The Way of St Francis. The Reverend Sandy Brown
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About the Author
Sanford ‘Sandy’ Brown is an activist, long-distance walker and ordained minister from Seattle, Washington. After reading The Pilgrimage by Paolo Coelho in 1992 he planned his first trek on the Camino de Santiago, and since then has walked over 7500 kilometers on pilgrim trails in Spain, Switzerland and Italy. He records his pilgrim adventures in his popular blog, www.caminoist.org.
Sandy earned his Master of Divinity at Garrett Theological Seminary – which honored him in 2006 as Distinguished Alumnus – and has a degree in medieval history. In 1997 he earned a doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary in gender, sexuality and spirituality. He served United Methodist churches as pastor for over 30 years before devoting himself full-time to pilgrim trekking.
In his spare time Sandy enjoys yoga, sailing and playing piano. He has two grown sons and his wife, Theresa Elliott, is a yoga master teacher.
THE WAY OF ST FRANCIS
VIA DI FRANCESCO: FROM FLORENCE TO ASSISI AND ROME
by Sandy Brown
JUNIPER HOUSE, MURLEY MOSS,
OXENHOLME ROAD, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA9 7RL
© Sandy Brown 2015
First edition 2015, reprinted 2017 and 2019 (with updates)
ISBN 9781783622450
Printed in China on responsibly sourced paper on behalf of Latitude Press Ltd
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
All photographs are by the author unless otherwise stated.
Acknowledgements
A big thanks to Jacqueline Zeindlinger, who pored through German language guidebooks to help me learn more about the route. Thanks to my sister, Lori McCarney and her husband Rick who hosted me as I wrote the proposal. My language school, Comitato Linguistico in Perugia, gave me confidence to speak Italian. The help of several Italians was crucial: Gigi Bettin, The Most Rev Paulo Giulietti, now the Archibishop of Lucca, Salvatore Accardi of Il Mestiere di Viaggiare and Chiara dall’Aglio and the leaders of Sviluppumbria who helped launch this book in November 2015 in London. Thanks to each of them, along with First United Methodist Church of Seattle that blessed me with a Garmin GPS, and Robin Werner, who lent his excellent Sony NEX-7 camera.
Of course, the book would not have happened without Jonathan Williams of Cicerone. Lois Sparling, Cicerone’s Editorial Production Manager, always had helpful insights and Georgia Laval vastly improved the text and its coordination with maps and photos. My wife and walking partner, Theresa Elliott, was a constant and joyful inspiration each step of the way. The book is dedicated to all who hope to find adventure, spirit, and joy in the ancient paths of the Saints.
Updates to this Guide
While every effort is made by our authors to ensure the accuracy of guidebooks as they go to print, changes can occur during the lifetime of an edition. Any updates that we know of for this guide will be on the Cicerone website (www.cicerone.co.uk/626/updates), so please check before planning your trip. We also advise that you check information about such things as transport, accommodation and shops locally. Even rights of way can be altered over time. We are always grateful for information about any discrepancies between a guidebook and the facts on the ground, sent by email to [email protected] or by post to Cicerone, Juniper House, Murley Moss, Oxenholme Road, Kendal LA9 7RL.
The route maps in this guide are derived from publicly-available data, databases and crowd-sourced data. As such they have not been through the detailed checking procedures that would generally be applied to a published map from an official mapping agency, although naturally we have reviewed them closely in the light of local knowledge as part of the preparation of this guide.
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Front cover: Views down to Spello and the Tiber Valley along the upper trail from Assisi (Stage 16A)
CONTENTS
St Francis and the Way of St Francis
1 FLORENCE TO SANTUARIO DELLA VERNA