Stage 11: Citerna-Città di Castello

This route is about 20 km long and has a pleasant pace. From the rugged Apennine landscape of the previous legs, it takes you to the gentler landscape of the Upper Tiber Valley. The uphill stretches are not too demanding and you will be walking through fields and little villages.

Amid the horse chestnuts, oaks and downy oaks you will tackle uphill and downhill stretches without any steep slopes. Along the Way there are resting areas and drinking fountains where you can get food and water, among which there is a buffalo breeding farm that produces delicious mozzarella cheese. Once you have reached the ridge of the hills in the locality of Le Burge, you can enjoy a 180° view of the Tiber Valley and the Umbrian landscape, featuring hills, hillside villages, woods and churches. Several stretches of the route are in the sun and pilgrims should never be without a hat and a water bottle. In the locality of Lerchi you will walk alongside the “Arboreal Archaeology” foundation (which can be visited by booking) in which there are ancient local varieties of fruit plants, preserving the biodiversity of the area.

Along the way, a votive shrine and an iron cross indicate to us the Franciscan hermitage of Buon Riposo, which gets its name from the fact that St Francis stopped here. The last stretch is downhill and leads to the simple, elegant façade of the Cathedral of Città di Castello, which welcomes pilgrims on their way to Assisi. Città di Castello always had a very important cult of art: important artists worked here and solemn buildings and monumental churches were built, like the Cathedral, St Dominic and St Francis. Città di Castello is the home of one of the greatest Umbrian artists of the 20th century, Alberto Burri, whose works can be found in the town's two museums. Not to be missed is the Diocesan Museum, where the Treasure of Canoscio is kept, one of the most ancient existing collections of objects for liturgical use, dating back to the Early Christian era.