Cammino di San Benedetto on foot

Castel di Tora on its point above Lake Turano, with wooded hills behind

Photo: Roberto Barone ph, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Distance
about 300 km (186 miles)
Country
Italy
Difficulty
Moderate
Type of trip
Hiking trail

The Cammino di San Benedetto is a walk of about 300 km through central Italy, from Norcia in Umbria across the whole of Lazio to the abbey of Montecassino, near the border with Campania. Benedict was born in Norcia and spent more than thirty years at Subiaco, where he founded his first monasteries. He wrote his Rule at Montecassino and is buried there, which is why the route is signed towards the abbey. On foot it’s 16 stages, usually 16 days, and there’s a separate, slightly different bike route that takes about 7 days. You can also walk half. Norcia to Subiaco is 10 stages and Subiaco to Montecassino is 6.

You sleep in the village at the end of each stage, in B&Bs, agriturismi and family-run rooms, or in convents, monastery guest quarters and private homes that take pilgrims for a donation. For those you need your own sleeping-bag liner and towel, there’s usually no dinner or breakfast, and the association suggests leaving about what a hostel would cost, around €15 for the bed. The credential is free, with a donation welcome. Ask for it on the official site and it’s posted to you, but not if you leave it until less than 15 days before you start. You can also pick it up in Norcia or at the abbey of Santa Scolastica in Subiaco. It gets you into the donation places and pilgrim prices elsewhere, and at Montecassino it gets you the testimonium. There are no cash machines between Castel di Tora and Vicovaro. To get to the start, take the train to Spoleto and a bus to Norcia, about an hour.

Highlights along the way

  1. Cascia and Roccaporena: Cascia is where St Rita lived, and Roccaporena, a little further on the second stage, is where she was born.
  2. Castel di Tora: The seventh stage, from Rocca Sinibalda, ends at this village on a point in the quiet Lake Turano.
  3. Subiaco: Benedict lived three years as a hermit in a cave here, now the Sacro Speco, two churches built one on top of the other and covered in frescoes. Santa Scolastica is the oldest of the thirteen monasteries Benedict founded, and Italy’s first printing press was set up there in 1465. The association suggests a rest day here, about halfway.
  4. Certosa di Trisulti: A charterhouse in the woods under the highest peaks of the Monti Ernici. The next stage ends at the abbey of Casamari, built in Cistercian Gothic.
  5. Montecassino: The last stage climbs from Roccasecca, where St Thomas Aquinas was born. The abbey has been destroyed four times, the last in the Second World War, and rebuilt where it stood. Just below it is the Polish war cemetery, where about a thousand soldiers are buried.

Distance

About 300 km (186 miles) in all, in 16 stages. Added up, the stage lengths on the official site come to 297 km (185 miles). The shortest stage is Monteleone di Spoleto to Leonessa, 12.6 km (7.8 miles), and the longest is Mandela to Subiaco, 32 km (19.9 miles). Most days are 13 to 22 km. The fourth stage, Leonessa to Poggio Bustone, is the highest, going up to about 1,500 m.

Best time to go

The association says you can walk it all year, but in winter there can be snow on the higher stages. Leonessa to Poggio Bustone can’t be walked in snow, and there’s nearly always snow there from December until Easter. If so, take the bus from Leonessa to Rieti and carry on from there. When the association’s updates page was last changed, on 24 September 2026, the Santa Rita path from Cascia to the wooden footbridge was closed by a council order for safety work, so follow the bike route to Roccaporena. Read the updates page on camminodibenedetto.it before you go, and download the latest GPS tracks there.

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