I’m standing at the counter of the wood-panelled pasticceria in the hamlet of Camaldoli, a village tucked under a blanket of green leaves, high above Arezzo in the mountains of the Parco Foreste Casentinese, and here I see the object of my desire. It’s a heaping tray of sweetbread cookies, topped by a hand-lettered sign that reads, “Pan del Pellegrino.” Since each is stuffed with raisins and nuts and honey and calories I’ve decided they’re just the right food for our small group of St Francis Way pilgrims walking up to Badia Prataglia, Frassinetta, Rimbocchi and the Franciscan mountaintop Santuario della Verna.

The Camaldoli pasticceria is one door of several in the town’s main commercial building, a long, stucco-covered structure shared by two restaurants and two small hotels, all nestled under the same roof that itself huddles under the arms of the ancient forest. Across the road the Camaldoli Monastery sits in an oasis of sunlight. There the monks sell their herbal soaps and medicines, host their retreat center for religious pilgrims from throughout Italy, and in the middle have their chapel where they have said and thought and sung their prayers for a thousand years.

A pilgrim does not live by Pan del Pellegrino alone, and we know a deeper sustenance awaits us. I buy a bag of these morsels for my friends and we cross to the trailhead, soon finding ourselves climbing on a wide and winding path under tall trees to a summit among sun-dappled fern meadows. As we begin the downhill walk to Badia Prataglia we find ourselves on a portion of the Sentiero Italia, the legendary 6166km itinerary that connects the Alps with Trapani on the western tip of Sicily. Before long we are on a portion of the Grande Escursione Appenninica (GEA) that connects Apennine peaks in Tuscany.

We come to a viewpoint over the red roofs of Badia Prataglia and a few minutes later are enjoying snacks at a local pizzeria. Badia’s name hints that it was once home to an abbey, and our explorations lead us to the cool and damp crypt of the town’s church, where 20th century renovations uncovered a beautiful 12th century crypt with intriguing medieval and Roman carvings. Even the most unbelieving of our group recognizes a quiet power to this dark and holy space.

The next morning we rise before the sunlight peeks over the surrounding mountaintops and nervously gather at breakfast before what we know will be the hardest day of our walk. From Badia Prataglia we climb briskly up the slopes of 1113m Poggio della Cesta and are rewarded with stunning views of surrounding mountaintops before climbing down to tiny Frassinetta. We pause for a snack on the lawn of an old, stone church. Between us and Rimbocchi is 876m Poggio Delma Forca, and after walking up its slopes we see ahead of us the dauntingly high and flat peak of 1283m Monte Penna, home to Santuario della Verna. Rimbocchi has a bakery and a pizzeria, and we use the town’s fountain to fill our water bottles. After lunch we head out with determination, crossing the SP62, finding the trailhead for trail 053, and then marching up the steep, vertical path through the forested slopes of 1023m Poggio Montopoli.

After the upward climb we again cross the SP62, and something changes. Now on the grounds of the Santuario and under the trees of the Sacred Forest we sense a calm that sets this place apart from the rest of the woods. The trees are taller, but somehow also seem deeper and maybe even wiser. The white boulders are covered in cascades of green moss. The deep carpet of leaves absorbs the sound of our footsteps. As we walk through this fairytale forest we recognize a change is coming over us, too. We hush our voices so we can listen, so we can revel in the rays of light dancing through the leaves onto our faces and hear the sound of the deep quiet. We begin to feel with our hearts why the great and humble son of Assisi would fall in love with these woods, and it wouldn’t seem strange at all if we should hear his voice in the wind, singing a song of praise. As we come to the foot of the cliff crowned by the Chapel of the Stigmata, we are stronger for these steps through the mighty forest. We know our hike is now a pilgrimage, we are meeting a deep presence, and our souls are being fed.

31 August, 2021

Sanford “Sandy” Brown is a pilgrimage guidebook author who lives in Lucca, Italy. His first guidebook, The Way of St Francis: From Florence to Assisi and Rome, has been followed by guidebooks on the Camino de Santiago and the Via Francigena. For more information, see www.sandybrownbooks.com.

L'articolo Casentinese Park proviene da La via di Francesco in Toscana.

