This is meant to be the Way of St. Francis, the evocative route to be done on foot, horseback, or mountain bike, in the heart of the most authentic Sabina.
A journey where passion for travel, adventure, and spirituality merge and become inseparable companions. Born from the creativity and enthusiasm of Diego Di Paolo, director of the Rieti Tourism Board, the Way is now brought to the attention of the general public.
The Way of St. Francis is 80 km long and is marked by 8 stages, set against hills and mountains covered with forests, springs, lakes, and, of course, sanctuaries.
All linked to a memory, to a fragment of the saint’s life. With the “Pilgrim’s Passport,” you can start from Rieti, the ancient capital of the Sabines, a sunny town with several valuable monuments (from the Dome with the Romanesque bell tower to the Prefecture with the airy Vignola loggia; from the imposing Town Hall to the Episcopal Palace with Gothic lines), and reach the Fonte Colombo Complex, nestled a few km south, where Francis wrote the rule of the Friars Minor, approved by Pope Honorius III in 1223.
Hidden by dense vegetation and overlooking the valley at 550 meters altitude, Fonte Colombo is a place utterly detached from time. It includes the convent and a small single-nave church from the mid-13th century; the most surprising part is in the ancient holm oak forest, where there is a hermitage, the Magdalene chapel with frescoes of Byzantine school, and the incredible crevice in the rock where the saint, already affected by trachoma (an eye disease that made contact with light painful and, therefore, with the nature he so loved), withdrew for forty days to write the Rule.
Another stage full of suggestions is the Sanctuary of the Forest, where Francis composed the Canticle of the Creatures, a hymn to life and universal love. The convent boasts a delightful cloister and includes two medieval chapels besides the inevitable hermitage, where the saint fled from the light and sought God.
A stop not to be missed is Poggio Bustone (birthplace of Lucio Battisti, remembered by a bronze statue in Giardini di Marzo square), the first place visited by Francis upon his arrival in the Reatina Basin: a small path crossing the mountain leads to the chapel where he had the vision announcing the expansion of the order and the remission of sins. But Rivodutri is also worth seeing: here, to surprise modern pilgrims, is a beech tree with an incredibly twisted trunk, the result of a genetic mutation.
