have to go to the Italian language pages for the GPS tracks. Also, it seems like the updates posted on the Italian pages are not necessarily immediately translated and posted on the English language pages.

Once the CdA joins up with Sandy Brown's route, having both his guide and the material from the CdA website gives you lots of options.

We've always started in Dovadola, but this fall will start in Florence, following Sandy's book. The first few days out of Dovadola are very difficult; Sandy's route looks to be quite a bit easier during these first days.

If you have time, don't miss Sandy's "Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome" walk in Rome.

Either way, you will often need a credential for lodging.

Blankets are generally available but I wouldn't just take a liner; it can be very cold in the Apennine Mountains, even in summer.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
I would like to do the Cammino di Assisi, Dovadola - La Verna - Assisi (and then continue to Rome) next year.

Which guide book (in English, or in Italian) has the most useful maps and accommodation information?

A detail question: Do the rifugi between Dovadola and La Verna have blankets on the beds? (I am hoping to carry only a liner, not a sleeping bag, but I'm concerned that in April/May this could get too cold...)

When registering in Dovadola, the Priest gave us, my wife and I, a number of copied papers that were supposedly the guide book. They are sketchy at best. From Dovadola to La Verna it is definitely the road less traveled. We only met one Pilgrim over that whole section. Of the rifugi's on the Priest's list some are standard dormitory's as you expect, but some were private houses. From Dovadola to La Verna the route can be confusing (at a trail intersection, we found all four trails marked with the same sign?) at other intersections the signs had been knocked down, or turned the wrong way. It can be challenging, but all part of the experience. From La Verna to Rieti, we used "On the Road with Saint Francis," by Angela Maria Seracchioli, in English - very good. Enjoy!
 
Walked it three times. Sandy Brown's guidebook (and his GPS tracks) are fantastic - and extremely well updated at the website of his publisher, Cicerone Press. We used the Kindle edition on our phones and it was wonderful. However, he starts in Florence, not Dovadola. The two routes join after a few days.

If you want to walk the Cammino di Assisi, starting in Dovadola, the official website at http://www.camminodiassisi.it has very good guides to each of the stages, and provides GPS tracks as well.

Although the site also has English pages, you may have to go to the Italian language pages for the GPS tracks. Also, it seems like the updates posted on the Italian pages are not necessarily immediately translated and posted on the English language pages.

Once the CdA joins up with Sandy Brown's route, having both his guide and the material from the CdA website gives you lots of options.

We've always started in Dovadola, but this fall will start in Florence, following Sandy's book. The first few days out of Dovadola are very difficult; Sandy's route looks to be quite a bit easier during these first days.

If you have time, don't miss Sandy's "Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome" walk in Rome.

Either way, you will often need a credential for lodging.

Blankets are generally available but I wouldn't just take a liner; it can be very cold in the Apennine Mountains, even in summer.
Thanks! That's just the info I was looking for. I think I'll get a light sleeping bag to add to the liner. Still not sure whether it would be better to start in Florence or Dovadola. The immediate physical difficulty may be a bit more than we are bargaining for on our first camino ever...
 
We've always started in Dovadola, but this fall will start in Florence, following Sandy's book. The first few days out of Dovadola are very difficult; Sandy's route looks to be quite a bit easier during these first days.

I've been researching the Via Francigena for 2019, with a few of my brothers and sisters - but now the Cammino di Assisi has captured my attention. It looks amazing, and it looks like it has a lot of what I loved about the early stages of the Via Podiensis. I like that it's more isolated, wild, and rural. Also, we're walking in July (no choice), and I think the wooded mountains of Umbria might be a bit cooler than the open fields of Tuscany.

I've read a couple times about those difficult first few days out of Dovadola. Is there any way you can quantify how difficult?
 
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I've been researching the Via Francigena for 2019, with a few of my brothers and sisters - but now the Cammino di Assisi has captured my attention. It looks amazing, and it looks like it has a lot of what I loved about the early stages of the Via Podiensis. I like that it's more isolated, wild, and rural. Also, we're walking in July (no choice), and I think the wooded mountains of Umbria might be a bit cooler than the open fields of Tuscany.

I've read a couple times about those difficult first few days out of Dovadola. Is there any way you can quantify how difficult?
I have not done the Cammino di Assisi yet, and I haven't done the Camino Frances, but what I've read is that the first few days of the CA are like the first stage of the CF (Napoleon's Way) repeated daily for several days. (The Napoleon's Way is considered the hardest stage of the CF.)
 
I found some elevation profiles. Dovadola to La Verna looks pretty rugged - few towns, lots of climbs every day, lots of people joking - after the fact - about getting lost. La Verna to Assisi looks rugged but more manageable.
 
I found some elevation profiles. Dovadola to La Verna looks pretty rugged - few towns, lots of climbs every day, lots of people joking - after the fact - about getting lost. La Verna to Assisi looks rugged but more manageable.
LaVerna to Assisi to Rome was a cakewalk compared to everything that came before it. We walked last May/June from Florence and it was extremely difficult to navigate. There were a couple of issues 1) the guidebooks were not accurate even with a GPS ( traveling with an air force pilot who knows how to navigate, and the opinion of all five groups we met along the way ) 2) the winter months had been especially harsh in Italy and the spring brought torrential downpours...what resulted was fallen and uprooted trees, mudslides, overrun streams that could not be crossed, washed out trails..in short, it was treacherous. I do know that recently a walker reported back that the national trails had been cleared as of this spring.
Would absolutely not attempt walking any of this without a good GPS system and not solo. Pax et Bonum
 
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