The month-long walking route, as suggested by Sandy Brown, the author of the guidebook The Way of St Francis, is one of the world's greatest pilgrimages, passing through two States, Italy and Vatican city, three regions, Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio and three major religious historic hubs, Florence, Assisi and Rome. The itinerary connects important travels and travel destinations from the life of Francis of Assisi, one of the most venerated religious figures in history.
Proclaimed a saint by Pope Gregory IX in 1228, Francis was a simple man from Umbria who became one of the patron saints of Italy and the first recorded stigmatic in Christian history. In Christianity, a stigmatic refers to a person bearing physical "marks" on his body, known as stigmata, which are believed to represent the wounds that Jesus Christ received at the crucifixion. St Francis received the stigmata on Mount Penna in 1224. Mount Penna and the Santuario della Verna are one of the highlights of this walk.