As our small group of Way of St Francis pilgrims climbs on shaded pathways up through the fairytale forests of Monte Penna to Santuario della Verna our hearts are beating rapidly. It’s not so much the exertion, which is substantial, but the anticipation. We come to a meadow and see above us a stone building perched atop a high granite cliff — our first glimpse of anything human-made in this ancient forest. Sensing we are almost there, we continue to climb on stone footpaths around to the front, anxious for glimpses of the sanctuary which remains hidden from our curious eyes. Finally at the front gate we see only low, stone buildings with tile and slate rooftops. Excited, we forget our weariness and sense we are being pulled forward, up ramps and steps to a small piazza with low buildings on three sides and on the fourth side what we didn’t quite expect. We’re speechless. We stand together in awe at the extraordinary, breathtaking vista of the distant blue-green mountains and valleys of the Casentino Forest. We had thought we came to meet St. Francis, but instead we meet the beauty of Creation. Then we realize this is just how Francis would want it.

It’s the year 1213. Francis of Assisi and his friend, Leone, are wandering preachers in the region of Montefeltro. “I have cause to rejoice even for pain and sorrow,” said the saint, “if I think of how much good I am waiting for.” One member in particular of the audience was so taken by his presence that he asked to talk with Francis over dinner. “We can talk as long as you like,” he was told in gentle tones. Overcome by their meeting, Count Orlando Catani of Chiusi made the saint a gift. “I have an estate in Tuscany, a faithful mountain, called La Verna which is very lonely and covered by wilderness, and it is even too suitable for those who are willing to do penance in a forgotten place, or for those who wish for a solitary life. If you might like it, I could give it all away to you and your brothers, for my soul’s release.” The saint accepted, and the result is Santuario della Verna, one of Italy’s most revered and remote holy places.

Francis’ visits to La Verna are the stuff of legends. On his first stay, we are told, families of birds swarmed around him in welcome. He soon began work on a small chapel he named Santa Maria degli Angeli. He prayed and slept in a cold, wet and mossy cave near his project. Out of humility he kept secret what happened to him on his last retreat there. During Lent of 1224, we are told, he was visited by an angel who marked his hands, feet, and side with the wounds of Jesus from the cross. His followers discovered these stigmata only as they prepared his body for burial at Assisi in October of that same year.

La Verna’s buildings stand in memory of these events. There is the tiny Chapel of the Stigmata, the expanded and rebuilt chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli, and the largest of the buildings: a modest 16th century basilica that houses a small chapel of Franciscan relics under soft light. As visitors we gaze at a bronze vessel of his blood, a cloth used to wrap his wounds, one of his coarse robes, a bowl, a glass, and most interesting to us pilgrims, a walking stick that supported him on his journeys. We admire ceramic art pieces of Andrea della Robbia and his workshop, and nearby the Basilica we walk down narrow steps to a crack in the rocks where Francis prayed and slept.

Every morning and afternoon priests and friars lead a procession through the frescoed hallway from the Basilica to the Chapel of the Stigmata, a tradition observed for hundreds and hundreds of years. Legend says that once the snow atop the mountain was so deep the friars decided not to hold the procession, but when they awoke the next morning they found footprints in the snow of forest animals who had made the walk in their place.

If Count Orlando were to survey his donation 800 years later he would find the mountain largely unchanged, except for the asphalt road that carries automobiles to the sanctuary and the rambling stone structures that rest just below the peak. The buildings are neatly clustered within the forest, which is penetrated only by a ring of walking paths where visitors can stroll in the majestic cathedral of trees to find the same serenity found here by Francis. Because the friars have long protected the spruce and beech woods on the vast mountaintop they have preserved an unspoilt oasis of nature that is home to a mighty forest, to deer, boar, wolves, eagles, falcons, owls, and the wandering pilgrims like us who find ourselves here looking for refreshment and peace.

31 August, 2021

Sanford “Sandy” Brown is a pilgrimage guidebook author who lives in Lucca, Italy. His first guidebook, The Way of St Francis: From Florence to Assisi and Rome, has been followed by guidebooks on the Camino de Santiago and the Via Francigena. For more information, see www.sandybrownbooks.com.

With thanks to https://www.laverna.it/en/sanctuary/history

L'articolo Santuario della Verna proviene da La via di Francesco in Toscana.