El Camino... in Italy?!?!?!

[Camino2014]

Whilst in Assisi (Umbria) this past October, I saw a few things that reminded me of the Camino:


This banner was draped over the town museum. It reads "Pellegrino e nuovo apostolo: San Francesco nel Cammino di Santiago" which translated from Italian means "The Pilgrim and the New Apostle: Saint Francis on the Way of St. James". Obviously it piqued my interest and I took a quick look inside the building. It turns out the town of Assisi had put on an exhibit all about the Camino! Here's an excerpt from the website:

The exhibition commemorates the tradition of pilgrimage to St. Francis in Santiago de Compostela (1214) and does so through the exhibition of precious artifacts proceeding mainly from Santiago and Galicia. In particular, it reconstructed the cultural and religious background of Compostella of the thirteenth century with a choice of objects that highlight the extraordinary character of the place of encounter between cultures and civilizations. Finds from the Hispano-Moorish and Islamic culture are mixed with precious relics from the Holy Land and objects of the Christian liturgy of the period, setting up the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Compostella era.

And here's another peculiar site I witnessed in Assisi:

This man was walking BAREFOOT and in medieval garb through the town!!!! I saw him multiple times during the day and as you can tell, he garnered a lot of attention from both tourists and locals!!! I didn't actually go up and talk to him, but I presume he was walking the Via Francigena to Rome, or perhaps he was coming from Rome and heading to Santiago? All in all, it was cool to see and I wish I'd talked to him!!!

Anyway, I just thought I would share this with you all!!! It just goes to show that El Camino has a global impact, and the roots of the medieval pilgrimage still can be found even as far away as Italy.

 

[Magnara]

Whilst in Assisi (Umbria) this past October, I saw a few things that reminded me of the Camino:

View attachment 7588
This banner was draped over the town museum. It reads "Pellegrino e nuovo apostolo: San Francesco nel Cammino di Santiago" which translated from Italian means "The Pilgrim and the New Apostle: Saint Francis on the Way of St. James". Obviously it piqued my interest and I took a quick look inside the building. It turns out the town of Assisi had put on an exhibit all about the Camino! Here's an excerpt from the website:



And here's another peculiar site I witnessed in Assisi:
View attachment 7589
This man was walking BAREFOOT and in medieval garb through the town!!!! I saw him multiple times during the day and as you can tell, he garnered a lot of attention from both tourists and locals!!! I didn't actually go up and talk to him, but I presume he was walking the Via Francigena to Rome, or perhaps he was coming from Rome and heading to Santiago? All in all, it was cool to see and I wish I'd talked to him!!!

Anyway, I just thought I would share this with you all!!! It just goes to show that El Camino has a global impact, and the roots of the medieval pilgrimage still can be found even as far away as Italy.

We found that the whole idea of pilgrimage was well understood in Italy, people frequently asked us to pray for them when we got to Rome, or to give their regards to Il Papa. And when we could have enough common language to talk about it, people were fascinated by both the Camino and the Via Francigena and asked us detailed questions about both.
Maggie Ramsay
The Italian Camino (Amazon)

 

[Camino2014]

We found that the whole idea of pilgrimage was well understood in Italy, people frequently asked us to pray for them when we got to Rome, or to give their regards to Il Papa. And when we could have enough common language to talk about it, people were fascinated by both the Camino and the Via Francigena and asked us detailed questions about both.
Maggie Ramsay
The Italian Camino (Amazon)

Exactly! Italy and Northern Spain, for the most part, share a common culture, as for centuries both areas have been centers of Christian pilgrimage (Santiago and Oviedo in Spain, Rome in Italy). I hope to walk the Via Francigena after my Camino this summer and get a more in-depth experience of the pilgrimage atmosphere in Italy (which I was not able to experience on a bus tour!!)

 

[sillydoll]

Rome to Santiago (or vice -versa )

 

[lovingkindness]

...I hope to walk the Via Francigena after my Camino this summer and get a more in-depth experience of the pilgrimage atmosphere in Italy (which I was not able to experience on a bus tour!!)

Kalimera, Camino2014. As an outstanding alternative to the Via Francigena to Rome, you might consider hiking the Caminos de San Francesco. Francesco was a hiking man. He loved the mountains and nature. All the trails named after him are primarily sentieros, true hiking trails passing through regions of outstanding beauty via gorgeous mountain top villages. They are rarely on flat sealed roman roads. Some of San Francesco's caminos run from the La Verna to Assisi (Sentiero n10), Aissisi via Rieti to Rome, and the camino from Poggio Bustone to Mont Sant Angelo, combined about 1000 kms. I linked these to part of the Via Francigena (Cessana Turinese to San Quiroco Dorca where I turned left via Castiglione to Perugia and Assisi) on my way to Bari.

Sigerac, the 10th century monk whose journey the Via Francigena follows, in my estimation probably rode a horse. It seemed to me that he took the flattest and quickest route possible travelling via the Po Valley which today is the flooded rice bowl of Italy. I found the experience torturous. This summer temperatures were over 40 degrees celcius and I saw clouds of water evapourating off the rice fields. In winter locals say that fog hangs heavily from morning till at least mid day. Day and night there are swarms of viscious mosquitos. It was purgatory and in the end I began walking from 3.30 am till 10 am in the mornings to avoid damaging my health. By 4 am it was already 25 degrees. After San Quiroco Dorca on the VF I turned left following parts of the Sentiero 6 to Assisi. Immediately my way transformed. The Caminos de San Francesco are physically challengeing and visually awesome. There are guide books. Signing, however is sometimes inadequate, unreliable and confused. I survived!

Lovingkindness