Festival of the Franciscan Paths — Monterchi Stage

The Festival of the Franciscan Paths in Monterchi

The Festival of the Franciscan Paths is a widespread event that, over seven weekends between April and May, crosses the Tuscan and Umbrian Upper Tiber Valley, connecting villages, hermitages, and cities linked to the figure of Saint Francis. Among the Tuscan stages, Monterchi stands out—a small municipality in the Province of Arezzo, Tuscany, known worldwide for housing the Madonna del Parto by Piero della Francesca, one of the absolute masterpieces of the Renaissance.

The format: walk and meeting

The Monterchi stage follows the festival's established format: a morning walk along the trails of the Valtiberina countryside and an afternoon cultural meeting at the Municipal Theatre. In Monterchi, however, the festival takes on a special focus on families: the walk turns into an investigative game that involves younger participants in discovering the local area and wildlife, while the afternoon meeting addresses, in accessible language, the topic of how to talk to children and teenagers about life, loss, and death.

The walks are curated by the Circolo degli Esploratori and accompanied by readings and storytelling along the route. The festival promotes a sober dialogue between words, landscape, and spirituality, far from mass tourism and closer to the slow rhythm of walking.

An event linked to Saint Francis

The festival was created to promote the Franciscan paths of the Upper Tiber Valley and to rediscover the places that preserve the memory of Saint Francis of Assisi between Tuscany and Umbria. The network of stages includes, in addition to Monterchi, villages such as Citerna, Caprese Michelangelo, Pieve Santo Stefano, Monte Santa Maria Tiberina, San Giustino, Sansepolcro, Anghiari, Montone, and Città di Castello, with events also held in the symbolic cities of Florence, Arezzo, Perugia, and Assisi.

A village to discover

Participating in the Monterchi stage is also an opportunity to discover an authentic hillside village in the Tuscan Valtiberina: the perched historic centre, the Madonna del Parto Museum, and a gentle landscape of cultivated hills on the border between Tuscany and Umbria. The combination of art, nature, and spirituality makes this stage, designed for both adults and children, one of the most welcoming in the Franciscan calendar.