Italian Wonder Ways. 5 Italian pilgrimage routes for 5 continents

Five pilgrimage routes make up the project “Italian Wonder Ways”, created by the Consorzio Francesco's Ways with the Regions of Umbria, Marche, Latium and Tuscany in cooperation with Sviluppumbria, Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi and with the patronage of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism and the Conference of the Italian State and the Regions.

The project, started on occasion of the Extraordinary Jubilee announced by Pope Francis, and of the national year of pilgrimage routes launched by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism has invited five groups of international journalists and bloggers to travel the routes in central Italy from 22 to 28 September. At the end of the five routes – the St. Francis Way, Franciscan Way of the Marche / Via Lauretana, Way of St. Benedict, Via Francigena and Via Amerina – the groups will meet up in Rome with an audience with the Holy Father.  The writers will discover the villages, local communities, traditional events, the gastronomy of the territory, and will promote a tourism product conceived for the traveller interested in the routes as a spiritual journey or simply for trekking, cycling of trail rides.
Honoured guests on the Umbrian routes (the St. Francis Way, the Way of St. Benedict, Via Amerina and Via Lauretana) will be Ndileka and Pumladebra Mandela, family of the South African pacifist Nelson.

The goal is to raise Umbria’s profile on the world market and multiply the places that can welcome cultured, cultural, sustainable tourism, and to increase development opportunities, according to the activities and models that the Umbria region, in cooperation with Sviluppumbria, is carrying out in cultural and sustainable tourism.

http://www.italianwonderways.com/en/

Meet the writers taking part